World News

A prominent Saudi Arabian rights campaigner imprisoned since 2013 for dissident activities for which he was awarded the ‘Alternative Nobel’ prize has died, activists and friends confirmed. The 69-year-old Abdullah al-Hamid passed away Thursday in King Saud Medical City in Riyadh, the capital, after suffering a stroke on April 9 in prison, said London-based Saudi rights group ALQST.

Poland’s health minister risked the anger of other government officials by suggesting to delay next month’s presidential elections until 2022 due to the coronavirus pandemic. Minister Lukasz Szumowski, who is also a cardiologist, said Friday that postponing the vote ‘the only safe option’ as the virus disease COVID-19 spreads across the nation.

Saudi Arabia is ending flogging as a form of punishment amid efforts to modernize the judicial system, according to a document obtained by several media outlets. The kingdom’s top court said in written remarks that flogging would be replaced by prison sentences or fines, or a mixture of both.

A tense calm returned to the outskirts of Paris after four days of riots exacerbated by the anger of the ongoing coronavirus lockdown and police measures in France. Crowds of youths targeted riot police with fireworks and torched rubbish bins amid rising tensions. The violence began Saturday after a motorcyclist was seriously injured in Villeneuve-La-Garenne in a confrontation with police.

Iran threatens a ‘crushing response’ to any American military attacks in the Persian Gulf after United States President Donald Trump threatened to ‘shoot down and destroy’ Iranian vessels. The leader of Iran’s elite Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) warned that the security of the Gulf is among Iran’s strategic priorities.

The foreign ministers of Russia, Turkey, and Iran will hold a video conference on April 22 to discuss Syria and a de-escalation deal in the last rebel-held enclave in Idlib.

European Union leaders are set to weigh Thursday the damage the coronavirus has inflicted on health care systems and the lives of around half a billion citizens across the bloc as they struggle to devise a more robust plan to resuscitate their ravaged economies.

President Trump threatened Iran with severe retaliation Wednesday after the U.S. military claimed Iranian ships had made ‘dangerous and threatening approaches’ toward American navy vessels in the Persian Gulf last week.

President Trump said he directed the Navy to destroy Iranian military vessels that conduct provocative maneuvers near U.S. ships in the Persian Gulf.

Iran’s Revolutionary Guard launched its first satellite into space Wednesday, dramatically revealing what experts described as a secret military space program that could advance its ballistic missile development amid wider tensions between the Islamic Republic and the US.

Iran successfully launched its first military satellite into space on Wednesday, authorities in Tehran said, spurring warnings from Washington and heightening tensions between the two countries.

A United Nations agency has warned that the world risks widespread famines ‘of Biblical proportions’ due to the coronavirus pandemic.

A week ago, the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and its allies agreed to slash production by 9.7 million barrels, a deal that brought an end to a price war between two of the biggest exporters, Russia and Saudi Arabia.

A scientific study recommended by White House medical adviser Dr. Anthony Fauci pointing to the origin of coronavirus pandemic as a jump from animals to humans also concludes it cannot be ruled out that the virus may have escaped from a laboratory.

Schools have reopened in Belarus after an extended spring break linked to the coronavirus outbreak that infected thousands here. Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko, who has ruled the ex-Soviet nation with an iron fist for more than a quarter-century, ordered classes to resume at the nation’s 3,067 schools.

Several European Union member states are slowly reopening their doors in lockdowns that have impacted millions of people, many of them children. The lockdowns were introduced by authorities citing concerns about the spread of the new coronavirus disease COVID-19.

European countries hit hardest by the COVID-19 pandemic as well as New York, the epicenter of the outbreak in the US, have reported progress in fighting the coronavirus. There have been reports of lower daily death counts, slowing rates of infection and reductions in the numbers of patients admitted to intensive care units.

Europe’s death toll from the new coronavirus COVID-19 approached 100,000 on Sunday, and over 1 million Europeans were infected, a European health agency announced.

Germany’s health minister says the month-long lockdown has brought the coronavirus outbreak in his country under control. Jens Spahn spoke while several other European Union nations struggled to contain the new virus disease COVID-19.

The chief of the European Union’s executive has made ‘a heartfelt apology’ to Italy for the block’s slow response in handling the coronavirus pandemic. Italy suffered more than 21,000 coronavirus-related deaths, the highest toll in Europe, officials say.