Germany’s Chancellor Angela Merkel warns against rushing to loosen coronavirus restrictions

“If McDonald’s can do it for hamburgers, why can’t we do it for eye care?”, thought the founder of Aravind Eye Hospital in 1976. Five decades later, inspired by processes implemented by the fast food giant, the Indian hospital chain performs around 500,000 surgeries a year -- many for free. -- This story is being published to coincide with World Sight Day.

Supporters of the Lebanese Shiite group Hezbollah staged a protest after a court dismissed a legal complaint about the judge investigating the 2020 Beirut port explosion.

At Rome's ICC Casalpalocco Hospital, recent figures show that a vast majority of Covid-19 patients in the ICU are unvaccinated. Now patients who once were opposed to the vaccine and others who missed their vaccine appointments insist they will get the jab as soon as they are able.

The Cumbre Vieja volcano in the Canary Islands continues to spew lava with flows of it going down the island towards the sea. Accroding to experts, there is no chance of the eurption ending "in the short or medium term".

Police in southeastern Norway are investigating and questioning witnesses after a man armed with a bow and arrows killed five people and wounded two others. Authorities say the suspect had converted to Islam and likely acted alone. Investigations are ongoing but authorities say they believe it to be an "act of terror."

Former President Bill Clinton, 75, was admitted two days ago to an Irvine, California, hospital where he is being treated for a non-COVID-19 infection, a spokesman said on Thursday.

Heavy fighting claimed at least six lives and left dozens wounded in Lebanon's capital as an escalation of tensions around last year's massive portside explosion turned parts of Beirut into a war-zone. The army deployed tanks and troops to quell street battles that sparked memories of the 1975-1990 civil war for a city already traumatised by last year's blast disaster and Lebanon's worst-ever economic crisis.

Mexico's government wants to reverse the privatization of the energy sector that began in 2013, in order to provide stable prices. But critics say taxpayers and the environment will have to pay the price.

In eight areas of Germany, the incidence rate has crossed 500 per 100,000 people in 10- to 19-year-olds, according to the Robert Koch Institute. Follow DW for the latest.

A resolution is imminent in the dispute over more than 1,000 bronzes stolen from the former Kingdom of Benin. Germany wants to return all the objects to Nigeria.

Queen Elizabeth II takes aim at world leaders who "talk" but "don't do" enough about climate change, in an apparent jibe at those not attending the upcoming COP26 summit. The 95-year-old monarch is overheard making the remarks as she opened the Welsh Assembly in Cardiff.

US President Joe Biden tells reporters that Bill Clinton is "doing fine" after he talked to him on the phone. The former US president is in hospital as he undergoes treatment for a reported case of sepsis.