Lebanon's central bank will start providing dollars for food imports as part of "necessary measures" to defend the battered local currency, whose slump has sent prices skyrocketing. ( read original story ...)
American women and children who lived under ISIS in Syria returned to U.S.
Two American women and six children with ties to ISIS are being sent back to the U.S. from Syria. They're among thousands of foreigners who have been held in detention camps across the country. CBS ... ( read original story ...)
Riad Ismat, Evanston scholar who fled war-torn Syria, dies of COVID-19
Among the latest local victims of COVID-19 in Illinois is a scholar who escaped the war-torn Middle East to teach here in the U.S. Riad Ismat was renowned in Syria. Diplomat, writer, and cultural ... ( read original story ...)
North Korea’s Kim keeps low public profile in May: analysts
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has made an unusually small number of public appearances in the past two months, once again going three weeks without state media reporting his attendance at a public ... ( read original story ...)
Still No Coronavirus Cases In North Korea, Russian Ambassador Says There’s No Reason To Doubt
North Korea was among the first countries to seal its border with China after COVID-19 first emerged, said Alexander Matsegora, Russia's ambassador to the country. ( read original story ...)
Coronavirus catastrophe unfolding in south Yemen – medical charity MSF
The main coronavirus treatment centre in southern Yemen has recorded at least 68 deaths in just over two weeks, the medical charity running the site said on Thursday, more than double the toll ... ( read original story ...)
ISIS is expanding in Afghanistan to target U.S., AP reports
A new Associated Press report says ISIS is recruiting new members to attack the U.S. and the West. Intelligence officials said the militant group is using Kabul, Afghanistan, for "practice runs" for ... ( read original story ...)
Drive to succeed: the endless golf dominance of South Korea’s women
When South Korea's domestic women's golf tour held its premier event last week -- without spectators because of the coronavirus pandemic -- no fewer than three of the world's top 10 players took part. ( read original story ...)
How South Korea turned an urban planning system into a virus tracking database
When a man in Seoul tested positive for the new coronavirus in May, South Korean authorities were able to confirm his wide-ranging movements in and outside the city in minutes, including five bars and ... ( read original story ...)
South Korea’s Foreign Minister Kang Kyung-wha: ‘We’re not going back to life pre-COVID’
"We need to learn to live with this risk, that means everybody doing their share to stick to the sanitary rules, [including] wearing masks in public places," she said. ( read original story ...)