By Staff, Agencies New South Wales, Australia, has moved closer to legalizing human composting as an alternative to burial and cremation after the state parliament approved legislation allowing human remains to be transformed into compost. The bill, introduced by independent Sydney MP Alex Greenwic»»»

By Staff, Agencies Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian has said negotiations with the US cannot proceed meaningfully while Washington continues to threaten Iran and maintain sanctions and economic pressure against the Islamic Republic. “Threats and sanctions must be removed in practice to create th»»»

Washington has been involved in nearly two dozen regime change operations across the Middle East, each ending in disaster, US Ambassador to Türkiye Tom Barrack has said. Barrack criticized American efforts to manipulate the region and impose change through military force during an interview at the »»»

CAIRO: Any military support Egypt provides to Saudi Arabia would be limited to defending the Kingdom and not involve attacks on Yemen, President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi said on Wednesday. Cairo would be prepared to help defend the territory of other Arab countries if asked to do so, he added, but reit»»»

SEOUL: North Korean leader Kim Jong Un’s sister said Wednesday her government will resume anti-Seoul propaganda broadcasts across the heavily armed border with South Korea this month, reviving a psychological warfare campaign as tensions rise after land mine blasts injured three South Korean frontl»»»

At the opening of the DOMINO 2 programme’s annual conference, Deputy Education and Science Minister Tanya Pancheva said that dual education is one of the government’s top priorities, supported through various initiatives, the main one being the DOMINO 2 programme for the development and enhancement»»»

BUDAPEST: For Hungarian Prime Minister Péter Magyar, defeating Viktor Orbán in a landslide election was only the beginning. Less than six months into his term, his new government is pursuing former officials he accuses of corruption and abuses of power. In his first interview with a global news org»»»

Civil Defence urges residents to avoid valleys and flood-prone areas as rain continues Dubai: Saudi Arabia's Civil Defence has urged residents to exercise caution as thunderstorms and heavy rainfall are forecast across most parts of the Kingdom until Monday, October 26, raising the risk of flash fl»»»

Paris: French club Paris Saint-Germain announced today that Georgian player Khvicha Kvaratskhelia suffered a torn anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) in his right knee during their UEFA Champions League match against Spain's Barcelona, which ended in a 4-2 victory for the Parisian side. In a statement»»»

Washington, United States: OpenAI has revealed that two of its artificial intelligence agents disabled or weakened systems built to catch them misbehaving, with one later denying it had done so. The cases are the latest in a string of safety scares at the world's top AI developers involving agents,»»»

Saint Petersburg: Russia is open to resuming trilateral talks with Washington and Kyiv towards ending the Ukraine war, the Kremlin said after Vladimir Putin met US special envoy Steve Witkoff Wednesday, but decried little "substance" in new Ukrainian and European approaches. Moscow also said a summ»»»

TEHRAN: Iran’s Supreme Leader ​Mojtaba Khamenei has met parliament speaker Mohammed Baqer Qalibaf ‌and reviewed ‌developments ​in ‌the ⁠US-Israeli ​war, the state broadcaster ⁠IRIB reported on Wednesday. Khamenei, who ⁠senior sources ‌have said ‌suffered ​facial disfigurement ‌and ‌other injuries i»»»

JEDDAH: The perceived risk to shipping through the Bab Al-Mandab Strait exceeds the actual threat, while container volumes entering the port have returned to levels close to those recorded late last year, a senior Red Sea Gateway Terminal executive said on Wednesday. Karim Omran, vice president, gr»»»

JERUSALEM: Israel said on Wednesday it “strongly” condemned the Libyan eastern parliament’s approval of a maritime-boundaries deal with Turkiye that drew swift criticism from Israeli ally Greece. The deal approved on Tuesday is part of a years-old dispute over competing claims to sea borders and en»»»

ATHENS: Thousands of students and teachers took to the streets across Greece on Wednesday, demanding higher state funding for education, better facilities and less-crowded classrooms, echoing protesters in other European countries. About 10,000 demonstrators, including school and university student»»»

Houthi attacks, Macron’s visit, Turkish troop plans and growing Western military support Dubai: Saudi Arabia's confrontation with Yemen's Iran-backed Houthis saw major developments on Wednesday, with Riyadh's international airport partially reopening, fresh drones intercepted over the Kingdom and F»»»

Russia is in a strong position in negotiations with the US over Ukraine, thanks to its military successes and robust defense industry, Alexander Mikhailov, head of the Bureau of Military-Political Analysis, tells Sputnik. "Russia is demonstrating that it has both the weapons and sufficient stockpil»»»

Poland does not have enough Patriot air defense missiles to hand over to Ukraine, Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski has said, urging other NATO members to supply Kiev with the scarce interceptors. In an interview with the Polish Press Agency published on Monday, Sikorski warned of growing pressure»»»

BRUSSELS: The European Public Prosecutor’s Office has raided the European Parliament offices of the Patriots for Europe far-right political grouping, which includes France’s National Rally (RN) party, the political group said on Wednesday. 🚨 Patriots for Europe Clarifies Its Position Regarding Ongo»»»

Bulgaria must choose national sovereignty over dependence on foreign partners and allies, presidential candidate and Vazrazhdane leader Kostadin Kostadinov said at a meeting with citizens in Blagoevgrad on Wednesday. In his words, sovereignty is linked to economic development and the dignity of Bul»»»

Johannesburg: A player for a South African rugby frasnchise was found dead in his team's hotel ahead of a Champions Cup match in France. The player, identified as Hyron Andrews, died due to a "tear in the aorta", his team the Johannesburg-based Lions announced on Wednesday. "Hyron's death was found»»»

LONDON: Around 30 HALO Trust staff members are among hundreds of thousands of civilians trapped in the Yemeni city of Taiz after Houthi fighters cut off the last supply route into the government-held enclave, the landmine clearance organization said on Wednesday. The closure severed the city’s rema»»»

DIMONA, Israel: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Wednesday that the only way to remove the threat posed by Iran was to topple its government. “Iran wanted to destroy us; we stopped them. They wanted to produce nuclear bombs; we stopped them... Yet they persist,” he said during an e»»»

RIYADH: King Faisal Specialist Hospital and Research Center in Riyadh performed a whole-lung lavage on a 10-year-old girl in a single session lasting about nine hours. The procedure was performed to treat a rare lung disease that had caused the patient’s blood oxygen saturation to drop to 79 percen»»»

Prosecutors have requested the pre-trial detention of former National Bank of Hungary governor György Matolcsy following a lengthy interrogation over suspected economic fraud. A judge is expected to decide on Friday whether he will be remanded in custody. Matolcsy did not make a statement during qu»»»

The presidential ticket of Iliana Iotova and Kiril Valchev is supported by 47.3% of voters ahead of the presidential election this Sunday, while the tandem of Andrey Gurov and Georgi Kandev has the backing of 30.6%, shows a nationwide survey by the Market Links polling agency unveiled on Wednesday.»»»

LONDON: Five foreign firms have abandoned plans to build a cable car from West Jerusalem to East Jerusalem that could see dozens of Palestinian families lose their land and property rights, The Guardian has reported. Despite the withdrawal of a fifth company, local authorities have said the project»»»

Emmanuel Macron visits Saudi Arabia in solidarity amid Houthi attacks on the kingdom The Middle East conflict remains a source of regional and global concern, with diplomatic efforts to engage Iran facing obstacles, additional US military forces heading to the region and fresh attacks reported in Y»»»

As protests continue to ripple across European cities, the Italian Green MEP Benedetta Scuderi reflects on her own experiences of police repression, from holding a peace flag near a Brussels protest to facing the fury that followed the flotilla to Gaza. She spoke to EUobserver about the EU’s housin»»»

JEDDAH: Saudi Arabia should develop a trade corridor through the Indian Ocean to reduce its dependence on the region’s two maritime chokepoints, Folk Maritime’s CEO said on Wednesday. “We need, as a Kingdom, to be independent of either of the two straits. This is a lesson we have all learned,” Poul»»»

Colonel Aleksandr Balyura of the 61st Naval Infantry Brigade has told the dictator about the "liberation" of the Ukrainian city. Meanwhile, President Zelenskyy says that Ukrainian forces still control the city and that the Russians are suffering "particularly heavy losses." A carefully staged video»»»

New digital services speed up electricity reconnections for fire-hit homes, with no fees. Sharjah: Residents in Sharjah can now obtain permits for condolence tents in less than three minutes under two new digital services launched by the Sharjah Civil Defence Authority in collaboration with the Sha»»»

DOHA Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs HE Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al Thani chaired the weekly Cabinet meeting at the Amiri Diwan. Following the meeting, Minister of Justice and Minister of State for Cabinet Affairs HE Ibrahim bin Ali Al Mohannadi, stated that at the »»»

Kyoto: A 40 cm snake was discovered in Japan inside an airplane, leading to the flight’s cancellation. According to The Independent, quoting local Japanese paper Kyodo News, the snake was identified as “non-venomous”. A mechanic for Japan Air Commuter, part of Japan Airlines, discovered the snake u»»»

Representatives of Moscow's business community and government agencies, together with their Chinese counterparts, discussed promising avenues for trade, economic, investment, and scientific and technological cooperation at the Moscow Investment and Industrial Forum, says the press service of Moscow»»»

RIYADH: Saudi Arabia receives an average of 13.29 mm of rainfall in November, making it the Kingdom’s second-wettest month, according to historic data from the National Center for Meteorology. The center’s records from 1985 to 2025 show that November rainfall is concentrated mainly in central Saudi»»»

WASHINGTON: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said he hoped for a positive outcome from US envoy Steve Witkoff’s meeting in Russia on Wednesday and that he supports talks between the leaders of Kyiv, Washington and Moscow. Zelensky said in an interview with Fox News that his ⁠talks with Witkof»»»

In an interview with FRANCE 24, Nobel Peace Prize laureate Navi Pillay described the US sanctions imposed on the International Criminal Court (ICC) hours after her award as "a shock" and "unacceptable". The South African judge also defended the UN commission of inquiry she chaired which conclu»»»

PRESS REVIEW – Wednesday, October 21: The identities of some 300 suspects from Saturday's riots are emerging in the Paris courts. Meanwhile, the far-left France Unbowed party has promised legal action against the French government for claiming the radical left was responsible for the dege»»»

French President Emmanuel Macron took aim at world leaders including US President Donald Trump for trying to exploit the riots and looting that broke out alongside peaceful demonstrations in France Saturday for their own political advantage. Another wave of demonstrations against France's worsening»»»

LONDON: Israel has amended planning regulations in the occupied West Bank to allow unauthorized buildings in settlement outposts to receive water and electricity without building permits, a move an Israeli rights group says advances their legalization while deepening discrimination against Palestin»»»

US envoy Steve Witkoff is in Saint Petersburg, holding talks with Russian president Vladimir Putin. The face to face meeting comes after he met with Ukraine's president and other European leaders in Oslo. Witkoff is due to return to the Norwegian capital after his visit to Russia. Washington seeks »»»

DUBAI: Every October the world turns pink. But the color that may matter most in the fight against cancer is one no one can see: the genetic code inside our own cells. For decades, cancer treatment has often worked like a carpet bomb: hit hard, hit everything, and hope the patient is still standing»»»

DUBAI: The Gulf is moving from importing medical innovation to shaping it, according to Baptiste de Clarens, general manager of vaccines for the Greater Gulf at Sanofi. Speaking to Arab News on the sidelines of the Future Health Summit in Abu Dhabi, de Clarens said the French drugmaker’s role in th»»»

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said on Wednesday that any interference in the Yemen war by Egypt or any other country would make the situation "more difficult". "Egypt has sufficient experience to avoid entangling itself in such a highly complex conflict," said Iran's top diplomat in an in»»»

Doha: Qatar Free Zones Authority (QFZ) participated in the UK-GCC Strategic Dialogue, organized by The Business Year, under the patronage of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), held in London on 20 October 2026. The participation reinforced QFZ's commitment to strengthening economic cooperation, at»»»

The case in Nigeria was detected in a woman who had travelled from Uganda to Abuja Lagos: The first Ebola case detected in Nigeria is the Bundibugyo strain, which is behind a major DR Congo outbreak, and the patient is a diplomat, an emergency meeting heard on Wednesday. The case in Nigeria, Africa»»»

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's main rival in October 27 elections, ex-army chief Gadi Eisenkot, said on Wednesday that he would refuse to serve as a minister in a new government led by the current premier. With the poll just days away, and predictions that no side will win on its own, some com»»»

Arab Finance: The Future Hospitality Summit (FHS) Egypt will bring investors, developers, hotel operators, and government leaders to the Sofitel Downtown Cairo Nile on November 10 and 11 to examine investment opportunities across the country’s hospitality, tourism, and real estate sectors, as per a»»»

RIYADH: From refrigerated trucks carrying fresh produce from Al-Kharj to strategically located warehouses stocked with grain reserves, Saudi Arabia is quietly reshaping the way food moves across the Kingdom. Industry leaders speaking at the Saudi Agriculture Exhibition 2026 said food security was n»»»