Worldwide

The World Health Organization urged governments to support and invest in their nurses on International Nurses Day. Nearly a thousand health workers, mostly nurses, have contracted coronavirus in Africa, the World Health Organization (WHO) said on Tuesday, as the world marks International Nurses Day 2020. “Stakeholders must ensure that nurses …

Saudi Arabia is tripling its value added tax (VAT) as part of austerity measures to support its coronavirus-hit economy. The government in Riyadh also said it will suspend its cost of living allowance to shore up state finances. The oil-rich nation has seen its income plummet as the impact of …

At least seven crew members were killed and 22 others were injured as a blaze broke on the Jag Leela oil tanker at the Belawan port of the city of Medan in Indonesia’s North Sumatra province, media reported on Tuesday, citing local authorities. According to the Jakarta Post newspaper, the …

Qatar Airways has warned its employees of “substantial” redundancies as it struggles with a collapse in demand. Its chief executive Akbar Al Baker wrote to staff warning of the job losses, although he did not say how many were under threat. Qatar Airways said it needed to “act decisively to …

Russia has confirmed more than 232,000 cases of coronavirus – the second-highest toll in the world. In the last 24 hours the country has reported 10,899 infections, the tenth consecutive day that number has been above 10,000. Among the infected is President Vladimir Putin’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov, local media report. …

Lebanon’s government has ordered a full shutdown of the country for four days amid an increase in new cases of infection with the new coronavirus. “The lockdown is set to begin at 7 p.m. local time (1600 GMT) on Wednesday and will end at 5 a.m. on Monday, with the …

Top U.S. infectious diseases expert Dr. Anthony Fauci is set to warn the U.S. Senate on Tuesday against the risks of reopening the economy too soon, saying it could lead to quote “needless suffering and death,” according to a report by the New York Times.

The spike in cases comes just as the South Korean government was easing some social distancing restrictions and moving to fully reopen schools and businesses, in a transition from intensive social distancing to “distancing in daily life.” South Korean officials scrambled on Monday to contain a new coronavirus outbreak that …

At least 19 people have died in two separate attacks in Afghanistan’s Kabul city and Nangarhar province. The attacks targeted a hospital and a funeral of a local police commander. Gunmen stormed a hospital on Tuesday in an ongoing attack in the Afghan capital Kabul, as a suicide blast killed …

UN chief Antonio Guterres condemned the attack and called on the perpetrators to be brought to justice. Three UN troops were killed and four more wounded when their convoy hit a roadside bomb early Sunday, officials said, in the latest violence to hit the war-torn West African state. UN chief …

Microsoft founder and multi-billionaire Bill Gates said he tried to warn President-elect Donald Trump of the dangers of a major viral outbreak soon after the 2016 race, but feels guilty for not being more vocal. “I chose, when I met with people all the way up to the top, in …

Donald Trump stormed out of his latest coronavirus press conference in the White House Rose Garden on Monday afternoon after again taking exception to questions from two female reporters, his latest meltdown over the crisis. Before he spat with CBS reporter Weijia Jiang and Kaitlin Collins of CNN, the president …

Kremlin Press Secretary Dmitry Peskov has confirmed that he has tested positive for coronavirus and is now in hospital. Peskov, a household name in Russia, has worked with President Vladimir Putin for twenty years. “That’s right, I am ill. I’m getting treatment,” he said when asked about his diagnosis by …

The Israeli military says one of its soldiers has been killed by a stone dropped on his head during an arrest campaign near the northern West Bank city of Jenin. It said staff sergeant Amit Ben Ygal, 21, was struck in the head by a rock thrown from a rooftop …

Chinese authorities plan to test all of Wuhan’s 11 million residents for Covid-19 in a little over a week. After more than a month without newly-recorded cases, the disease has suddenly reappeared in the city. All districts in the city were ordered to submit a plan on how they will …

The government of former Saudi-backed Yemeni president Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi has threatened to “confront every armed rebellion” by once-allied UAE-aligned separatists, urging them to abandon a recent “self-rule” declaration in the war-torn country’s southern regions. In a series of Tweets on Tuesday, the Hadi regime’s embassy in the US …

Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif says there are no talks underway between Iran and the United States, reminding how Washington has proven to be an untrustworthy negotiation partner. “The Americans proved that one cannot rely on the results of talks with them,” Zarif told the Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting’s …

Four Tajik nationals have been detained in Poland for allegedly recruiting Extremist Muslim converts with the aim of carrying out terrorist activities, according to the spokesman of the minister coordinator for special services. According to the minister’s spokesman, Stanislaw Zaryn, Poland’s Internal Security Agency found evidence showing that the four …

The coronavirus pandemic and ensuing economic hardship have left 700,000 children under 15 years of age in Italy without enough food, the country’s biggest farming organization have warned. “The number of children under the age of 15 who need help to get milk or food to eat has risen to …

French prosecutors said Monday they are opening an investigation into ex-president Valery Giscard d’Estaing over allegations by a German journalist that he sexually assaulted her after an interview in 2018. The investigation follows claims by reporter Ann-Kathrin Stracke that Giscard d’Estaing, 94, repeatedly touched her behind in his Paris office, …