Doha, Qatar: The Amir HH Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani received Prime Minister of the Italian Republic HE Giorgia Meloni and the accompanying delegation on Tuesday at Lusail Palace, where Her Excellency offered condolences on the passing of the Father Amir HH Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al-Thani. Al»»»

Only one in four Romanians chooses to spend their holiday abroad. Of those, 65% have opted for destinations such as Greece, Bulgaria, Italy and Turkey, while 55.6% plan to travel by private car, according to a survey conducted by CEC Bank in partnership with the banking comparison website FinZoom.r»»»

Bulgaria is strengthening its reputation as the most budget-friendly tourist destination in the European Union, according to the latest comparative price data. The figures show that the country has the lowest overall consumer price level among EU member states, while accommodation and restaurant se»»»

BRUSSELS: The European Union has coordinated efforts to raise 900 million euros ($1 billion) in pledges of aid for Gaza's rebuilding following two years of Israeli bombardment that left much of the Palestinian enclave in ruins, a senior EU official said Monday. Get updated faster and for FREE: Down»»»

RIYADH: Saudi Deputy Interior Minister Prince Abdulaziz bin Mohammed bin Ayyaf received Paschal Donohoe, the managing director and chief knowledge officer of the World Bank Group, in Riyadh on Monday. The parties discussed topics of mutual interest, the Saudi Press Agency reported. Meanwhile, Jedda»»»

Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., speaks during a Senate Judiciary Committee oversight hearing in the Dirksen Senate Office Building in Washington, D.C., on March 3. President Donald Trump suggested Monday that the late senator's sister, Darline Graham Nordone, should replace him temporarily in the Sena»»»

PARIS: Nine European countries and Ukraine on Monday announced the formation of a coalition to develop “purely defensive” anti-ballistic capabilities in Europe, citing the growing threat of ballistic missiles. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky was in Paris on Monday for a meeting of Kyiv’s all»»»

BELGRADE - Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic spoke by phone on Monday with Italian Deputy PM and FM Antonio Tajani about current European and regional affairs, Serbia-Italy relations and opportunities for advancing them further. "We exchanged views on Serbia's European integration process, continu»»»

Brussels, Belgium: The EU said Monday that European donors had put some $1 billion on the table to help initial recovery efforts in war-torn Gaza. "We will present the initial package today of almost 900 million euros or one billion dollars," Dubravka Suica, EU commissioner for the Mediterranean, s»»»

DUBAI: The International Cricket Council has announced the winners of the ICC Development Awards 2025, celebrating the outstanding programs, initiatives and performances driving the game’s growth around the globe. This year’s winners were selected from the regional nominees announced in June, recog»»»

RIYADH: Tunisia’s trade deficit swelled to 12.6 billion dinars ($4.2 billion) in the first half of 2026, up from 9.9 billion dinars a year earlier, as import growth outstripped a solid rise in exports, according to official trade data. Figures from the National Institute of Statistics showed export»»»

Hungary will deepen its cooperation with Serbia and Italy while taking a more active role in supporting the Western Balkans’ European future, Foreign Minister Anita Orbán said after a series of high-level meetings in Rome. During her visit to the Italian capital, Orbán held talks with Serbian Forei»»»

Dubai: Nine days into the ride, Guido De Wilde is taking a rest today somewhere between Spain and France, the first pause in a journey that has already raised Dh2,285,000 (around $622,000) for charity. The 68-year-old stage 4 colon cancer survivor set off from Barcelona on July 1 with 14 other ride»»»

The number of dollar millionaires worldwide continued to climb in 2025, with nearly one million people joining the ranks of those holding net assets of at least USD1 million, according to the latest Global Wealth Report 2026 published by Swiss bank UBS. That translates to an average of more than 2,»»»

FRANKFURT, Germany: Despite a year of searching, previous stints at big automotive suppliers and sending out about 50 applications, German software engineer Max Peil is still looking for a job. Trained in computer vision, a critical part of autonomous and intelligent driving systems, Peil could onc»»»

Hungarian Prime Minister Péter Magyar spent two hours answering questions from internet users during an Ask Me Anything (AMA) session on Reddit on Saturday evening, offering insight into both government policy and his personal life. Two-hour online Q&A attracts huge interest Although currently on h»»»

Most Nato summits end with a communiqué. This one ended with customs problems. As leaders prepared to leave Ankara this week, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan presented each visiting head of state with an engraved Turkish-made revolver complete with ammunition and cleaning kit — prompting a f»»»

Major oil companies are sounding the alarm as the resumption of US-Iran hostilities threatens to tighten global energy supplies and push prices higher. Italian energy giant Eni warned that the situation could deteriorate in the short term amid declining global oil reserves and increased competition»»»

Fourteen countries accounted for 68.8% of Egypt’s total foreign trade during the first half (July–December) of fiscal year 2025/26, with combined trade reaching $50.616bn, according to a report published by the Central Bank of Egypt (CBE). The total comprised imports worth $36.147bn and exports amo»»»

BRUSSELS: EU foreign ministers will discuss imposing an import ban on products from Israeli settlements, after pressure from a raft of member states for the bloc to take action, diplomats said. Diplomats said the debate at a meeting in Brussels on Monday was not expected to yield any concrete decis»»»

JOHANNESBURG: When four-time World Cup winners Italy failed to qualify for the 2026 tournament, then head coach Gennaro Gattuso lamented that Africa had so many places at the global showcase. “Africa deserves fewer World Cup slots,” he said, referring to the number of automatic qualifying places al»»»

ROME: An ‌Italian court has acquitted former crew members of the migrant rescue vessel Aquarius eight years after ​they were accused by prosecutors in Sicily of illicit waste trafficking, the charity SOS Mediterranee said on Friday. The ship was seized in 2018 after a year-long investigation into t»»»

Rome: Water reserves are being depleted rapidly in northern Italy, with farming under threat, as the region's main river dries up, local officials warned on Friday. The Po River District Basin Authority (ADBPO) said the situation was "extremely critical" and available stocks in the river basin woul»»»

The Council of the European Union reported that it opened an excessive deficit procedure (EDP) concerning Bulgaria on Friday. It also adopted a recommendation to Bulgaria outlining the net expenditure path and timeline that should be followed to put an end to its excessive deficit by 2029. The EDP »»»

The Breeze 2026 multinational maritime exercise began on July 10 in the western Black Sea and will continue until July 19, the Ministry of Defence said in a press release on Friday. Organized by the Bulgarian Navy, the exercise aims to enhance interoperability and cooperation among participating fo»»»

Nato pledged to provide Ukraine with €70bn ($80bn) in military equipment, assistance and training this year during the Ankara Nato summit on July 8, with a commitment to match that sum in 2027 — but little of the money is new. The pledge was set out in a joint declaration issued at the close of the»»»

No single topic dominates Friday's news media. POLITICS Capital weekly looks into the scandal over the Interior Minister announcing last week details about the private plane flights of Movement for Rights and Freedoms (MRF) leader Delyan Peevski. One of these flights was with Constitutional Court j»»»

The United States will oversee the withdrawal of Israeli forces from "pilot zones" in the south, with the first to get underway within days, Lebanese and U.S. officials said Thursday. A U.S. official said that new talks between Israel and Lebanon would go ahead next week, after a diplomatic source »»»

Doha, Qatar: Qatar’s high jump superstar Mutaz Barshim is looking to build on his return from injury, when he competes against an impressive field at the Monaco Diamond League today, being held at the iconic Stade Louis II. The Tokyo 2020 gold medallist arrives in Monaco after clearing a season’s b»»»

France has finally returned 23 Syrian archaeological treasures that remained in the country for about 15 years after being loaned for an exhibition. Their return coincided with French President Emmanuel Macron's landmark visit to Damascus — the first by a major Western leader since the ouster of Ba»»»

The United States will oversee the withdrawal of Israeli forces from "pilot zones" in the south, with the first to get underway within days, Lebanese and U.S. officials said Thursday. A U.S. official said that new talks between Israel and Lebanon would go ahead next week, after a diplomatic source »»»

Bulgaria is among the countries in Europe where housing and rental costs are rising at the fastest pace, according to the latest Eurostat data for the first quarter of 2026. On an annual basis, property prices in the country increased by 14.8%, placing Bulgaria second in Europe, behind only Portuga»»»

BEIRUT: The United States will oversee the withdrawal of Israeli forces from “pilot zones” in the south, with the first to get underway within days, Lebanese and US officials said Thursday. A US official said that new talks between Israel and Lebanon would go ahead next week, after a diplomatic sou»»»

Brussels: Restrictions on children’s use of social media in the European Union could come as early as this summer, as a long-awaited expert report next week is expected to recommend limiting minors’ access to online platforms. After Australia became the first country in the world to ban under-16s f»»»

Rome: Italy on Thursday ordered the expulsion of two Russian military attaches accused of spying, with its foreign minister condemning "serious and unacceptable acts of interference" by Moscow. The expulsions came two days after police announced the arrest of two former Italian intelligence agents »»»

Italy and Israel announced this week that a new round of talks between Lebanon and Israel will take place in Rome in mid-July. The two sides had previously met for five rounds of U.S.-sponsored talks in Washington aimed at ending the war between Israel and Hezbollah and paving the way for peace. A »»»

Romania is rapidly establishing itself as one of Europe’s fastest-growing renewable energy markets, driven by accelerating investment in solar energy, battery storage and grid infrastructure. Against this backdrop, the acquisition marks an important step in the consolidation of the country’s energy»»»

The Sofia Appellate Court has upheld a lower court ruling dismissing Evelin "Brendo" Banev’s request for conditional early release from prison, the court said on Thursday. The ruling is final and cannot be appealed. In April 2026, the Sofia Appellate Court rejected a proposal by the then head of th»»»

Brussels, Belgium: Restrictions on children's use of social media in the European Union could come as early as this summer, as a long-awaited expert report next week is expected to recommend limiting minors' access to online platforms. After Australia became the first country in the world to ban un»»»

Bulgarian households are among the most electricity-dependent in the European Union, while also ranking among the bloc’s leading countries in the use of renewable energy sources for heating homes, according to the latest Eurostat data on household energy consumption in 2024. The figures highlight B»»»

MOSCOW: Russia will respond to Italy’s expulsion of two of its military attaches who ‌had ‌been working at ‌the ⁠Russian embassy in ⁠Rome, Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said on ⁠Thursday, the ‌RIA ‌state news ‌agency reported.‌The Italian government has decided to expel two military »»»

Ukraine arrived at this week's key Nato summit in Turkey determined to persuade US President Donald Trump that the momentum in the war has shifted in Kyiv's favour, despite Russian forces continuing to make slow but steady territorial gains in the Donbas. Trump struck an optimistic tone ahead of th»»»

Arab Finance: Minister of Investment and Foreign Trade Mohamed Farid Saleh discussed with China-based intelligent manufacturing company Jiangsu Changhong the establishment of a factory in Egypt to manufacture automotive equipment and production lines, with an initial investment of around $20 millio»»»

Aspirational luxury clients – those who strategically purchase luxury goods and services rather than the ultra-high-net-worth individuals who habitually engage with luxury – are increasingly turning to new ownership models, experiences and AI-powered personalization to shape how they engage with br»»»

Lebanon demands Israel's withdrawal from two "pilot zones" in the south as a condition for participating in the next round of direct negotiations in Rome next week, a diplomatic source familiar with the talks told AFP on Wednesday. The two sides had previously met for five rounds of U.S.-sponsored »»»

The European Commission (EC) on Wednesday announced having decided to open infringement procedures by sending letters of formal notice to Cyprus, Malta and Finland, and to send reasoned opinion to Croatia, Italy, Austria, Portugal and Romania for not notifying the transposition of Directive (EU) 20»»»

POLISTENA: Italy’s southern Calabria region is the rare place in Europe where Cuba sends medical professionals under a long-running program that the United States wants to stamp out. Cuba’s doctors for decades have worked in developing nations such as Gambia and Venezuela, skilled in providing care»»»

BEIRUT, Lebanon: Lebanon demands Israel’s withdrawal from two “pilot zones” in the south as a condition for participating in the next round of direct negotiations in Rome next week, a diplomatic source familiar with the talks told AFP on Wednesday. The two sides had previously met for five rounds o»»»

DUBAI: Four years ago, Morocco smashed the glass ceiling for Arab teams at the World Cup. A sensational run to the semifinal, where they lost 2-0 to France, goes beyond the wildest dreams of even European and South American nations, never mind those from the region. Arab teams from North Africa hav»»»

PARIS: A wildfire in central France has endangered residents of the town of Morthomiers and threatens to reach a nearby industrial site where KNDS produces munitions, which would pose a risk for explosions and further fires, local officials said on Thursday. KNDS confirmed the munitions production »»»