UNITED ​NATIONS: An informal poll by the United Nations Security Council on Friday placed former Costa Rican Vice President Rebeca Grynspan as the narrow frontrunner in the race to become the 10th UN secretary-general, two people close to the process said. But there was no clear winner as all candi»»»

Brussels: The State of Qatar, under leadership of HH the Amir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani, has attached great importance to its strategic relationship with the EU and continued to pursue diplomatic initiatives to support peace and stability, HE Shura Council Speaker Hassan bin Abdullah Al Ghani»»»

As transatlantic relations confront renewed geopolitical uncertainty, former Estonian President Toomas Hendrik Ilves delivers a pointed assessment of Washington's shifting approach to Russia's war on Ukraine and the profound implications for European security. At the heart of his analysis lies a fu»»»

BEIRUT: Lebanese authorities were investigating how a former Syrian militia commander suspected of committing crimes during the government of ousted President Bashar Assad was abducted in Lebanon and taken to Syria, judicial and security officials said Friday. Syria’s intelligence department said T»»»

Damascus, Oct. 16 (SANA) Syria and the International Monetary Fund discussed expanding technical assistance to improve tax administration, public spending and budget planning, the Finance Ministry said on Friday. Finance Minister Mohammed Yisr Barnieh met with senior officials from the IMF’s Public»»»

Hungarian Prime Minister Péter Magyar has called for stricter border controls and the swift return of irregular migrants, backing a tough proposal during heated talks between EU leaders in Brussels. Prime Minister Péter Magyar has backed tougher European measures against irregular migration, arguin»»»

Hezbollah’s Media Relations Department issued a statement to clarify the incident in Gallery Semaan area near Beirut’s Dahieh, stressing that the security forces’ patrol and raid of a warehouse took place without following the agreed-upon procedure between Hezbollah and the security authorities. Wh»»»

WASHINGTON: White House Press Secretary Katie Zacharia was pushed out Friday after less than a week in the high-profile job, following a series of blunders that added to distractions for her embattled boss President Donald Trump. “Can confirm,” a White House official told AFP, after Fox News report»»»

WASHINGTON: A White House official said Friday that Press Secretary Katie Zacharia was leaving her role after just a few days on the job, following a lackluster press briefing performance and scrutiny over her resume. President Donald Trump has fired Katie Zacharia as press secretary, advisers to t»»»

Famous for its cowboy culture, Wyoming is the least populated, the most rural and the most conservative of all the US states. With two weeks to go until the midterm elections, our reporters James André and Sylvain Rousseau travelled across this Republican stronghold and found that the par»»»

LONDON: Lebanese security forces seized medicines deemed unfit for use and sealed a warehouse in Beirut’s Galerie Semaan area Friday, after a group of men tried to block the raid, authorities said. The Internal Security Forces said young men on motorcycles gathered to prevent officers from the Cent»»»

The Justice Ministry published proposed Judicial System Act amendments for public consultation, introducing new rules on magistrates' secondment and competitive selection, the Ministry said on Friday. The changes aim to strengthen competitive selection, curb indefinite secondments and provide more »»»

Elisa Spiropali has called on Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama to convene the Socialist Party’s leadership structures and initiate internal reforms, arguing that the party must embrace change and greater democratic accountability. In a lengthy letter addressed to Rama, Spiropali called for genuine »»»

LONDON: A Norwegian teenager convicted of traveling to Britain to carry out a contract killing on behalf of an international crime gang linked to Iran was sentenced Friday to 20 years in prison. Johannes Kongsnes Natland, 19, was found guilty in July of conspiracy to murder for agreeing to shoot an»»»

PAPHOS, Cyprus: A British man who pleaded guilty in the fatal fall of his 3-year-old son from a hotel window is free to return home after a Cyprus court fined him 3,000 euros ($3,380). Joshua Patric Foster, 38, wept Friday in Paphos District Court as Judge Froso Christodoulidou ruled a prison term »»»

LONDON: Downing Street Friday distanced itself from comments by the wife of the British prime minister’s national security adviser who voiced support for banned activist group Palestine Action. Sarah Helm, a journalist and author and wife of Jonathan Powell, Andy Burnham’s national security adviser»»»

VATICAN CITY: Pope Leo XIV spoke with Russian President Vladimir Putin by phone on Friday, calling for a ceasefire in a Russian-occupied city in southern Ukraine, as he recovers in hospital from a lung cancer operation. The Vatican said that Pope Leo “expressed his deep concern about the grave huma»»»

Indian authorities on Friday detained Abhijeet Dipke, the founder of the satirical youth movement "Cockroach Janta Party", ahead of a new protest in New Delhi, live images from the group showed. Police earlier closed a central New Delhi park in an attempt to stifle near-daily demonstrations ca»»»

BELGRADE - Serbian Parliament Speaker and Acting President of the Republic Ana Brnabic said on Friday the Security Information Agency (BIA) was one of the pillars supporting the state, the Republic of Serbia. At a ceremony that marked the BIA Day, Brnabic thanked the BIA personnel for the years of »»»

JOHANNESBURG: South African President Cyril Ramaphosa has lifted the suspension of the country’s national police chief, Fannie Masemola, his office announced on Friday. Masemola is expected to resume his duties on Monday after he was suspended in April when he was charged with breaking finance laws»»»

A historic monastery complex in southern Slovakia, purchased with Hungarian public money under the former Orbán government, remains unusable despite HUF hundreds of millions of being spent on its renovation. The Orbán administration paid approximately EUR 219,000 for the properties in Šahy (Ipolysá»»»

Critically acclaimed Irish novelist Sally Rooney's announcement that her books could no longer be sold in the UK due to her support for proscribed group Palestine Action has left British booksellers rushing to stock up on her works before distributors run out. The British government's ban on the gr»»»

Bulgaria marked Aviation and Air Force Day on Friday with the laying of wreaths and flowers at the Monument to the Aviator in Sofia. In 2026, Bulgarian military aviation marks the 114th anniversary of its first combat flight. President Iliana Iotova inspected the guard of honour and laid a wreath i»»»

Nomad Capitalist awards the UAE 96 out of 100 for taxation, the top score in the rankings Dubai: The UAE has been ranked the third-best place to live in the world in the 2026 Nomad Capitalist Lifestyle Index, placing just behind Monaco and Andorra while taking the top spot globally for its tax envi»»»

MANILA: Philippine authorities are preparing to bring home seven Filipino nationals injured in last weekend’s deadly Houthi strike in Riyadh, the Department of Migrant Workers has said. Filipinos are among more than 300 people injured when a Houthi missile struck King Khalid International Airport l»»»

Reliance says it welcomes competition, after Musk blamed ‘oligarchs’ for Starlink’s delay Dubai: It all started in early October, when Elon Musk decided to vent out his frustration on his social media platform X. But what really was bothering the world’s richest man, that he had to publicly call it»»»

Possible solutions to the constitutional issue of the absolute ban on voting by prisoners and Bulgarian citizens under legal incapacitation, and the experience of other countries, were the main topics raised by Minister of Justice Nikolay Naydenov at a meeting with rapporteurs from the Venice Commi»»»

Police restrictions and park closure follow protests over India’s voter-roll revision Cockroach Janta Party founder Abhijeet Dipke was detained from his Delhi residence on Friday, minutes before he was due to leave for a flag-waving protest rally, as authorities tightened restrictions and closed a »»»

The European Commission’s likely anti-asylum proposal to tackle sudden large arrivals may come before the end of the year, after warm endorsements by some 16 EU states during a breakfast on Friday (16 October) ahead of the second-day of the EU summit in Brussels. Beyond the warm words, the discussi»»»

On the night of October 16, 1946, 10 individuals were hanged in the Nuremberg prison. These were the main Nazi criminals who had been captured and brought to trial. Despite the horrifying scale and brutality of the crimes, the Nuremberg Trials remain one of the most controversial proceedings in wor»»»

Bangkok, Oct. 16 (SANA) Syrian Finance Minister Mohammed Yisr Barnieh met with Jihad Azour, director of the International Monetary Fund’s Middle East and Central Asia Department, to discuss Syria’s financial reform agenda and preparations for the IMF’s Article IV consultations. The meeting took pla»»»

By Staff, Agencies The Handala hacking group has claimed responsibility for breaching the communications of Tzipi Livni, a former “Israeli” foreign minister and deputy prime minister, alleging that leaked documents expose undisclosed cooperation between her and the entity's Prime Minister Benjamin »»»

Peshawar, Pakistan: The families of children killed in a roof collapse at a school in northwest Pakistan called for "justice" on Friday, the day after more than 30 pupils and a teacher were crushed to death. A woman teacher and 32 students, mostly younger than 14, died in the building collapse in t»»»

LONDON: A federal judge restricted how the Justice Department could access records seized from Rep. Ilhan Omar’s Washington home before approving a search warrant, citing constitutional protections for members of Congress, CNN reported this week. US Magistrate Judge Matthew Sharbaugh required prose»»»

Hungary has joined Italy, Poland and Czechia in demanding a delay to the EU’s planned carbon pricing scheme for heating and transport, triggering a three-hour argument at a Brussels summit. Most member states rejected the proposal, raising questions about the future of one of the bloc’s key climate»»»

A 21-year-old man has been charged with murdering a peer whose body was found with his hands tied behind his back in the Harmanliyska River on October 15, the District Prosecutor's Office in Haskovo announced. The suspect has been detained for up to 72 hours, and the prosecution plans to ask the co»»»

Russia could make a major return to the Olympics in 2028 under its national flag for the first time in years, US President Donald Trump’s special envoy, Paolo Zampolli, has said. Russian athletes were barred from numerous international competitions following the escalation of the Ukraine conflict i»»»

Romania faces a difficult path to economic recovery as weak household consumption, elevated energy costs, and fiscal consolidation weigh on growth, according to the World Bank’s October 2026 Macro Poverty Outlook. The institution expects economic activity to recover gradually from 2027, but warns t»»»

Bulgaria's government is moving away from trusting what companies report and towards watching what they do. In the space of two weeks, Prime Minister Rumen Radev has announced plans for a central registry of food prices and published draft rules that would require gambling operators to feed betting»»»

By Staff, Agencies A judge on Brazil’s top electoral court ordered Meta on Thursday to ensure equal treatment of presidential candidates Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva and Flávio Bolsonaro across its platforms ahead of the October 25 runoff, imposing a daily fine of 500,000 reais ($98,000) for noncompli»»»

By Latifa Husseiny From the moment news erupted that a truck was intercepted on Dahr Al-Baydar truck, Hezbollah opponents at home began exploiting the incident for political purposes. Fabricating hypothetical scenarios about the truck’s intended purpose and focusing on claims that it was to be used»»»

Major parties reject Arab-led coalition partners despite the prospect of election gridlock Baqa Al Gharbiyye: Mansour Abbas has done nearly everything Israel asks of its Palestinian citizens. The leader of a small Arab political party condemned Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attack. He rarely speaks about th»»»

Lebanese authorities have released a famous TikTok content creator arrested for drug trafficking and smuggling, dropping the charges against him under a new amnesty law. Georges Dib, better known as "Doctor Food" to his more than eight million followers, was arrested in August after being sentenced»»»

Foldable iPhone Duo promises new features and hefty costs Dubai: Apple's first foldable smartphone, the iPhone Duo, opens for pre-orders in the UAE at 4pm today, Friday, October 16. Prices start at Dh8,499 for 256GB, making it the most expensive iPhone Apple has sold. Closed, the Duo has a 5.4-inch»»»

François Picard is pleased to welcome Layla Abdelké Yakoub, Tax Justice and Inequality Advocacy Officer at Oxfam France. "Today in France a billionaire pays less taxes proportionally than a nurse or a firefighter," explains Yakoub. She challenges the foundations of France's fiscal system, arguing t»»»

Mansour Abbas has done nearly everything Israel asks of its Palestinian citizens. The leader of a small Arab political party condemned Hamas' Oct. 7, 2023, attack. He rarely speaks about the war in Gaza or Israel's occupation of the West Bank, instead focusing on local issues like crime. He broke a»»»

PESHAWAR: The families of children killed in a roof collapse at a school in northwest Pakistan called for “justice” on Friday, the day after more than 30 pupils and a teacher were crushed to death. A woman teacher and 32 students, mostly younger than 14, died in the building collapse in the city of»»»

University climbs one place in QS Arab Region University Rankings 2027 Khalifa University has climbed to second place in the QS Arab Region University Rankings 2027, moving up from third place last year while maintaining its position as the UAE’s highest-ranked university for the ninth consecutive »»»

“We have collected signatures requesting another extraordinary parliamentary sitting to discuss the pardon of Ognyan Atanasov, known as the Escobar from Petrich," Continue the Change floor leader Nikolay Denkov told journalists in Parliament. Responding to comments that the push was election-relate»»»

By Staff, Agencies European Union leaders have called for urgent measures to contain rising energy prices, ease regulatory pressures and strengthen the bloc’s economic competitiveness, according to conclusions from a European Council summit released early Friday. The council stressed that the curre»»»