WASHINGTON: The global economy faces a hard road back from the COVID-19 downturn, and nations should remove trade barriers on medical technologies to aid the recovery, the IMF chief said yesterday. 

KUWAIT: The number of coronavirus recoveries in Kuwait rose by 587 to 130,426 over the past 24 hours, the health ministry said yesterday. 

RIYADH: Saudi Arabia hosts the G20 summit Saturday in a first for an Arab nation, but the scaled-down virtual format could limit debate on a resurgent coronavirus pandemic and crippling economic crisis. 

WASHINGTON: Walmart earnings are surging, Amazon is expanding into pharmacies and Wall Street indices are hitting record highs, but data released yesterday shows traditional retailers struggling to keep up as the COVID-19 pandemic disrupts the US economy. 

VIENNA: Members of the OPEC+ club of oil producers agreed Tuesday that they had to be ready to act on output cuts in order to prevent another slump in prices. 

KUWAIT: Nine COVID-19 patients died in Kuwait in the past 24 hours, the Ministry of Health announced yesterday, noting that total fatalities increased to 857. Meanwhile, Kuwait registered 452 new cases during the same period, raising total infections to 138,337.

KUWAIT: In its 29th annual ranking of the world’s safest banks, the Global Finance Magazine has named Kuwait Finance House “KFH” as Safest Islamic Bank in the GCC – 2020. 

PARIS: Energy firms are undertaking financially risky natural gas extraction projects from the Arctic to Africa made feasible by government-backed loans and guarantees, jeopardizing efforts to curb global warming, experts say. 

WILMINGTON: President-elect Joe Biden on Monday called for a new stimulus package to help the United States recover from the damage caused by coronavirus pandemic.