Sri Lanka Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa has resigned, following a series of violent confrontations between his supporters and anti-government protesters that saw five people killed and 189 wounded. Rohan Weliwita, Rajapaksa’s spokesman, said on Monday the 76-year-old sent his letter of resignation to his younger brother President Gotabaya Rajapaksa, clearing …

Britain’s opposition Labour Party leader Keir Starmer will offer to resign if he is found by police to have broken COVID rules at a gathering last year, Sky News reported on Monday without citing sources. Starmer is due to make a statement at 1500 GMT, a Labour spokesperson said. The …

The Philippine police and military said on Sunday they were on high alert as last-minute preparations continued for the country’s general election, even as the overall situation remained “relatively peaceful.”

Morocco foiled 63,121 illegal immigration attempts in 2021, the interior ministry said in a report published on Saturday.

The 2022 World University Games have been postponed, the organizers said Friday.

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s Conservative Party lost control of traditional strongholds in London and suffered setbacks elsewhere in local elections, with voters punishing his government over a series of scandals.

Iraq recorded 45 COVID-19 cases in the past 24 hours, the Ministry of Health said today, Tuesday. In its daily epidemiological report, the Ministry registered 146 recovery cases and zero mortalities. The cumulative count of COVID-19 patients since the emergence of the virus in the country amounted to 2325397 of …

The Russian ruble briefly reached its highest level against the dollar since March 2020 on Thursday, supported by capital controls, while stock indexes also climbed as the market watched developments around possible new sanctions against Moscow. The volatile currency hit a high of 65.31 per dollar in early trading on …

OPEC and allied oil-producing countries decided Thursday to stick to a modest increase in production, even as Europe’s proposed phaseout of Russian oil threatens to yank millions of barrels off a global market already thirsty for crude.

The World Health Organization is estimating that nearly 15 million people were killed either by the coronavirus or by its impact on overwhelmed health systems in the past two years, more than double the official death toll of 6 million. Most of the fatalities were in Southeast Asia, Europe, and …

To start his three-nation tour of West Africa, United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has called on rich countries to increase their investments in African nations as the continent recovers from the COVID-19 pandemic and is impacted by the war in Ukraine. “This war is aggravating a triple crisis: food, energy, …

West Texas Intermediate dropped 3.58 percent while global benchmark Brent slid 3.2 percent. Oil declined in tandem with equities as China’s stringent measures to curb Covid-19 threatened a further hit to economic activity and fuel demand. West Texas Intermediate futures slid 3.4% as data showing a sharp economic contraction in …

Russia said on Saturday it expected commodity flows with China to grow and trade with Beijing to reach $200 billion by 2024, as Moscow faces mounting isolation from the West. China has refused to condemn Russia’s actions in Ukraine and has criticized the unprecedented Western sanctions on Moscow. The two …

The warning comes after the UN’s health agency flags surging caseload as the main driver of rising cases throughout Africa. South Africa may be entering a fifth COVID-19 wave earlier than expected after a sustained rise in infections over the past 14 days seemingly driven by the BA.4 and BA.5 …

Ukraine war takes toll on economy of European countries using the euro as inflation reaches record levels and output weakens. Inflation in the eurozone hit a new record this month while growth slowed during the first quarter of the year, according to official data, as the war in Ukraine takes …

Moderna on Thursday asked U.S. regulators to authorize low doses of its COVID-19 vaccine for children younger than 6, a long-awaited move toward potentially opening shots for millions of tots by summer. Frustrated families are waiting impatiently for a chance to protect the nation’s littlest kids as all around them …

Democrats in the US are staring at a doom and gloom situation ahead of midterm elections as President Joe Biden continues to lose his support base less than two years into his first term. Only 41 percent of young Americans approve of Biden’s job performance, according to a new Harvard …

The European Commission said that between 60% and 80% of the EU population was estimated to have been infected with COVID-19, as the bloc enters a post-emergency phase in which mass reporting of cases was no longer necessary. In preparing for this less acute phase, European Union governments should ramp …

Beijing residents snapped up food and other supplies as the city’s biggest district began mass COVID-19 testing of all residents on Monday, prompting fears of a Shanghai-style lockdown after dozens of cases in the capital in recent days. Authorities in Chaoyang, home to 3.45 million people, late on Sunday ordered …

Iraq recorded 161 new cases of Covid-19 on Monday, to bring its total to 2,324,384, the Ministry of Health and Environment said. It reported two deaths. Its coronavirus death toll reached 25,207. It also reported 278 recoveries to bring its total to 2,296,548 (98.80%). The COVID-19 intensive care patients count …