Worldwide

US stocks have plunged more than 10 percent as panic following emergency moves by the Federal Reserve to try to avert a recession due to the coronavirus pandemic that is shutting down global business and travel. About 25 minutes into trading on Monday morning, the Dow Jones Industrial Average stood …

Bahrain reported the Gulf’s first death from the new coronavirus on Monday, as the total number of confirmed infections in the six-member Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) stood at 965. The deceased woman was a 65-year-old Bahraini citizen who had underlying health conditions, the health ministry said on Twitter. Bahrain has …

German media reports that US Pres. Trump made a $1 billion offer to German pharma company CureVac for exclusive rights to coronavirus vaccine. Across the world, pharmaceutical companies are racing to find and develop a vaccine effective against coronavirus, and in recent days, this has led to a confrontation between …

Spain’s King Felipe VI has distanced himself from his father, a former monarch who has been hit by allegations of financial irregularity. Felipe renounced his personal inheritance from his father and stripped the former King Juan Carlos 1 of his annual stipend on Sunday. A statement by the Royal House …

Thai villagers scouring a dark cave for bat guano, sought after by farmers as a nutrient-rich crop fertilizer, are undaunted by scientists’ suggestion that it could be behind a coronavirus that has infected more than 150,000 people worldwide. The source of the virus remains a matter of debate after it …

Jerusalem’s Al-Aqsa Mosque and Dome of the Rock will shut their doors until further notice, religious authorities said on Sunday, in a move to protect worshippers at Islam’s third holiest site. Prayers will still be held on the huge open area around the two shrines and other Muslim prayer sites …

The UK Department of Health and Social Care has confirmed 798 cases of COVID-19 in the UK, after 208 new cases were confirmed during the previous 24 hours, the largest daily increase since the start of the outbreak. A total of 11 people have died so far in the United …

Taiwan will from Saturday require travelers from countries in Europe’s Schengen border-free travel zone as well as Britain and Ireland to undergo a 14-day quarantine upon arrival to control the spread of the coronavirus, its government said. The quarantine rules also apply to travelers arriving from Dubai, including people who …

The so-called Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) says Turkey has dispatched a new military convoy to Syria’s embattled northwestern province of Idlib, a day ahead of the first joint patrol by Turkish and Russian troops on the strategic M4 highway and establishment of joint coordination centers in the region. …

The United Arab Emirates said on Saturday it was shutting major tourism and cultural venues, including the Louvre Abu Dhabi museum and the Ferrari World theme park, from March 15-31, as Gulf states stepped up measures against coronavirus. The UAE civil aviation authority also announced a suspension of all flights …

President Donald Trump declared a U.S. national emergency over the quickly spreading coronavirus on Friday, opening the door to more government aid to combat a pathogen that has infected more than 138,000 people worldwide and left over 5,000 dead. The impact of the coronavirus on everyday life deepened around the …

Europe has now become the epicenter of the coronavirus pandemic, which has claimed 5,000 lives across the world, “a tragic milestone”, the World Health Organization (WHO) said on Friday. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO director-general, told a virtual news conference that it was launching a COVID-19 solidarity response plan. This would …

Nearly 20 people have been killed in some of the worst storms to hit Egypt in decades, the country’s prime minister said in a statement on Friday. The North African country has been battered by heavy rain and strong winds that began in the earlier hours of Thursday and continued …

Scotland has had its first death of a patient with coronavirus, an elderly patient with underlying health conditions, Scotland’s chief medical officer said on Friday. “The patient, who was being treated by Lothian Health Board was an older person who had underlying health conditions,” Catherine Calderwood, chief medical officer for …

The US began to withdraw its troops from Afghanistan as part of a peace agreement with the Taliban, according to Associated Press, citing an official representative of American troops in Afghanistan. The United States will reduce the number of its troops in Afghanistan from 13,000 to 8,600 in the next …

Turkish Health Minister Fahrettin Koca confirmed on Wednesday that the first case of coronavirus was detected in Turkey. “A male citizen tested positive for the coronavirus in the evening,” Health Minister Koca said at a press conference in Ankara. “The infected individual – he added – contracted the virus after …

A light plane crashed in heavy monsoon rains on the northeastern tip of Australia on Wednesday, killing all five people on board, police said. The chartered flight, carrying four government workers and the pilot, had twice tried to land near Lockhart River, on Queensland’s Cape York Peninsula. “The plane approached …

Two rare white giraffes, a female, and her calf were killed by poachers in Kenya, officials have said, illustrating the challenges of wildlife conservation and the persistent and devastating impact of poaching in the East African nation. The deaths of the giraffes left just one of the unusually colored animals …

Some key industries in Wuhan, the Chinese city at the epicenter of the coronavirus epidemic, were told they can resume work on Wednesday, a day after President Xi Jinping visited the city for the first time since the outbreak began. The city of 11 million has been in lockdown since …

Health minister and Conservative MP Nadine Dorries has been diagnosed with coronavirus. Ms. Dorries, the first MP to test positive, said she had taken all the advised precautions after finding out and has been self-isolating at home. This comes as a sixth person who died from the virus in the …