Iran’s President Hassan Rouhani said mosques would reopen across large parts of the country Monday, as officials reported a drop in the number of deaths from the novel coronavirus. Health ministry spokesman Kianoush Jahanpour said 47 people died of the virus over the past 24 hours, the lowest daily count in 55 days. He told […]

US President Donald Trump said Saturday he was “glad” about the reappearance of Kim Jong Un and that the North Korea leader is apparently healthy. “I, for one, am glad to see he is back, and well!” Trump tweeted, following Kim Jong Un’s first public appearance in nearly three weeks after intense speculation that he […]

By Demola Akinyemi – Ilorin Amidst preparation to monitor relaxation of the lockdown starting Monday, Kwara state on Saturday recorded two new positive cases of COVID-19. Recall that on Friday, the state government announced that it recorded three new cases, while announcing the relaxation of the lockdown. With the two fresh cases, it thus brought […]

The US military in Afghanistan Saturday urged warring parties to “return to the political path” in a rare open letter to the Taliban as a surge in violence risks shattering a hoped-for peace process. In a two-page letter to the Taliban, US Forces-Afghanistan spokesman Colonel Sonny Leggett said “all sides” must show restraint to prevent […]

Hard-hit by the market rout surrounding the coronavirus pandemic, Berkshire Hathaway, the holding company of Warren Buffett, has reported first-quarter net losses of nearly $50 billion, it reported Saturday. The company, based in Omaha, Nebraska, called the setback “temporary” but said it could not reliably predict when its many businesses would return to normal or […]

Iran’s death toll from new coronavirus increased by 65 over the previous 24 hours to reach 6,156 on Saturday, Health Ministry spokesman Kianush Jahanpur said in a statement on state TV. The total number of diagnosed cases in Iran, one of the Middle Eastern countries hardest hit by the pandemic, has reached 96,448, up by […]

Britain has hit its target of carrying out 100,000 COVID-19 tests a day, health minister Matt Hancock said on Friday, stressing that the programme was crucial to helping ease a national lockdown. Hancock also announced that the British death toll had risen by 739 to 27,510 deaths – just below that of Italy which was […]

China has condemned a US tweet backing Taiwan’s push for participation at the United Nations as the global body works with its 193 member states to tackle the coronavirus pandemic. Beijing’s diplomatic mission to the UN expressed “strong outrage and firm opposition” to a message on Friday by the United States calling Taiwan’s exclusion an […]

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has made his first public appearance since speculation about his health began last month, cutting the ribbon at the opening of a fertilizer factory, KCNA reported Saturday. Kim “attended the ceremony” on Friday and “all the participants broke into thunderous cheers of ‘hurrah!’” when he appeared, the Korean Central News […]

The new White House press secretary, Kayleigh McEnany, is set Friday to do something unusual: go into the briefing room and brief the press. It will be the first time in more than a year that a press secretary has stood at the famous podium and held a formal question and answer session. The White […]