It’s a classic proxy for economic growth: Russia’s demand for power in 2025 turned negative for the first time in four years underscoring a self-inflicted economic slowdown that threatens to turn into a recession this year. »»»

Russia is trying to freeze Ukraine into submission. As temperatures plunge to -20°C in Kyiv, the Armed Forces of Russia (AFR) has stepped up its barrage of drones and ballistic missiles to take out key heating and power infrastructure. Half of Ukraine’s capital is now in subzero darkness and the ci»»»

1 of 2 | NASA's four SpaceX Crew-11 members safely splashed down in the Pacific Ocean off southern California on Thursday after the first ever medical evacuation from the ISS after an astronaut developed a non-emergency medical condition. File Photo by Pat Benic/UPI | License Photo Jan. 14 (UPI) --»»»

In the presence of the Director General of the Libyan Development and Reconstruction Fund, Belgasem Khalifa Haftar, and the Greek Deputy Foreign Minister, Harry Theoharis, the Libyan Greek Development and Reconstruction Forum commenced in Benghazi yesterday. The Fund reported that the one-day forum»»»

The parliamentary group "Greatness" launched today’s plenary session with a direct critique of the current constitutional rules governing caretaker governments. Speaking from the rostrum, Juliana Mateeva called for a full “return to normality,” a phrase the party uses to demand that the president r»»»

Mount Olympus is no longer the mountain of the gods but of visitors. Since the Covid-19 pandemic, crowding has spread from roadside tavernas to high elevations, with tents filling the Plateau of the Muses and bottlenecks forming on the trail to the summit, raising safety risks. In an attempt to pre»»»

Radostin Vasilev, leader of the Morale, Unity, Honour (MECh) party, spoke to journalists in the corridors of Parliament on Thursday regarding the mandating of the Alliance for Rights and Freedoms (ARF) to nominate a prime minister-designate. Vasilev stated that the party sees this as a negative sig»»»

MELBOURNE - Serbian tennis player Novak Djokovic could face Italian Jannik Sinner in the semi-finals of 2026 Australian Open, with Spaniard Carlos Alcaraz and German Alexander Zverev as the potential semi-finalists from the other half of the draw. Djokovic has been drawn to play Spaniard Pedro Mart»»»

Russia said Thursday it was expelling a British diplomat, calling him an undercover spy in the latest espionage accusation between Moscow and London. The Kremlin has long singled out Britain as one of the most hostile Western states -- with relations virtually frozen even before Moscow's full-scale»»»

NEW DELHI, Jan 15 (KUNA) -- Kuwait participated in the National Conference on Strategic Trade Controls (NCSTC) 2026 in the Indian capital New Delhi on Thursday, which comes of great importance as it occurs amidst massive economic and trade transformations across the world.In a statement to KUNA, Ku»»»

US President Donald Trump has described a “great” conversation with Venezuela’s interim president Delcy Rodriguez, as Washington signals a willingness to work with the post-Maduro leadership while pressing for access to the country’s oil and continued political concessions. US President Donald Trum»»»

Enery, an independent renewable power producer in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) announces the start of the Ogrezeni hybrid project, combining photovoltaic (PV) generation with battery storage, in Giurgiu County, Romania. With an installed capacity of 761 MWp / 534 MW AC and more than 1 GWh of ba»»»

Tunis, Jan. 15 (TAP) – Waste generation in the Middle East and North Africa is set to almost double by 2050, reaching 255 million tons per year, according to a Greenpeace MENA report. The study highlights the growing plastic pollution crisis and the...»»»

Tunis, Jan. 15, 2026 (TAP) – Two-thirds of companies in Tunisia are at immediate risk of regulatory non-compliance, according to a survey conducted by the Confederation of Citizen Enterprises of Tunisia (CONECT) between January 6 and 12, 2026. The...»»»

Dubai: The UAE has joined Pax Silica, a US-led initiative aimed at securing artificial intelligence and semiconductor supply chains, as Washington moves to formalise a small bloc of partners around the critical inputs powering the AI economy. The UAE became the ninth signatory this week, joining a »»»

Doha, Qatar: Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs, HE Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al-Thani, held a telephone conversation today, January 15, 2026, with HH Prince Faisal bin Farhan bin Abdullah Al Saud, Minister of Foreign Affairs of the sisterly Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Dur»»»

Dozens of Palestinian citizens were detained or kidnaped and one was injured as the Israeli occupation forces (IOF) stormed various areas of the West Bank last night and on Thursday morning. According to local sources, clashes broke out between Palestinian youths and Israeli occupation forces in th»»»

BELGRADE - The Serbian dinar's official median exchange rate against the euro is 117.3323 dinars for one euro on Thursday, which is a slight change relative to Wednesday, the National Bank of Serbia said. The dinar is steady against the euro m-o-m, down by 0.2 pct y-o-y and steady relative to the b»»»

The Kremlin agreed with US President Donald Trump's statement that Vladimir Zelensky is delaying the resolution process in Ukraine, according to Russian President's spokesman Dmitry Peskov. "You can agree with this. It is indeed the case," Peskov said to journalists in response to a question about »»»

The Kremlin said on Thursday that the United States had not responded to President Vladimir Putin's proposal to informally extend for ‌a year ‌the ‌provisions of ⁠the last ‌remaining nuclear arms pact between Moscow and Washington, the New START treaty, which is ⁠due to expire ‌in three weeks. Krem»»»

Dubai: Dubai’s Roads and Transport Authority (RTA), in partnership with Yango Group, has rolled out a pilot shared luxury school transport service designed to make daily commutes safer, faster, and more affordable. The initiative uses luxury SUVs to pick up students from nearby areas and schools al»»»

KUWAIT, Jan 15 (KUNA) -- The Public Authority of Manpower launched the "Multiple-Trip Departure Permits" service on Thursday, which allows authorized persons to grant automatic approval for workers without needing to approve each request individually.In a press statement Thursday, the Authority sai»»»

Real estate developer Park Properties, led by Alexandru Mănăilă, has partnered with entrepreneur and investor George Peltecu, known for landmark projects in the private healthcare sector in Romania, to plan the future construction of SunLake Snagov Signature Collection, an exclusive development of »»»

Tunis, Jan. 15, 2026 (TAP) – The Tunisia Investment Authority (TIA) and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) agreed on January 14, 2026, to strengthen their strategic investment partnership during a high-level working meeting...»»»

Dubai: Saudi Arabian Mining Company (Maaden) has announced new gold resource additions totalling 7.8 million ounces across four sites in the Kingdom, supporting the company’s accelerating push to expand domestic mineral reserves and build a world-class gold franchise. The growth is driven by target»»»

U.S. Ambassador Michel Issa visited Thursday the Beirut port to inspect new AI-powered scanners aimed at stopping smuggling. "We love to help Lebanon," the ambassador told a journalist at the port. The AI-powered scanners represent a major technological leap, aimed at stopping the illegal export of»»»

Western diplomats have reportedly failed to secure a firm promise from Hezbollah to stay out of a potential conflict between the U.S. and Iran. A media report claimed that diplomats have sought guarantees from Hezbollah in recent weeks but only received a vague answer and no guarantees. Hezbollah s»»»

The National Development Agency (NDA) signed an MoU yesterday with FarmTech, Valley Valmont, and New Holland Agriculture to supply and deploy 1,000 centre pivot irrigation systems across the southern region of Libya. It will be recalled that the project was discussed in a December 2025 in Benghazi »»»

On January 16, Bulgarian President Rumen Radev will mandate the Alliance for Rights and Freedoms (ARF) Parliamentary Group to nominate a prime minister-designate, the head of State's Press Secretariat said here on Thursday. Under the Constitution, after a cabinet resigns, the President must begin a»»»

The announcement of a conference to support the Lebanese Army, scheduled to be held in Paris on March 5, has gathered notable international momentum, bolstered by the backing of the so-called “Quintet” comprising Saudi Arabia, the United States, France, Egypt, and Qatar. The conference is widely se»»»

The US is the main enemy of the dollar, prominent Brazilian economist and former International Monetary Fund (IMF) executive director, Paulo Nogueira Batista Jr., has told RT. Washington has increasingly weaponized its national currency, undermining trust in the greenback and the broader Western fi»»»

TOKYO, Jan 15 (KUNA) -- Japanese Foreign Minister Toshimitsu Motegi and his Philippine counterpart Maria Theresa Lazaro agreed Thursday to strengthen security cooperation in response to an increasingly challenging regional security environment, the Foreign Ministry said.During their meeting in Mani»»»

Romania’s labour market in 2025 was marked by caution, with employers showing a clear preference for on-site work and only tentative steps towards salary transparency, according to the annual Review & Trends report released by eJobs. More than 95% of the jobs posted on the platform last year requir»»»

In tonight's edition, Sadio Mane thrashed home a dramatic ⁠winner to send Senegal into the Africa Cup of Nations final after they edged Egypt 1-0. And the shutdown of the internet in Uganda ahead of the country's elections is "deeply worrying", the United Nations said, stressing the need for o»»»

Bank of Korea Gov. Rhee Chang-yong speaks at a press conference at the central bank in Seoul on Thursday. Pool Photo by Yonhap South Korea's central bank again left its benchmark interest rate unchanged Thursday as a weakened won and rising inflation concerns limited room for further easing. In a w»»»

The Foreign Correspondents' Club of Hing Kong is navigating a transformed political landscape, a radically shrinking media industry and a shifting geography of global news coverage. Photo courtesy of The Foreign Correspondents' Club Jan. 15 (UPI) -- For decades, Asia's foreign correspondent clubs w»»»

On Friday, January 16, at 10:00 AM, in accordance with the Constitution, President Rumen Radev will hand the third exploratory mandate for forming a government to the parliamentary group of the Alliance for Rights and Freedoms (APS), instructing them to nominate a candidate for prime minister, the »»»

Police in northern Greece have arrested a truck driver accused of trying to smuggle into the country six migrants hidden in his vehicle, authorities said Thursday. A police statement said the Greek suspect was arrested late Wednesday as he entered the country at the Kipi border crossing with Turkey»»»

Germany's air traffic control authority said Thursday it was recommending planes avoid Iranian airspace after the United States has in recent days warned of a possible military intervention in Iran. A spokesman for Germany's Flight Safety Office told AFP in a statement it had issued a recommendatio»»»

CAIRO, Jan 15 (KUNA) -- Egypt said Thursday it held contacts with Iran, the US, Oman and France in yet another bid to de-escalate tension in the region and reach a political settlement that would contribute to regional security and stability.Egyptian Foreign Minister Bader Abdulaaty, acting upon in»»»

Washington, United States: Four International Space Station crewmembers splashed down in the Pacific Ocean on Thursday, NASA footage showed, after the first ever medical evacuation in the orbital lab's history. A video feed from NASA showed the capsule carrying American astronauts Mike Fincke and Z»»»

Using the internet used to be a relatively solo activity. Other than using clunky messaging apps like MSN, it was a case of interacting with static pages. That idea feels outdated now. Modern platforms are built around people and they aim to recreate the feeling of being together even when everyone»»»

Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado may hold the Nobel Peace Prize, but she knows there is only one foreign endorsement that really matters: Donald Trump's. She will meet the US president at the White House on Thursday, after publicly offering to share her Nobel with him - a prize he »»»

President Rumen Radev is to task the Alliance for Rights and Freedoms (ARF) parliamentary group with nominating a candidate for prime minister on January 16, the President’s press secretariat said here on Thursday. Under the Constitution, after a cabinet resigns, the President must begin a new proc»»»

MOSCOW (Sputnik) - Russia's Battlegroup Tsentr has eliminated over 400 Ukrainian military personnel over the past day, the Russian Defense Ministry said on Thursday. "The Ukrainian armed forces lost more than 400 servicepeople, a tank, three armored fighting vehicles, 17 vehicles, two field artille»»»

The EU has been working to boost its defense capabilities in order to become a “military powerhouse,” European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen has said, Euractiv has reported, citing sources. The remarks were reportedly made on Wednesday during a closed-door meeting in the European Parlia»»»

Tunis, Jan. 15, 2026 (TAP) – GIZ Tunisia, the German Agency for International Cooperation, has launched the Official Catalogue of Tunisian IT Outsourcing Companies under the Tech216 program. The initiative seeks to showcase Tunisian expertise on...»»»

Over 1,500 volunteers are planned to be involved in the preparation and holding of the 6th World Nomad Games (WNG) in Kyrgyzstan. Nursultan Adenov, head of the International Secretariat of the WNG, announced. According to him, the volunteers are divided into two main categories. The first consists »»»

Kyrgyzstan is continuously working with partners from the European Union, the United States, and the United Kingdom on sanctions issues. Foreign Minister Jeenbek Kulubaev made this statement at a press conference in response to a question about Western sanctions imposed on domestic companies. «We h»»»

Jordanian Prime Minister Jafar Hassan met Thursday with President Joseph Aoun at the Baabda Palace. Hassan had arrived Wednesday in Beirut where he met with his Lebanese counterpart Nawaf Salam. The two countries signed at the Grand Serail twenty-two agreements and Memoranda of Understanding for in»»»