Political pressure is mounting on Iraqi Prime Minister Ali al-Zaidi as an end-of-September deadline for US forces to leave Iraq approaches, while disputes over weapons, corruption, and a deepening financial crisis pile fresh strain on his government. Informed sources said al-Zaidi’s recent meetings»»»

Manila: Landslides in the Philippines killed four people, authorities said Thursday, as heavy rains driven by a tropical depression raked the country's north and forced school closures. The archipelago nation's main island Luzon has been battered by heavy rains over the past four days. Government o»»»

New Delhi: The Bombay High Court on Thursday set aside the acquittal of former Tehelka editor Tarun Tejpal in the 2013 sexual assault case involving a junior colleague and convicted him of rape and other offences under the Indian Penal Code (IPC). A Division Bench of Justices Neela Gokhale and Amit»»»

TOKYO/SINGAPORE: Oil prices trended lower on Thursday on the progress in Iran-Oman talks, with investors cautiously waiting for signs of a US-Iran peace deal and progress on reopening the Strait of Hormuz. Brent crude futures fell 33 cents, or 0.42 percent, to $79.12 a barrel by 07:18 a.m. Saudi ti»»»

MANILA: Landslides in the Philippines killed four people, authorities said Thursday, as heavy rains driven by a tropical depression raked the country’s north and forced school closures. The archipelago nation’s main island Luzon has been battered by heavy rains over the past four days. Government o»»»

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and army chief Asim Munir will visit Saudi Arabia on August 6-8, the South Asian nation’s foreign office said on Thursday. “Although taking place against the backdrop of heightened tensions in the Gulf, the visit will carry significance beyond the»»»

Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey (C) signs the Protect Act into law on Wednesday at La Colaborativa, a Latina-led nonprofit economic development agency in Chelsea, Mass. Photo courtesy Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey/X Aug. 6 (UPI) -- Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey has signed landmark legislation t»»»

On Aug. 6, 1945, the United States dropped an atomic bomb on the Japanese city of Hiroshima. 1 of 6 | An unidentified newsman stands amid the rubble of Hiroshima in September 1945. On August 6, 1945, an atomic bomb was dropped on the city. UPI File Photo | License Photo Aug. 6 (UPI) -- On this date»»»

Breast pain, nursing strikes and weaning are among mothers’ most common breastfeeding concerns, La Leche League counsellor Elena Gvozdeykova told BTA on Thursday. Gvozdeykova is taking part in events organized by the Sliven Regional Health Inspectorate for World Breastfeeding Week, observed from Au»»»

Doha, Qatar: The Qatar national junior chess team delivered an impressive performance at the Arab Junior and Youth Chess Championship in Egypt, winning one gold, one silver and one bronze medal as the tournament concluded yesterday The championship, organised by the Egyptian Chess Federation under »»»

SEOUL: South Korean police raided the headquarters of Starbucks’ local operation as part of an investigation into a controversial marketing campaign that was perceived as defaming 1980s’ pro-democracy movements. Investigators searched the Starbucks headquarters in southern Seoul on Tuesday, police »»»

DUBAI: Fourteen runners will compete for the $40,000 (SR150,000) Alhada Cup at King Khalid Racecourse in Taif on Saturday, with Aez Alkhatir (Kingdom of Saudi Arabia) seeking to improve on his runner-up performance in the Sarawat Cup on Saudi Cup weekend. Not seen since that run on Feb. 13, the Hom»»»

JEDDAH: Al-Ittihad Football Club have announced the signing of Senegalese midfielder Dion Lopy from Almeria in the Spanish second division. The Senegalese international’s transfer was made official on Wednesday night. He signed a three-season contract with Al-Ittihad just 10 days before the start o»»»

DUBAI: Nearly two decades after bonding over hip-hop in a Jeddah neighborhood where almost no one else listened to it, Saudi rappers Alyoung and Randar have released “R2,” a four-track EP — pairing it with three music videos. The duo — Ahmed, who performs as Alyoung, and Bandar, who performs as Ran»»»

NEW YORK: Lebanese journalist Christina Assi, who lost a leg in an Israeli strike while reporting from the Lebanese border, will be honored at the International Press Freedom Awards, the Committee to Protect Journalists said on Wednesday. In October 2023, Reuters journalist Issam Abdallah was kille»»»

The interim Minister of Investments and European Projects, Dragos Pislaru, stated on Wednesday that the PSD is engaging in the "systematic sabotage" of projects under the National Recovery and Resilience Plan (PNRR), arguing that amendments made in Parliament to the bill on the decarbonization of t»»»

Romanian Foreign Minister Oana Toiu and her Serbian counterpart Marko Djuric discussed on Tuesday the possibility of restoring the cross-border rail link between Romania and Serbia, during a phone call focused on the exceptionally low water levels of the Danube.According to a statement from the Ser»»»

Doha, Qatar: Qatar General Electricity and Water Corporation (Kahramaa) has successfully concluded its “Your Bridge to the Future” programme, which provided university students with practical, hands-on experience in the electricity and water sectors. The initiative featured field visits to key Kahr»»»

On 29 July, a drone struck a floating American storage and regasification unit at Damietta Port on Egypt’s Mediterranean coast, setting it ablaze. The fire spread to a Greek-owned LNG tanker anchored nearby. The port is central to Cairo’s plan to turn Egypt into an energy hub for the Eastern Medite»»»

Dubai: RAK Ceramics’ board has proposed an interim dividend of 10 fils per share for the first half of 2026 after the company reported a 2.9% increase in second-quarter net profit. Sign up for our daily business newsletter, Cheques & Balances.The proposed distribution amounts to Dh99.3 million and »»»

Doha, Qatar: The Embassy of the Republic of Sudan in Doha held a press briefing yesterday regarding the current developments in Sudan, delivered by the Ambassador of the Republic of Sudan to the State of Qatar H E Badreddine Abdullah Mohammed Ahmed. At the beginning of the press conference, His Exc»»»

KINSHASA: The world’s fastest-growing Ebola outbreak is spreading faster than efforts to fight it, the head of the World Health Organization said on Wednesday during a visit to Congo where some health workers are striking over a lack of pay. Nearly three months into the outbreak, new cases are doub»»»

BERLIN: A verdict is due Thursday for an Afghan man accused of a car-ramming attack in Munich last year which killed a two-year-old girl and her mother and left dozens injured. The man, named only as Farhad N., has been on trial since January, accused of deliberately steering a car into a 1,400-str»»»

Doha, Qatar: The National Cyber Security Agency (NCSA) has introduced remote participation for registered students in the third edition of its ‘Cybersecurity Youth Camp 2026’, allowing more than 1,000 students from across the country to benefit from its educational content. Announcing the initiativ»»»

Abu Dhabi: International Holding Company reported a 195.6% increase in profit after tax to Dh26.2 billion during the first half of 2026, supported by growth across several operating sectors, investment income and active portfolio management. Sign up for our daily business newsletter, Cheques & Bala»»»

The Strait of Hormuz remains at the heart of the current Middle East crisis, with diplomatic efforts to reopen the vital waterway unfolding alongside continued military and maritime tensions. The UAE is situated near the Hormuz Strait, a narrow waterway that sits at the gateway to the Gulf, and any»»»

Washington, United States: Human-caused climate change made the extreme fire conditions behind this year's Canadian wildfires twice as likely to happen, a study said Thursday. Although the season began with below-normal activity, prolonged hot and dry weather since July has driven the rapid spread »»»

The Schengen Agreement has made travel within the European Union a lot easier since it came into force. It allows its 29 member states to relax their border controls. Or at least it does, so long as those states are feeling relaxed. Oddly enough, the arrangement is now in trouble because of an even»»»

Dubai: At a time when airfares remain elevated because of higher operating costs, airspace restrictions, longer flight times and volatile fuel prices, there is still some hope for UAE travellers with wanderlust. Sign up for our daily business newsletter, Cheques & Balances.While many popular routes»»»

Several heat records were broken on Wednesday, the weather service HugaroMet said on its website. The record for the highest minimum temperature ever recorded was broken on Janos Hill in Budapest, where the air cooled to just 28 degrees Celsius by morning. This figure also marks a new record for th»»»

Dubai: Few Indian bureaucrats have seen as many transfers as IAS officer Tukaram Mundhe. Yet, despite being moved around repeatedly, the Maharashtra-cadre officer has built a reputation as one of the country's most uncompromising administrators. The 2005-batch IAS officer has reportedly been transf»»»

Dubai: Aramex reported its highest quarterly revenue on record in the second quarter of 2026, driven by increased freight-forwarding demand and alternative transport routes that kept customer shipments moving amid regional disruptions. Sign up for our daily business newsletter, Cheques & Balances.G»»»

Iran said an agreement with Oman over the Strait of Hormuz is in its final stages, while President Donald Trump suggested a deal could be announced within days, raising hopes of easing a blockade that has disrupted global shipping and fueled months of conflict. Iran said Wednesday it is in the “fin»»»

BANGKOK: Myanmar’s ex-junta chief Min Aung Hlaing arrived in Bangkok Thursday for his first visit to Thailand as civilian leader, as he seeks a return to the diplomatic fold for his pariah state. As a general, he led a 2021 military coup that ousted democratic leader Aung San Suu Kyi, triggering a »»»

Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian said on Wednesday that communication with Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei was "very difficult" following the leader's reported wounding during the US-Israeli strike that killed his father. Pezeshkian, however, defended Khamenei against rising speculation over his»»»

DUBAI: Oman is facing an impending environmental catastrophe as an alleged Russian shadow fleet tanker leaks oil across hundreds of square kilometers near a nature reserve, NGOs warn. The ship was rocked by explosions, a maritime security firm told AFP, but the cause of the blasts is unclear. Russi»»»

Dubai: You can search the web, navigate with Google Maps, watch YouTube, use Gmail and access Android without paying Google directly. Yet Alphabet, Google’s parent company, generated almost $55 million in revenue every hour during its latest quarter. Alphabet reported revenue of $119.8 billion for »»»

The Trump administration said Wednesday it will shut down a Kentucky organ donation group accused of continuing plans for organ retrieval from some patients who unexpectedly showed signs of life. While those surgeries were canceled, the cases made headlines several years ago, prompting a spike in p»»»

1 of 2 | The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention headquarters are shown in Atlanta, Ga. The largest U.S. outbreak of cyclosporiasis has been linked to six more states, the CDC said Wednesday. File photo by Erik S. Lesser/EPA-EFE Aug. 5 (UPI) -- An outbreak of cyclosporiasis cases tied t»»»

Oil prices were little changed early Thursday as markets weighed growing hopes for a U.S.-Iran diplomatic breakthrough against continued uncertainty over the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz, the world's most important oil shipping chokepoint. At about 9:54 am Thursday, Aug. 6, Tokyo time, the mar»»»

The UAE economy grew by 3% in the first quarter of 2026, taking real gross domestic product to Dh485 billion from Dh470.9 billion a year earlier. Yet the stronger measure of progress lies in the economy’s changing composition. Non-oil GDP expanded by 4.8%, outpacing overall growth and increasing it»»»

Firefighters making big strides against a cluster of blazes near Spokane, Washington, scrambled on Wednesday to secure their gains as they anticipated ​a return of extremely hot, dry weather in the days ahead. Officials said crews had carved buffer lines around a trio of fires threatening the state»»»

PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad: Pakistan ended its eight-match losing streak away from home in cricket tests with a resounding eight-wicket victory over the West Indies on Wednesday to level the series. First innings century-maker Abdullah Shafique and Babar Azam, in his first series since being reappoint»»»

President Donald Trump’s administration has detained dozens of parents and spouses of active-duty US troops as it rolls back immigration protections for military families to pursue its mass deportation agenda, an Associated Press investigation found. More than 50 parents and spouses of active-duty »»»

Iran and Oman are reportedly closing in on a framework to restore shipping through the Strait of Hormuz, but the emerging arrangement could leave Tehran with a degree of control over the world’s most important oil chokepoint — precisely the outcome Washington has sought to prevent. The diplomatic p»»»

Cargo vessels are seen July 21 at one end of the Strait of Hormuz near the coast of Dibba Al Fujairah, United Arab Emirates. Photo by stringer/EPA Aug. 5 (UPI) -- Iran and Oman are in the final stages of a joint agreement to manage commercial shipping in the Strait of Hormuz, agreeing on a route fo»»»

MOSCOW: The director of a factory supplying drones to the Russian military was badly wounded and his driver was killed when the car they were in exploded, news reports said Wednesday. The state Tass and RIA Novosti agencies said that Vladimir Tkachuk was hospitalised in grave condition following th»»»

Abu Dhabi: The Nafis programme has announced a new set of updates, effective from September, under which private-sector employers will assume their full share of pension fund contributions for Emirati employees enrolled in the Ishtirak programme, subject to the programme’s eligibility conditions. I»»»

A rare video filmed on July 21 in Sabha, Libya shows a woman accused of adultery being sentenced to 100 lashes. Shared on social media, it has sparked outrage for various reasons: Some are appalled by the fact that the punishment was carried out in a public space, whilst others are shocke»»»

Dr. Erica Schwartz speaks during a Senate committee hearing July 15 on her nomination at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C. Schwartz was confirmed Wednesday as the director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Photo by Bonnie Cash/UPI | License Photo Aug. 5 (UPI) -- The U.S. Se»»»