Category: World

Christians are commemorating Jesus’ crucifixion without the solemn church services or emotional processions of past years, marking Good Friday in a world locked down by the coronavirus pandemic. A small group of clerics are to hold a closed-door service in the Church of the Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem, built on the site where Christians believe […]

US President Donald Trump sharply criticised the World Health Organization (WHO) on Tuesday, accusing it of being too focused on China and issuing bad advice during the new coronavirus outbreak and saying he would put a hold on US funding for the agency. “The WHO really blew it,” Trump said in a Twitter post. “For […]

The Chinese city where the coronavirus epidemic first broke out, Wuhan, ended a two-month lockdown on Wednesday, but a northern town started restricting the movement of its residents amid concerns of a second wave of infections in mainland China. China sealed off Wuhan, a city of 11 million people, in late January to stop the […]

Human rights groups urged three Gulf Arab states on Wednesday to lift bans on free internet calls to help their large migrant workforces stay in touch during the coronavirus pandemic. Oman, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates have long blocked many voice and video calling apps on the grounds of protecting the commercial interests of […]

India is considering plans to seal off coronavirus hotspots in Delhi, Mumbai and parts of the south while easing curbs elsewhere as a way out of a three-week lockdown that has caused deep economic distress, officials said on Wednesday. The sweeping lockdown of India’s 1.3 billion people to prevent an epidemic of Covid-19, the respiratory […]

World Health Organisation officials on Wednesday denied that the body was “China-centric” and said that the acute phase of a pandemic was not the time to cut funding, after US President Donald Trump said he would put contributions on hold. The United States is the top donor to the Geneva-based body which Trump said had […]

WASHINGTON: US President Donald Trump and the country’s top medical officer alerted their nation on Sunday to brace themselves for “the saddest week” of their lives as the coronavirus kills almost 10,000 Americans. “This is going to be the hardest and saddest week of most Americans’ lives, quite frankly,” US Surgeon General Jerome Adams said […]

More than 20,000 Pakistani workers stuck in the United Arab Emirates are seeking to return home, as the Gulf Arab state tightens restrictions due to the coronavirus outbreak. The UAE, which has reported 1,799 coronavirus cases and 10 deaths, has gradually increased curbs, including imposing a nationwide curfew, suspending passenger flights and putting Dubai in […]

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson was still in hospital on Monday suffering persistent coronavirus symptoms 10 days after testing positive for the virus, though Downing Street said he remained in charge of the government. “The prime minister is still at hospital,” a British government source said. “He spent the night in hospital.” Johnson, who had […]

The United States had no knowledge of a shipment of face masks bound for Germany that officials in Berlin have accused it of diverting from an airport in Bangkok, a spokeswoman for the US embassy in Thailand said. The comment came after Berlin Secretary of Interior Andreas Geisel said on Friday that an order of […]