There has been no deterioration in air quality in Sofia in terms of particulate matter (PM10) levels related to the fire in Serbia, according to data as of 11:00 a.m. Wednesday, the Sofia Regional Inspectorate of Environment and Water (RIEW) said. Eight municipalities in Western Bulgaria reported o»»»

Ghana has climbed to sixth place among the world's largest gold producers, overtaking the United States after a jump in domestic output and a slump in American production, the Ghana Chamber of Mines said. The West African nation produced 185 tonnes of gold in 2025, moving up from its traditional se»»»

Nairobi: A helicopter carrying several tourists crashed Wednesday in Kenya's Samburu county, north of the capital, Nairobi, killing all those on board, an aviation source told AFP. "I can confirm an accident has happened, there are no survivors," the source told AFP, without being able to say how m»»»

Consumer prices rose by 0.6% in a single month Annual inflation in Bulgaria continued to slow in July but remained among the highest in the European Union, according to final data from Eurostat. The Harmonised Index of Consumer Prices (HICP) increased by 4.4% year-on-year, above Eurostat’s earlier »»»

Azerbaijan's Foreign Ministry summoned Russian ambassador Mikhail Yevdokimov on August 18 to protest what it called provocative, insulting and threatening statements against Azerbaijan, its people and leadership circulating in Russian media, a day after the Prosecutor General's Office placed three »»»

The Ukrainian parliament has unanimously approved Yevhen Khmara as Ukraine's new defense minister, giving their go-ahead to a man who earlier pledged that "Russia will burn" after orchestrating the deadly August 12 attack on the Russian city of Novorossiysk. A career SBU officer, Khmara is notoriou»»»

Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf arrived in neighboring Iraq Wednesday for a three-day visit where he will meet with Iraqi officials and leaders of an Iran-backed political coalition. Iran-backed Iraqi militias have launched and claim drone attacks targeting US bases and diplomatic presence both within the »»»

Damascus, Aug. 19 (SANA) Gold prices remained stable in the Syrian market Wednesday, while global bullion prices rebounded as the US dollar and global bond yields eased. According to a bulletin issued by the General Authority for Precious Metals Management, the price of 21-karat gold stood at SYP 1»»»

A drone strike on a minibus in the Ukrainian frontline city of Kherson killed at least 4 people and injured 5 others amid a rise in Russian attacks on the approximately one-third of the province still controlled by Ukraine. File photo by State Emergency Service of Ukraine/EPA-EFE Aug. 19 (UPI) -- A»»»

The possibility of directly electing the president resurfaces from time to time. For now, András Baka was elected by Tisza’s parliamentary majority, but Péter Magyar, the prime minister, has repeatedly indicated that he would support a direct election. Baka, meanwhile, is only an interim president,»»»

Water from two public fountains near Vratsa (Northwest Bulgaria) and two in Novi Pazar (Northeast Bulgaria) was deemed unfit for consumption, stated the Regional Health Inspectorates in Vratsa and Shumen.In Vratsa, after laboratory testing of the fountains near the Leva River's beach and at the sta»»»

Damascus, Aug. 19 (SANA) Syria’s oil and gas sector recorded production and continued the rehabilitation of facilities and wells during the first half of 2026, according to the Ministry of Energy. The ministry said the achievements during the first six months contributed to strengthening energy sec»»»

IGA-BARRIÈRE: Isaac Batisa is only a child but he spends his days digging for gold at a mining site in eastern Congo, hoping to earn enough money to support his family. The 11-year-old is among hundreds of people, many of them children, working at the artisanal gold mine in eastern Congo’s Ituri pr»»»

DUBAI: Diriyah Art Futures, an asset of Saudi Arabia’s Museums Commission under the Ministry of Culture, on Tuesday announced the lineup for “Continuum 26,” an exhibition showcasing the creative output of participants in its second Emerging New Media Artists Program. Running from Sept. 3 to Nov. 7 »»»

LONDON: Australian tennis star Nick Kyrgios said on Wednesday that he had made “a huge mistake” after testing positive for cocaine.The 31-year-old, who reached the final at Wimbledon in 2022, failed a doping test during an ATP event in Mallorca, Spain, on June 22.“On 17 July 2026, a World Anti-Dopi»»»

BRUSSELS: NATO is prepared to address ​any threat and will always do what is necessary to defend all allies, a NATO ‌official said ‌on ​Wednesday ‌in ⁠response ​to questions about ⁠a report in the Financial Times that Iran has allegedly weighed ⁠attacking US military ‌targets ‌in ​Europe should ‌Do»»»

LONDON: Australian tennis star Nick Kyrgios said on Wednesday that he had made “a huge mistake” after testing positive for cocaine. The 31-year-old, who reached the final at Wimbledon in 2022, failed a doping test during an ATP event in Mallorca, Spain, on June 22. “On 17 July 2026, a World Anti-Do»»»

MALMEDY, Belgium: Firefighters managed overnight to fully surround Belgium’s largest wildfire in a century, but the situation on the ground “remains complicated” with crews battling several new flare-ups, authorities said Wednesday. Crisis cell spokesman Tony Hosmans said the fire raging in the Hig»»»

ALKHOBAR: For Anan Al-Mahanna, the distance between years of hard work and a place in Saudi Arabia’s Women’s Premier League once came down to a single match. The Saudi footballer had founded Al-Taqadom’s women’s team in the summer of 2023 and only months later had taken the club to the semifinals o»»»

The rapid rise in gold prices and growing interest among Romanians in precious metal investments have also led to more fraud attempts, according to Avangard Gold. The company says counterfeit products have become increasingly common in recent months, particularly through online marketplaces, privat»»»

Citizens of Kyrgyzstan who registered for Hajj 2026 but were not included in a quota and remained on the waiting list can re-register through the state digital Hajj system from August 14 to 20, the muftityat reported. For citizens registering for the 2027 Hajj for the first time, the registration a»»»

RIYADH: Iraq’s cabinet has approved a three-month mechanism for exporting crude through specialized local and international companies and multiple export outlets, as Baghdad seeks to diversify its oil export routes amid disruptions. The decision was taken during the 15th regular session of the Coun»»»

Dubai: The US dollar hovered near multi-month lows against major currencies on Wednesday, with softer Treasury yields and reduced expectations for another near-term Federal Reserve rate increase weighing on the currency ahead of the release of the central bank's latest meeting minutes. Get updated »»»

Washington, United States: Harvard University has agreed to pay a $53 million settlement after its former morgue manager stole and sold body parts donated for scientific research, with a Boston court reportedly approving the plan on Tuesday. Cedric Lodge, who managed the morgue at the prestigious H»»»

Diverzum, the digital platform targeting students and Generation Z, has surpassed 100,000 registered users in Romania less than a year after its local launch. Over the same period, the company has attracted more than 50 partner brands and developed collaborations with 10 student organisations acros»»»

Iran’s foreign minister said the Iran war had changed the region’s security thinking, convincing Arab states that security must be collective and regional, not dependent on foreign bases that had become sources of insecurity. In a wide-ranging interview with the president’s communications office, A»»»

The US has suspended negotiations with Iran and is seeking to gradually “strangle” the country, CNN reported on Tuesday, after its bombing campaign near the Strait of Hormuz failed to yield the desired results. The US abruptly halted its most recent wave of strikes late last month amid reports that»»»

The prospect of US control over Venezuela’s sovereign assets would amount to a “colonial relationship” and set a “terrible precedent” for Latin America, former IMF Executive Director Paulo Nogueira Batista Jr. has told RT. Reports have surfaced that some 31 tons of Venezuelan gold – valued at appro»»»

Agricultural producers across the EU have warned of sharp drops in yields after Europe has been hit by successive heatwaves this summer. Economists have said the losses are likely to push food prices higher in the coming months. June and July were the hottest on record in western Europe, according »»»

US congressional lawyers are struggling with a flood of error-ridden AI-generated legislation, forcing them to spend increasingly more time rewriting proposals produced by chatbots, Politico reported on Monday. Staffers and outside groups have more frequently turned to ChatGPT and Claude to produce»»»

Dubai: Nearly six months into the war, Donald Trump appears to be settling on a new strategy for Iran: Stop chasing an elusive diplomatic breakthrough, maintain economic and naval pressure and wait for Tehran to bend. Iran is signalling something very different. It says that if the squeeze continue»»»

Israeli occupation forces launched a sweeping arrest campaign across the occupied West Bank in the early hours of Wednesday, storming homes and neighborhoods in multiple governorates as fierce confrontations erupted with Palestinian youths. The large-scale operation stretched from Bethlehem and Nab»»»

An investigation is under way into the cultivation of 3,215 kg of marijuana in a field near the southwestern village of Sugarevo, the Blagoevgrad District Prosecution Office (BDPO) said on Wednesday. The investigation is proceeding under the BDPO's direction and supervision. The authorities have fo»»»

London: New UK Prime Minister Andy Burnham unveiled plans Wednesday to offer those sleeping rough a route off the streets by Christmas, as part of his bid to curb national homelessness. "No one should have to bed down in a doorway or outside a station. But we've seen it for so long that it feels li»»»

Ukraine's popular ex-defence minister Mykhailo Fedorov called for wartime elections on Tuesday evening, stating that the nation was facing a crisis of governance. Fedorov was dismissed last month, sparking days of protests across Ukraine. It is the first time since Russia launched its full-scale in»»»

Dubai: Oman’s Public Prosecution has warned content creators against exploiting children under 15 or domestic workers in social media content, saying offenders could face up to three years in prison and a fine of OMR5,000. The warning is part of an awareness campaign urging creators to consider the»»»

An unidentified foreign national died after being taken into custody following an altercation aboard a Mumbai-Delhi train during which he allegedly sprayed passengers with a fire extinguisher. The man, believed to be around 45 years old, collapsed while being questioned by railway authorities in Su»»»

Dubai: A 16-year-old boy from Murshidabad in West Bengal, who reportedly spends most of his time submerged in a pond because of a severe burning sensation in his skin, has been airlifted to Mumbai for specialised medical treatment following intervention by industrialist Anant Ambani. The teenager, »»»

Two-thirds of Romanians have spent more than expected while travelling due to unplanned financial costs, according to a study conducted for ING Bank Romania. The research, carried out by Frappe Digital, found that 30% of respondents had paid out of pocket for medical procedures or treatments not co»»»

RIYADH: Saudi Arabia is expected to become one of the world’s largest exporters of computing power within eight to 10 years, similar to its current position as one of the world’s biggest oil exporters, according to Rajit Nanda, CEO of DataVolt. DataVolt’s bet on the Kingdom rests on three key facto»»»

ECB economists have warned that the current AI-driven stock market boom is likely to end in a correction, with potentially significant consequences for the euro area due to its exposure to US technology stocks. In a blog post published on 17 August, Malin Andersson, Johannes Breckenfelder, Stefano »»»

Russia and Ukraine exchanged prisoners of war in a 103-for-103 swap, the Russian Defense Ministry said. “On August 19, 103 Russian servicemen were returned from territory controlled by the Kiev regime. In exchange, 103 Ukrainian Armed Forces prisoners of war were handed over,” the ministry said.The»»»

Azerbaijan's finance ministry has raised its average annual inflation forecast for 2026 to 5.7%, up from the 4.8% projected earlier, according to a mid-year budget execution and year-end outlook document published by the ministry and cited by Report. The revision reflects actual inflation recorded »»»

Ghana has climbed to sixth place among the world's largest gold producers, overtaking the United States after a jump in domestic output and a slump in American production, the Ghana Chamber of Mines said. The West African nation produced 185 tonnes of gold in 2025, moving up from its traditional se»»»

Ukraine has been using UK-made jet drones for deep strikes inside Russia for the past six months, The Sunday Times reported on August 16, citing Ukrainian military sources. The use of UK-made weapons to hit targets deep inside Russia has lead to fears that Russia will retaliate by targetting those »»»

Around 7,000 children currently live in children’s homes in Hungary. A report produced in early 2024 exposed appalling conditions in these institutions, but the Orbán government chose instead to conceal the reality: abuse, a lack of psychological support, starvation, and outdated, unusable furnitur»»»

DUBAI: Jordanian-Romanian shoe designer Amina Muaddi has fronted a new campaign for French beauty house Lancome, appearing in a film for the label’s La vie est belle Very Cherry eau de parfum wearing heels and carrying a clutch from her own brand. Lancome released the film on its Instagram page thi»»»

FINANCIAL TIMES: IRAN EYES TARGETING US MILITARY ASSETS IN EUROPE IF TENSIONS ESCALATE Denevnik.bg and 24 Chasa reproduce a Financial Times report, citing people close to the Iranian regime, according to which Iranian officials and military planners have examined potential targets at American milit»»»

U.S. President Donald Trump threatened to bomb Oman because he is unhappy the country is close to a deal with Iran to manage ship traffic through the Strait of Hormuz, two regional officials said on Tuesday, a day after Trump leveled the threat. The officials said the Trump administration has told »»»

Oman has suspended all powered paragliding activities across the country until further notice following a fatal accident in Salalah, according to the Oman Air Sports Committee. The decision covers all types of powered paragliding and applies to all locations licensed for the activity in the Sultana»»»