Rising tensions: US-Iran standoff escalates with military buildup and warnings Regional tensions rose again overnight as the Houthis kept firing missiles at Saudi Arabia, Iran warned the US of a "more lethal" response to any threat, and Washington sent more warships to the Middle East. Here are the»»»

Nagoya, Japan: Japan cycling queen Yumi Kajihara broke down after her latest Asian Games gold as she dedicated victory to her brother who died of cancer this year, saying: "He's here with me". Kajihara claimed her third consecutive omnium gold at the Izu Velodrome on Friday and dissolved into tears»»»

Abu Dhabi becomes home for Lebanese chef Joe Barza's timeless creations "Abu Dhabi is my second home since 1999," the Lebanese chef, Joe Barza said. Barza is among the best-known chefs in the world. He has judged Top Chef Middle East, served as Hilton's brand ambassador for the Gulf and Africa, and»»»

Sydney: A driver lost control and crashed his car into a crowd of rugby league fans in the eastern Australian city of Newcastle on Saturday, injuring 10 people including children, police said. Thousands of supporters had gathered to farewell local rugby league side the Newcastle Knights ahead of th»»»

Tucker Carlson slammed the idea of Ukraine possessing nuclear weapons during a debate with former British minister Sir Jacob Rees-Mogg, pointing to the country’s long-running corruption problems. The exchange came during an interview published on October 2, in which the two discussed Ukraine, Russi»»»

Students urged to build a profile on meaningful experiences, skills, leadership, impact Dubai: Good grades remain important for students applying to university, but academic results alone may not tell the full story. Students need to show universities who they are, what makes them different, and ho»»»

SYDNEY: A car crashed into a crowd of people in the Australian city of Newcastle on Saturday, injuring several people, Australian police said. The driver was arrested at the scene of the incident in the city, which is about 110 kilometers north of Sydney, the capital of New South Wales. A police sp»»»

Temperatures will ease slightly on Saturday, with mist possible over some coastal areas Abu Dhabi: Temperatures across the UAE are expected to fall slightly on Saturday, although daytime highs will remain close to 40°C in several areas, according to the National Centre of Meteorology. Conditions wi»»»

UAE diesel prices rise to Dh4.80, putting pressure on delivery firms and transport firms Dubai: Picture this, your shopping cart is full, and you’re ready to check out. But before hitting pay, a thought crosses your mind: will delivery still be free next month? The culprit behind that thought sits »»»

ABHA: Coffee cultivation in Saudi Arabia’s Asir region is expanding from a generations-old agricultural tradition into a growing economic activity, with thousands of farms and hundreds of thousands of trees spread across its mountain terraces, valleys and slopes. The cultivation stretches from Al-F»»»

Cross-border rail may take years, but related cable projects may move ahead sooner If you have heard more about the India–Middle East–Europe Economic Corridor lately, you may be picturing containers moving between India and Europe by ship and train. That is the plan’s biggest promise. It may also b»»»

MOBILE, Alabama: President Donald Trump is continuing his midterm campaign swing with a rally in deep red Alabama Friday, returning to the place where he drew his first mega crowd. Trump is stumping for Republican candidates, including Sen. Tommy Tuberville, who is running against former Democratic»»»

JERUSALEM: Israel’s Supreme Court on Friday put back on the election ballot an Arab party that could be a kingmaker, hours after one Arab-Israeli politician withdrew under court pressure. In September, an electoral committee of MPs voted to disqualify multiple candidates for the October 27 general »»»

GENEVA: Getting humanitarian aid through Israel into Gaza is layered with “delay after delay,” the World Health Organization said Friday, as it decried “chronic shortages” of medical supplies. Reinhilde Van de Weerdt, the WHO’s representative in the Palestinian territories, said the health situatio»»»

NEW YORK: UN Deputy Special Envoy for Syria Claudio Cordone has urged the international community to translate its political support for Syria into practical assistance and funding to help rebuild the country’s economy and institutions, while warning that Israeli military operations are threatening»»»

JAKARTA: Indonesian President ‌Prabowo Subianto named a new advisory council on Friday that includes tycoons, politicians and influential former Islamic leaders, the latest ​in a slew of personnel changes as he grapples with a declining approval rating. * Among the 24 new members appointed are loca»»»

Brazil is seeking to investigate allegations of US government funding for activities aimed at interfering in its elections and undermining the legitimacy of its Supreme Federal Court, public news agency Agencia Brasil reported Thursday. Earlier this week, The Guardian cited a source familiar with t»»»

The US is pressuring France and Germany to tap emergency diesel reserves to help bring down soaring global prices, and has threatened not to export the fuel if they refuse, Reuters has reported. Washington wants the EU to release 120 million barrels over the next six months as US President Donald T»»»

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen has rewarded her personal communications adviser with a permanent job in the commission’s media department, in a move that reveals how the EU bureaucracy really works, and how von der Leyen has created a royal court in Brussels. Von der Leyen’s Col»»»

Toyohashi, Japan: Taekwondo dates back more than 2,000 years, but on Friday at the Asian Games the Korean martial art stepped into a not-so-brave future where nobody gets hurt: virtual taekwondo. At a gymnasium about a 90-minute drive from the main Games host city of Nagoya, a modest number of spec»»»

LONDON: Ethiopia on Thursday closed its embassy in the Eritrean capital, Asmara, and ordered 10 Eritrean diplomats to leave within 48 hours. Addis Ababa accused Eritrea of “direct and indirect acts of hostility and belligerence” that pose “a direct threat to Ethiopia’s national security.” Eritrea’s»»»

TENNESSEE, USA: Christa Pike was placed on a ventilator and remained unconscious in a hospital in the hours after her failed execution in Tennessee, her attorneys said in a court filing Friday. Hospital staff, her lawyers said, were working to save Pike’s life and as of late Thursday were trying to»»»

MOSCOW: Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday attended military drills in the Ural Mountains involving troops from China and several other countries. Putin visited a firing range in the Chelyabinsk region to observe the final stage of the Center-2026 maneuvers. The exercises were combined with»»»

American forces are completing their withdrawal from Iraq, yet the country that Washington once promised to turn into a model of democratic transformation in the Middle East is still facing questions that years of military presence never managed to answer. For Iraq, this is a long-awaited political»»»

KHARTOUM: Headed by Shalhoub Alshalhoub, director of public relations and media at the King Salman Humanitarian Aid and Relief Center, a delegation from KSrelief met with Sudanese Federal Minister of Health Dr. Haitham Mohamed Ibrahim in Khartoum recently. The two sides reviewed the latest developm»»»

RIYADH: “You are never alone in the mountains.” That is the promise that greets readers in the opening pages of “A Wild Companion: Sarawat and Hijaz,” a bilingual exploration of the wildlife, plants, stories and cultural memory of western Saudi Arabia’s highlands. Conceived as a “friendly sage” rat»»»

DAMASCUS: Syrian and Austrian officials discussed consular cooperation and issues concerning Syrian refugees in Austria during talks in Damascus. Mohammed Yaqoub Al-Omar, director of the Consular Affairs Department at Syria’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Expatriates, met with Christoph Weidinger»»»

A tanker was struck in the Strait of Hormuz by an “unknown projectile” while transiting outbound through the waterway, the British military said Friday. The attack caused a “small fire and blackout onboard” but there were no reported casualties, the United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations Center (»»»

The Hungarian forint strengthened against both the euro and the US dollar on Friday, supported by falling oil prices and weaker-than-expected US labour market data. The Hungarian forint has enjoyed a stronger period since Hungary’s parliamentary election earlier this year, helped by improving inves»»»

San Francisco, United States: Amazon on Friday pledged more than $1 billion over five years for US communities that host its data centers, the latest tech giant seeking to win over residents increasingly hostile to the AI-fueled construction boom. The "Built Together" program, unveiled by Amazon We»»»

MOSCOW (Sputnik) - The European Union has lost significant influence in international affairs as a result of its policy toward Russia, Fernand Kartheiser, a European Parliament lawmaker from Luxembourg, said in a statement obtained by RIA Novosti. Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Thursday t»»»

Microsoft report highlights UAE's global ranking in cyber activity impact Dubai: Marking Cyber Security month, Microsoft released its 2026 Digital Defence Report, highlighting how artificial intelligence, identity-based attacks and increasingly interconnected digital ecosystems are reshaping the gl»»»

KHARTOUM: Drone attacks on a university dormitory and a centre sheltering displaced families in Sudan’s central city of El-Obeid killed at least 10 people this week, a Sudanese rights group and a medical source said on Friday. The attacks came as fighting intensified in North Kordofan, a strategica»»»

Secretary's SpeechLebanon PalestineZionist EntityRegional and International International More Video Language Ar En Fr EsSubscribe for Weekly Updates Subscribe Israeli Occupation Attacks Persist Across Southern Lebanon 02-10-2026 21:14 PM Israeli occupation forces continued on Friday to strike vill»»»

The Central Election Commission (CEC) adopted a decision determining the locations and number of polling stations to be opened abroad for the presidential election on October 25. The largest number of polling stations will be in the United Kingdom, with 82, followed by Turkiye with 78. Germany will»»»

A three-day training programme for young journalists, jointly organized by the Bulgarian News Agency (BTA) and the European Parliament Liaison Office in Bulgaria, has concluded. The training was held at BTA’s MaxiM Hall. The final day of the programme covered topics including the work and challenge»»»

LONDON: As children in the Gaza Strip return to school after nearly three years of disruption, they are also turning up at artist Maysa Yousef’s door with their plain, light-blue backpacks, distributed by aid agencies, and specific requests for decoration: a rocket ship, perhaps, or a princess, a h»»»

LONDON: Israeli forces detained one resident and briefly held another during an overnight raid on a village in southern Syria, according to Syrian state media. Twelve Israeli military vehicles entered Maariya, a village in the Yarmouk Basin of western Daraa province, through the northern entrance k»»»

BRUSSELS: Group of Seven countries agreed on Friday on the release 100 million barrels of diesel and crude oil from emergency reserves in a move cheered by US President Donald Trump as he seeks help to cool off surging fuel prices linked to the Iran war. The conflict sparked the biggest emergency s»»»

Bangkok: Thailand's flag carrier Thai Airways sacked its chief executive on Friday following flight delays and baggage backlogs linked to Bangkok flooding, local media reported. The country's tourism minister had slammed the airline's response to the floods, which were declared a city-wide disaster»»»

MUMBAI/DELHI: Hundreds of supporters of the Gen Z-led Cockroach Janta Party protested in India’s financial capital Mumbai on Friday, kicking off a new nationwide campaign against changes to voter rolls they say benefit Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s governing party. The demonstration marks the late»»»

A US drone company linked to President Donald Trump’s sons wants to bring Ukrainian military technology to America, Reuters has reported, as Kiev pursues billions in arms exports despite multiple corruption scandals in its procurement programs. Powerus is negotiating with Ukrainian defense firms an»»»

THE HAGUE: King Willem-Alexander of the Netherlands said Friday he was personally affected by the “explicit” conclusions of a study that said the royal family reaped huge profits from colonialism and slavery. The five volume Leiden University study, that Willem-Alexander commissioned in 2022, concl»»»

Washington is sending more warships and troops to the Middle East as US President Donald Trump is considering the resumption of large-scale strikes against Iran after the midterms, AP has reported. Trump told reporters on Thursday that he has “to make a decision: either Iran signs a very fair deal,»»»

SWEIDA: Young people in Syria’s Sweida province are unable to progress through school and university due to a deepening rift between the post-Assad Islamist government and the Israel-aligned Druze leaders of the last area outside central control. Their dilemma reflects deep trauma and lingering ins»»»

Paris: Watched by HE Sheikh Hamad bin Joaan Al-Thani, top-flight-flight sport launched the 2026 Qatar Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe weekend at Saint-Cloud on Friday, October 2, with a Group 1 PA double-header sponsored by the Qatar Racing and Equestrian Club (QREC). In attendance was a senior QREC dele»»»

Investigation into cockpit incident underway as GCAA highlights heroic efforts Abu Dhabi: The General Civil Aviation Authority (GCAA) commended the remarkable courage and speed of response of the Indian pilot, Captain Machchhar Smit, and the crew of flydubai flight FZ1073, along with the passengers»»»

New York, Oct. 02 (SANA) A delegation from the Central Bank of Syria, led by Governor Safwat Raslan, participated in a roundtable hosted by the U.S. Department of the Treasury in New York to discuss steps to rehabilitate Syria’s banking sector and enhance its integration into the global financial s»»»

RIYADH: Tawakkalna, Saudi Arabia’s national super app, has expanded its digital efforts to integrate services that impact the daily lives of more than 36 million citizens, residents and visitors in Saudi Arabia. The app was developed by the Saudi Data and Artificial Intelligence Authority to provid»»»

Russian President Vladimir Putin observed a stage of the Center-2026 strategic command-and-staff exercise at the Chebarkul training ground in Russia’s Chelyabinsk Region. At the site, Putin met Chelyabinsk Region Governor Alexey Teksler, spoke with military attachés from several countries, inspecte»»»