EU reopens to outside visitors as virus surges in US

Regulators have barred Pakistan International Airlines from the European Union for six months after the state-run carrier grounded nearly a third of its pilots for holding fake or dubious licences, officials said Tuesday.

China announced Monday visa restrictions on US citizens who have "behaved egregiously" over Hong Kong, ahead of the expected approval by Chinese lawmakers of a controversial national security law for the city.

The EU cannot agree on a list of "safe countries" from where travellers could visit Europe in July, with some member states requiring more time to decide, diplomats said Saturday.

Staff at the luxury Suryaa hotel used to wear bright saris as they welcomed guests. Now they must don medical suits and handle gurneys as New Delhi desperately prepares for a predicted surge in coronavirus cases in the coming weeks.

Tourists and Parisians panted their way up the stairs of the Eiffel Tower Thursday as the iron monument reopened after its longest closure since World War II due to the coronavirus, with the lifts still closed as a health precaution.

Tourists and Parisians will from Thursday again be able to admire the view of the French capital from the Eiffel Tower after a three-month closure due to the coronavirus -- but only if they take the stairs.

In normal times, tourists must rise at dawn to secure a free sunbed on the beach in Antalya, a popular holiday resort in southern Turkey.Today even after a lie in, the best locations are still available.

Only a few months ago residents of the impossibly picturesque Austrian village of Hallstatt were debating how to stem the influx of tourists thronging its narrow streets, nestled between soaring mountains and a sparkling lake.

A local council in southern Japan voted Monday to rename an area including islands disputed with China and Taiwan, a move Beijing denounced as illegal and a "serious provocation".

The ancient Inca citadel of Machu Picchu, a jewel of Peruvian tourism, will not reopen in July as originally scheduled due to concerns over the coronavirus, local media reported Sunday.

Travel restrictions were placed on nearly half a million people near Beijing on Thursday as authorities rushed to contain a fresh outbreak of the coronavirus with a mass test-and-trace effort and lockdowns in parts of the Chinese capital.

As the first Balkan travellers queued at the border with Bulgaria to cross into Greece this week, hotelier Yiannis Laspas was glued to his TV screen, eagerly awaiting potential guests.

One Spain's most visited monuments, Alhambra Palace in the southern Spain reopened its doors on Wednesday after a three-month closure due to the virus.

The United States has agreed to keep its borders with Mexico and Canada closed until July 21, officials said Tuesday, extending travel restrictions for a third time because of the coronavirus pandemic.

Hong Kong's Disneyland will reopen its doors on Thursday following nearly five months of closure, the park said Monday, in a fresh boost for a city that has largely managed to defeat the coronavirus.

After anxious months confined at home, eager Europeans are digging out their suitcases, sunscreen and flipflops, and daring to plan a post-coronavirus summer holiday.

The ancient Inca citadel of Machu Picchu, a jewel of Peruvian tourism, will sharply reduce the number of daily visitors once it reopens from a virus-imposed closure in July, officials said.

For over two millennia the ancient city of Petra has towered majestically over the Jordanian desert. Today its famed rose-red temples hewn into the rockface lie empty and silent.

From the emblematic island of Santorini, Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis said on Saturday that Greece is "ready to welcome tourists" in complete safety after the coronavirus lockdown, whose impact on tourism will be "significant".

After three months of empty squares and alleys and gondoliers stranded on dry land, Venice sprang back to life on Saturday as tourists flocked back to the city for the reopening of the Doge's Palace.

France will gradually reopen its borders to countries outside the Schengen zone from July 1, the interior and foreign ministers said in a joint statement on Friday.

As Greece prepares to reopen for foreign visitors in a bid to get its crucial tourism sector back on its feet, the government said Friday that flights from coronavirus hotspots such as Britain would not be allowed in, at least for now.

Britons are looking likely to forgo their annual trip to the sun because of the coronavirus pandemic, and instead discover the joys of staying at home, whatever the weather.

Cabin crews on standby with destinations revealed only hours before the flight, pilots put on simulators to keep up to date -- an airline restarting after the pandemic is a far cry from the clockwork precision of the pre-coronavirus world.

UAE carrier Etihad Airways sent its second flight to Israel in less than a month Tuesday, carrying medical aid to help the Palestinians tackle the coronavirus pandemic, witnesses and officials said.

Cyprus welcomed its first tourists after nearly three months of coronavirus lockdown on Tuesday with flights scheduled from Israel, Greece and Bulgaria.

When Julie Sergent's father died, she faced an agonising decision: if she travelled from her home in Japan to attend the funeral in France, she wouldn't be allowed back.

The waiter at a chic Dubai restaurant wears a face mask and gloves, pours the wine into plastic cups and serves the steaks on paper plates with disposable cutlery.

Britain introduced a two-week quarantine on Monday for most people arriving from abroad to try to limit the spread of the coronavirus, sparking condemnation from the ailing aviation sector, which claims it could cost tens of thousands of jobs.

Cyprus opens back up for international tourism on Tuesday, with airports welcoming visitors after an almost three-month shutdown, and a bold plan to cover health care costs for visitors.

Marriott has been ordered by the US Treasury Department to close its Four Points Sheraton hotel in Havana by the end of August and abandon plans to open others in Cuba, a spokeswoman for the American hotel group told AFP on Friday.

As much of Ecuador went into lockdown against the coronavirus, scientists shipped out of the Galapagos, leaving important research activity frozen and the Pacific archipelago's tourism in deep crisis.

China on Thursday said foreign airlines blocked from operating in the country over virus fears would be allowed to resume limited flights, lifting a de facto ban on US carriers, a day after Washington ordered the suspension of all Chinese travel into a...

The World Health Organization on Wednesday said it would resume using a controversial drug in coronavirus trials, while Italy led European nations reopening borders even as the pandemic carved its deadly path through Latin America.

Germany will lift its blanket travel warning for European nations from June 15, Foreign Minister Heiko Maas said Wednesday, as the continent looks to further ease restrictions imposed to contain the coronavirus.

Italy reopened its borders to European travellers on Wednesday as the continent slowly emerged from quarantines to restart battered economies even as the coronavirus pandemic carved its deadly path through Latin America.

Italy reopened to travellers from Europe on Wednesday, three months after the country went into coronavirus lockdown, with all hopes pinned on reviving the key tourism industry as the summer season begins.

Mask wearing, temperature controls, disinfection of aircraft: the International Civil Aviation Organization on Monday published a series of health recommendations for the pandemic-hit airline industry as it relaunches air travel.

Turkey reopened restaurants, cafes and Istanbul's iconic 15th century Grand Bazaar market on Monday as the government further eased coronavirus restrictions.