Scottish National Party politician Martyn Day and his Kerala-born wife Nidhin Chand have celebrated their marriage with a traditional ceremony at Guruvayur, a decade after the couple first married in the UK. The ceremony fulfilled a long-held wish of Nidhin, who hails from Piravom in Kerala’s Ernak»»»

ALKHOBAR: Saudi Arabia issued two royal orders transforming the national Ehsan charitable platform into an independent nonprofit foundation and appointing its board of trustees, the Saudi Press Agency reported on Thursday. Under the first order, the platform will become the Ehsan Charitable Foundat»»»

Riyadh: Known to thousands simply as Falafel in Hotpot, Xuling, a Chinese/Arabic content creator, has built a unique platform connecting two of the world’s oldest civilizations — those of China and Saudi Arabia. Through language, culture, and everyday experiences, she shares a fresh perspective on »»»

Russian attack drones struck two dry-cargo vessels laden with ammunition and military gear in the port of Chernomorsk, along with a fuel and lubricants storage tank destined for the Ukrainian military, the Russian Ministry of Defense reported. "Over the course of the day, strike unmanned aerial veh»»»

A frigate from Russia’s Northern Fleet is escorting the LNG carrier Portovyy en route from the Baltic Sea towards Murmansk. The tanker is likely to proceed to the Northern Sea Route. The two vessels were spotted together in the Baltic Sea earlier this week. The frigate Admiral Kasatonov was on its »»»

The Centre for Assisted Reproduction, the Bulgarian Drug Agency and Executive Agency Medical Supervision will remain stand-alone entities, Health Minister Katya Ivkova told reporters on Thursday. A functional analysis that was circulated in the media and included proposals for structural changes wa»»»

LONDON: Israel said on Thursday reconstruction in Gaza cannot begin until Hamas is fully disarmed, as Turkiye, Egypt and Qatar condemned renewed Israeli strikes in the enclave and warned that further escalation could undermine efforts to implement a US-backed peace plan. Israeli Prime Minister Benj»»»

Tunis, Aug. 20 (TAP)- The stock market held steady after earlier gains on Wednesday. The benchmark index gained +0.15 % to 19,594.67 points with a volume of TND 9 million, broker Tunisie Valeurs said. No bloc transactions were carried out....»»»

RIYADH: Joint efforts by the Global Center for Combating Extremist Ideology, also known as Etidal, and Telegram have resulted in the removal of 34,290,268 items of extremist content and the shutdown of 1,275 channels used to publish and promote such material during the first half of 2026, as part o»»»

Ankara, Aug. 20 (SANA) Türkiye’s Ministry of Defense denied on Thursday the presence of any Turkish military delegation at Abu al‑Duhur Airbase in northern Syria, whether before or during the Israeli airstrikes on the facility, stressing that Israel must halt its attacks and comply with internation»»»

Dubai: His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, has covered the treatment of a Jordanian girl suffering from spinal muscular atrophy, giving her renewed hope of recovery, her family said. The family of Katia ِAbu Al Saud an»»»

BEIRUT: Lebanon and Saudi Arabia officially relaunched their overland trade route on Thursday, as Lebanese customs authorities began operating an advanced scanner at the Masnaa Border Crossing with the Syrian Arab Republic. Saudi Ambassador to Lebanon Fahad bin Abdulrahman Al-Dosari took part in th»»»

Zandvoort, Netherlands: Four-time Formula One world champion Max Verstappen has signed a new contract with Red Bull until the end of 2030, the team announced Thursday, ending speculation over his future in the sport. "I have always said it: The team is like a second family for me and I feel very at»»»

MOSCOW (Sputnik) - The European Union is aiding terrorism by transferring income from frozen Russian assets to Ukraine, Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova said on Thursday. "Transferring funds to Ukraine is nothing less than aiding and abetting terrorist attacks. This is a direct»»»

Beninese music icon Angélique Kidjo celebrates her global legacy with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, the first dedicated to a Black African. Also, in Nigeria, the town of Ogijo has more lead-recycling factories than anywhere else in Africa, supplying the American auto industry at a heavy cos»»»

DHAKA: Bangladeshi lawmakers elected veteran Bangladesh Nationalist Party leader Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir as the country’s new president on Thursday, making the longtime opposition figure the head of state after his party came to power in a major political transition. The BNP returned to power i»»»

A train approaches a Tokyo station in 2014. On Thursday, four workers pulling weeds were killed by a train in Japan. File photo by Franck Robichon/EPA Aug. 20 (UPI) -- Four men working on railroad tracks were killed when they were hit by a train at a station in Tochigi Prefecture, Japan, Thursday. »»»

US President Donald Trump has vowed to target any country helping Iran’s economy, shifting from his previous focus on military threats. Trump made the remarks after a 60-day window to negotiate a peace deal with Tehran expired on Monday without breakthroughs. “I am announcing the MOST CRUSHING ECON»»»

Lebanese President Joseph Aoun met with Pope Leo XIV at the Vatican on Thursday, thanking him for his continued efforts to support Lebanon and urging the Holy See to maintain diplomatic pressure on the Israeli occupation forces to end their attacks and withdraw from occupied Lebanese territory. Pre»»»

The Financial Times reported this week, citing two people described as close to the Iranian leadership and specifically to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, that Tehran has been assessing options for striking American military sites outside the Middle East should Donald Trump order a fresh esc»»»

Russian ballistic missiles killed 12 people and injured more than 30 in Kyiv early on Thursday, authorities said, damaging ‌buildings and severing power supply to some parts of the Ukrainian capital. FRANCE 24’s Camille Corcoran brings us more with this report.»»»

Berlin has recorded roughly 14,000 heat-related deaths this summer, official data showed Thursday. Europe has experienced a spike in heat-related mortality as the worst-hit countries grapple with historically high temperatures exacerbated by human-driven climate change. Germany registered around 14»»»

A team of scientists from the Centre for Plant Systems Biology and Biotechnology (CPSBB) and the Metabolomics Laboratory at the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences (BAS) has secured utility model protection for a newly developed combination of natural bioactive compounds - maackiain, betulinic acid, and »»»

The first of 17 next-generation computed tomography (CT) scanners to be provided to regional hospitals across Bulgaria under a Health Ministry project is being installed at Haskovo Multiprofile Hospital for Active Treatment. The equipment is intended for the diagnosis of cerebrovascular diseases an»»»

JEDDAH: Saudi Arabia’s Tadawul All Share Index edged higher on Thursday, gaining 28.77 points, or 0.26 percent, to close at 10,954.46. Total trading turnover on the benchmark index reached over SR5.07 billion ($1.35 billion), with 170 stocks advancing and 90 declining, as nearly 260.86 million shar»»»

Dubai: The National Media Authority has taken legal action against a female resident over social media content it said insulted Emirati women and suspended her advertiser permit for three months. The authority said the woman had published the content through her account on a social media platform i»»»

Doha, Qatar: Nesto, one of the GCC’s prominent retail groups, has entered the Qatari market with the opening of its first hypermarket in Al Gharrafa, Doha. The new outlet marks the group’s 152nd store worldwide and the beginning of an expansion programme that will see eight more outlets opened acro»»»

DOHA: Qatar Airways announced that it has equipped 150 of its wide-body aircraft with Starlink service, including a Boeing 787-9. The airline stated in a press release that it completed the Starlink conversion of its Boeing 787-8 fleet within seven months, making it the operator of the world's firs»»»

President Donald Trump’s social media rhetoric threatening a “crushing economic operation” against Iran preceded a 3% bump in oil prices on Thursday. File Photo by John Angelillo/UPI | License Photo Aug. 20 (UPI) -- Oil prices were up 3% Thursday after President Donald Trump's threat to impose a "c»»»

Abu Dhabi has recorded its first-ever Olive Ridley turtle nest, a rare discovery that scientists say offers new insight into the emirate’s marine environment and highlights the importance of continued conservation work. The nest was found on Saadiyat Island during a routine patrol by the Environmen»»»

The Management Board of State Fund for Agriculture has decided to provide extraordinary aid for 2026 in the amount of EUR 42.6 million for farmers in animal breeding and crop farming, the Ministry of Agriculture and Food announced on Thursday. The funds are intended to cover part of the production »»»

Judges from seven courts in Smolyan Region will vote at the Smolyan District Court in the election of members of the Supreme Judicial Council (SJC) from the professional quota. This is stated in the voter list and the invitation to the general assembly of judges, provided by the Smolyan District Co»»»

Israelis began moving into the occupied West Bank settlement of Kadim on Thursday, the local settler council said, the last of four communities from which Israel withdrew more than two decades ago to be repopulated. It came a week after Israel officially reopened neighboring Ganim, in a move emblem»»»

Israel's foreign minister on Thursday slammed a demand by the UK government to halt a major settlement project in the occupied West Bank, after Israeli authorities opened bidding for more than 1,200 homes in the area. Britain said it had summoned Israel's charge d'affairs over the E1 plan, which wa»»»

NEW DELHI: India has signed a memorandum of understanding with Palestinian authorities to build a specialty hospital in the West Bank, following an international appeal for urgent healthcare assistance made by the Palestinian Embassy in New Delhi. On Wednesday, Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammad M»»»

Central bankers do not usually forecast the weather. The European Central Bank's chief economist has just put one into his. The Climate Crisis has gone beyond a fringe obsession of hippie tree-hugers and entered the studies of central bankers, who have been forced to sit up and take notice of the u»»»

Doha, Qatar: Qatar Airways, the operator of the world’s first and largest Starlink-equipped widebody fleet, has become the first airline to operate Starlink-equipped Boeing 787-9 aircraft, globally. The carrier has also completed Starlink rollout across its Boeing 787-8 sub-fleet in seven months, b»»»

Dubai: Turkish authorities have detained 90 suspects in raids targeting a large fraud network accused of swindling 801 people out of about 116 million lira ($3 million) through a telephone scam involving fake or low-value internet modems, according to Turkish media reports. The operation, centred i»»»

London: Six years after Prince Harry and Meghan Markle dramatically walked away from royal life and moved across the Atlantic, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex are preparing to return to Britain with their children. The reported move marks an extraordinary turn in a saga that has included an explosiv»»»

Moscow continues to send GRU officers to Norway under diplomatic cover. The Barents Observer looks at their identities. Colonel Sergei Belousov has held the position of military attaché at the Russian embassy in Oslo since around the middle of 2025. According to leaked data, Belousov is registered »»»

Turkey on Thursday denied having any military presence at an air base in north Syria struck by Israel earlier this week, and vowed to continue "resolutely" supporting Syrian sovereignty. The denial came two days after Syria accused Israel of hitting a disused military air base near the northwestern»»»

U.S. President Donald Trump “has said that he would be willing to talk to Hezbollah if it would lead to an end of conflict, or peace,” Ed Gabriel, the head of the American Task Force on Lebanon, said. “We talked to the Americans this week, here at the embassy, and they’ve also said that President T»»»

DOHA: The State of Qatar, the Republic of Türkiye, and the Arab Republic of Egypt, in their capacity as mediating countries, strongly condemned the recent Israeli attacks in the Gaza Strip, which have resulted in the loss of civilian lives, including women and children, and express their deep conce»»»

Islamabad, Aug. 20 (SANA) Syrian Minister of Foreign Affairs and Expatriates Asaad Hassan al-Shaibani met Pakistani Prime Minister Muhammad Shehbaz Sharif in Islamabad Thursday as part of his historic visit to Pakistan. The two sides discussed bilateral relations and ways to strengthen cooperation »»»

A court Shenzhen sentenced Hui Ka Yan, founder and former chairman of the failed Chinese property giant China Evergrande, to life in prison on Thursday, four months after he pled guilty to embezzlement, securities fraud, corporate graft and other charges. File photo by Wu Hong/EPA Aug. 20 (UPI) -- »»»

Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent gives a press briefing in May. The national debt is rising significantly. File Photo by Bonnie Cash/UPI | License Photo Aug. 20 (UPI) -- The national debt hit $40 trillion Tuesday, a record high, signaling that the government is borrowing at a record pace. Th»»»

János Lázár, a former minister in Hungary’s previous government and arguably Fidesz’s most prominent political figure after Viktor Orbán, has resigned from his parliamentary mandate, effective 20 August. Former transport minister leaves Parliament Lázár announced the decision in a lengthy Facebook »»»

The Abu Dhabi International Hunting and Equestrian Exhibition (ADIHEX) is set to return for its largest edition yet, bringing together 2,405 companies and brands from 71 countries. The 23rd edition of ADIHEX will run from August 28 to September 6 at ADNEC Centre Abu Dhabi, under the theme “A Legacy»»»

Dubai Municipality has restructured 20 services as part of efforts to simplify procedures, improve government efficiency and provide customers with a faster and more seamless experience. The overhaul includes changes to the operating models of 13 services, with some integrated into other services, »»»

Serbian filmmaker Emir Kusturica has accused YouTube of waging a “war” against people who think independently and “tell the truth,” after the Google-owned platform deleted his channel without any warning. YouTube removed Kusturica’s ‘My Life’ channel on Wednesday, without publicly elaborating on th»»»