Nations belonging to the G20 group of leading economies have agreed to suspend debt payments owed to them by some of the world’s poorest countries. The agreement covers money that is due to be paid to G20 governments up to the end of 2020. The aim is to help countries ...

Reported cases of the coronavirus crossed 2 million globally and more than 131,100 people have died, according to a Reuters tally as of 1400 GMT on Wednesday. AMERICAS – U.S. President Donald Trump’s move to halt funding to the WHO over its handling of the pandemic prompted condemnation from world ...

Countries that ease restrictions imposed to fight the spread of the coronavirus should wait at least two weeks to evaluate the impact of such changes before easing again, the World Health Organization (WHO) said on Wednesday. In its latest Strategy Update, the U.N. agency said that the world stands at ...

Nations and health experts worldwide reacted with alarm Wednesday after President Donald Trump announced a halt to the sizable funding the United States sends to the World Health Organization. They warned that the move could jeopardize global efforts to stop the coronavirus pandemic. At a briefing in Washington, Trump said he ...

Lebanon on Wednesday confirmed 17 more novel coronavirus cases, which raises the country’s total to 658, the Health Ministry said. In a statement, the Ministry said 12 of the infections were recorded among residents and five among the expats who returned to Lebanon in recent days. It added that 941 ...

Minister of Information, Manal Abdel Samad, spoke in the wake of the Cabinet session held at the Grand Serail this Tuesday, saying: “Prime Minister Hassan Diab believes the government will have to decide whether to pursue [repatriation] flights or freeze them temporarily.” “The PM pointed out that the adopted procedures ...

China has approved early-stage human tests of two experimental vaccines to combat the new coronavirus as the country where the virus was first detected battles to contain imported cases, especially from Russia. Russia has become China’s largest source of imported cases, with a total of 409 infections originating in its ...

The economy of Lebanon, which has defaulted on its mountain of debt, is expected to contract by a massive 12 percent this year, while Iraq, OPEC’s second-largest producer, is headed for a fall of 4.7 percent, the IMF said Tuesday. The Middle East and North Africa economy will meanwhile contract ...

The Social Affairs Ministry announced Monday night that it was postponing the distribution of the emergency aid for poor families affected by the coronavirus measures. “Due to a number of errors the lists contained, the ministry decided to postpone the distribution aid until the Army finishes examining [the lists],” the ...

Speaker Nabih Berri has sent the government a clear message saying parliament “will not legislate fraud or the theft of depositors’ money and savings,” al-Joumhouria newspaper reported on Tuesday. “This plan is not the finance minister’s plan and we do not agree to it at all,” the daily quoted Berri ...