While Finland and Sweden appear keen on membership, there is little public or political support for joining the alliance in historically neutral Switzerland. The security architecture on the European continent is changing dramatically as Russia extends its war on Ukraine. While Finland and Sweden are increasingly likely to join NATO, …

Iraq recorded 135 COVID-19 cases in the past 24 hours, the Ministry of Health said today, Friday. In its daily epidemiological report, the Ministry registered 243 recovery cases and two mortalities. The cumulative count of COVID-19 cases since the emergence of the virus in the country amounted to 2,324,982 of …

The US Defense Department warned Americans on Friday against going to Ukraine to join the fight against Russia’s invasion after a former marine was killed. “We continue to urge Americans not to go to Ukraine… this is an active war zone, this is not the place to be traveling to,” …

Washington wants the conflict to drag on and to weaken Russia, Beijing claims The US isn’t interested in peace in Ukraine but is instead doing everything it can for the conflict in the country to last as long as possible, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian said during a briefing …

Libya is losing tens of millions of dollars a day from the shutdown of its oil facilities, while global prices are at their highest in years, the country’s oil minister told AFP. Oil is the lifeblood of the North African country trying to move past a decade of conflict since …

More than 3,000 refugees, migrants, and asylum seekers died or went missing last year while trying to reach Europe via Mediterranean and Atlantic sea routes, a UN refugee agency report showed on Friday, reporting the highest toll in recent years. Thousands of Africans take long, perilous journeys to Europe each …

Sri Lanka’s president has agreed to replace his older brother as prime minister in a proposed interim government to solve a political impasse caused by the country’s worst economic crisis in decades, a prominent lawmaker said Friday. President Gotabaya Rajapaksa agreed that a national council will be appointed to name …

A powerful explosion killed more than 50 worshippers after Friday prayers at a Kabul mosque, its leader said, amid a series of attacks on civilian targets in Afghanistan during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan. The blast hit the Khalifa Sahib Mosque in the west of the capital in the …

Energy producer Novatek has been ordered to hand over its transmission infrastructure to the country’s state-owned firms Warsaw has obliged the Polish subsidiary of the Russian energy giant Novatek to transfer its gas infrastructure to the nation’s state companies, Government Spokesperson Piotr Müller said on Friday. Novatek, which is on …

Russia’s central bank Friday said it was cutting its key interest rate for a second straight time as risks of price rises and financial instability were no longer rising. The Bank of Russia said it was slashing the rate from 17 percent to 14 percent from May 4, a greater …

Germany summoned Turkey’s ambassador to Berlin on Friday to protest a sentence of life in prison that a Turkish court handed to a prominent Turkish civil rights activist and philanthropist. Western governments and rights groups strongly criticized this week’s ruling which found Osman Kavala guilty of attempting to overthrow the …

Google has confirmed multiple new vulnerabilities have been discovered in Chrome that impact the browser across all major platforms. Here’s everything you need to know to stay safe. Google confirmed the vulnerabilities on its Chrome blog post, revealing 30 new security flaws have been discovered in Chrome, seven of which …

The US-funded Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty said Friday that one of its staff had died in a Russian strike on Kyiv during a visit by UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres. “Radio Liberty journalist and producer Vera Gyrych died as a result of a Russian missile hitting the house where she lived …

Negotiations between the Taliban and a Qatar-Turkey consortium for operating Afghanistan’s five airports, including in the capital, have hit a deadlock after the Taliban insisted their fighters will guard the facilities, officials said. Kabul’s only airport was trashed in August when tens of thousands of people rushed to evacuate on …

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 …

In yet another manifestation of Washington’s scandalous complicity with remnants of the Daesh (ISIS) terrorist group in Iraq, new footage has emerged apparently showing the transfer of the members of the Takfiri terror outfit by US helicopters across certain regions in the Arab country. The video, which went viral in …

Under the pretext of war in Ukraine, the UK army will send about 8000 soldiers to eastern Europe. About 8,000 British army troops will take part in exercises across Eastern Europe in one of the largest deployments since the cold war. Dozens of tanks will be deployed to countries ranging …

Millions of people have taken to the streets for Quds Day rallies around the world to show solidarity with the Palestinians and condemn Israeli atrocities against them. In Iran, demonstrations started at 10 a.m. local time (0530 GMT) in Tehran and some 900 others cities and towns across the country. …

The Kremlin said Thursday that Western arms deliveries to Ukraine were dangerous for European security. “The tendency to pump weapons, including heavy weapons into Ukraine, these are the actions that threaten the security of the continent, provoke instability,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters. Peskov was responding to comments made …