The twin quakes that struck Venezuela on June 24 left more than 5,000 people dead. The high toll is largely attributed to the collapse of numerous buildings with residents trapped inside. Photo by U.S. Department of State/UPI | License Photo July 18 (UPI) -- The death toll from the twin earthquakes»»»

LONDON: Once a bustling trading hub linking Darfur, Kordofan, and central Sudan, El-Obeid now finds itself trapped in an ever-tightening noose as the Rapid Support Forces gradually impose a siege that could echo the horrors of El-Fasher. Warnings of what may lie ahead intensified on Wednesday when »»»

EAST RUTHERFORD: Spain and Argentina prepared to do battle in Sunday’s World Cup final in New Jersey as organizers said they were keeping a close eye on smoke from wildfires in Canada. Lionel Messi’s Argentina are bidding to become the first team since Brazil in 1962 to win back-to-back World Cups,»»»

RIYADH: Venture capital across the Middle East and North Africa has been trapped in a paradox: more money, more international attention and more government-backed ambition, yet still a market that looks small beside the economies it is meant to help transform. Startups in the region raised $3.8 bil»»»

NEW YORK: FIFA President Gianni Infantino deemed the World Cup a success on Friday, saying the tournament achieved its mission of uniting people from all corners of the globe. Infantino spoke at the United Nations as part of a daylong session there about how the game can be a catalyst for youth men»»»

Dubai: Several participants have walked away with cash prizes in the latest UAE Lottery Lucky Day draw held on Saturday. In Lucky Day Draw No. 260718, the winning numbers in the Days section were 13, 8, 10, 30, 31, 22, while the winning number in the Months section was 2. Three lucky participants h»»»

Dubai: Several participants have walked away with cash prizes in the latest UAE Lottery Lucky Day draw held on Saturday. In Lucky Day Draw No. 260718, the winning numbers in the Days section were 13, 8, 10, 30, 31, 22, while the winning number in the Months section was 2. Three lucky participants h»»»

AMMAN — Minister of Investment Tareq Abu Ghazaleh said that recent amendments to the country's citizenship- and residency-by-investment programme mark a “significant” shift towards attracting higher-quality investments that generate tangible economic benefits, create jobs, and support balanced deve»»»

AMMAN — The Jordanian Businessmen Association (JBA) held the Ninth Conference of Jordanian Businessmen and Investors Abroad on Saturday under the theme of "Investment Opportunities with a Global Vision."Major structural revisions to the national investment framework designed to fast-track the entry»»»

Karim Malash, chairperson and chief executive officer of M squared, has been named one of CNBC Arabia’s Top 100 Business Leaders for 2026. The ranking identifies executives, founders, and innovators based on their measurable performance and tangible impact on Middle Eastern economies and markets, r»»»

Jens Spahn, the parliamentary head of German Chancellor Friedrich Merz's CDU faction, resigned on Saturday amid mounting pressure over his use of a surrogate mother in the US despite a surrogacy ban in Germany. Spahn and his husband welcomed the child earlier this week, sparking criticism»»»

JEDDAH: Summer rain, relatively mild temperatures, and mountain attractions are drawing residents and tourists to Al-Baha and Taif, where parks, forests and recreational sites have recorded increased visitor activity, according to a report from the Saudi Press Agency. As scattered rainfall across A»»»

Hungarian Prime Minister Peter Magyar said former foreign minister Peter Szijjarto's appointment at Chinese electric vehicle maker BYD would not affect the government's relationship with the company, but raised concerns over potential conflicts of interest, Index.hu wrote after Magyar's July 16 pre»»»

Hungarian President Tamás Sulyok has signed the 17th amendment to Hungary’s Fundamental Law, confirming that his own presidential mandate will end the day after the legislation is officially published in the Hungarian Gazette. Sulyok announced the decision on his Facebook page on Saturday. The amen»»»

AMMAN — The Social Security Investment Fund (SSIF) increased its assets to approximately JD19.7 billion by the end of June 2026, up from JD18.7 billion at the end of 2025, marking growth of JD1 billion, or 5.4 per cent, during the first six months of the year.The fund said in a statement that the i»»»

NEW YORK: For some fans following this World Cup, the calculation has been ‌simple: support whoever is playing against Argentina. Across the tournament, that has meant wearing the green of Algeria, the blue of Cape Verde, or the red of Switzerland. Even the often maligned England got a boost in glo»»»

Ghana's rural banking sector has grown into a GHS26bn ($2.2bn) industry with 147 licensed institutions serving more than 8mn customers, Bank of Ghana Governor Johnson Asiama said, Citi News reported on July 17. The figures land as the central bank overhauls a 50-year-old financial inclusion model w»»»

Ukraine just got a new Prime Minister, Serhii Koretskyi, an oil and gas man that cut his teeth as an oil trader in the private sector before going to run Ukraine’s two biggest energy companies: Ukrnafta and Naftogaz. This is very good news. He is not a Zelenskiy loyalist and doesn’t really have any»»»

Bolivia has become the third Andean country this year to discover its own citizens fighting – and dying – in Russia's war on Ukraine. Prosecutors in La Paz opened a criminal investigation on July 14 into a recruitment network accused of luring Bolivian men abroad with fake construction jo»»»

PARIS: The World Cup has engaged punters like never before with an 80 percent increase in betting volume compared to the 2022 edition, even taking into account the higher number of matches for a 48-team tournament, a betting expert told AFP. Although many football fans were skeptical about the incr»»»

The Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) has declared the results of the Class 10 Second Board Examination 2026. Students can check their results through the DigiLocker Results Portal using their credentials. The second board examination was introduced from 2026 in line with the recommendati»»»

East Rutherford, United States: Spain and Argentina prepared to do battle in Sunday's World Cup final in New Jersey as organisers said they were keeping a close eye on smoke from wildfires in Canada. Lionel Messi's Argentina are bidding to become the first team since Brazil in 1962 to win back-to-b»»»

Dubai: The Middle East crisis intensified on Saturday as the United States and Iran exchanged strikes for a seventh consecutive night, with tensions rising around the Strait of Hormuz and concerns growing over regional security. The escalation has triggered flight disruptions, security alerts and i»»»

Doha: Qatari international referee Khamis Al Marri has been appointed to the officiating team for the FIFA World Cup 2026 final, the Qatar Football Association (QFA) announced on Saturday. Al Marri will serve as an Assistant Video Assistant Referee (VAR) during the final between Spain and Argentina»»»

Share: The US embassy in Beirut issued the following travel advisory with regards to travel to Lebanon and the Middle East : “Due to high tensions in the Middle East, the security environment remains complex with the potential for unforeseen escalation. We remind Americans in the region of the cont»»»

Iran has ruled out negotiations with the United States, vowing instead to defend the country decisively in response to what it calls American violations of its commitments. Kazem Gharibabadi, Iran's Deputy Foreign Minister for Legal and International Affairs, said Washington's aggressive actions ha»»»

Hungary’s government investigation into a controversial state-backed data deletion programme has intensified, with independent MP Ákos Hadházy arguing that the case alone would justify criminal proceedings against former minister Antal Rogán and businessman Gellért Jászai. The controversy centres o»»»

Dubai: Saudi authorities have introduced a new digital service allowing worshippers and pilgrims at the Grand Mosque in Mecca to monitor crowd levels in the Mataf and Masa'a areas in real time, helping them choose less congested routes for Tawaf and Sa'i. The General Authority for the Care of the A»»»

RIYADH: Reforms across logistics, governance and business environment could see trade more than double between the Gulf Cooperation Council and the Caucasus and Central Asia regions. A report published by the International Monetary Fund, and supported by experts speaking to Arab News, set out that »»»

Dubai: A high-paying job abroad. A quick departure. A recruiter promising a better life in just a few weeks. For many jobseekers, these offers can appear to be the opportunity they have been waiting for. But behind some attractive promises are illegal recruitment schemes that can lead to exploitati»»»

Dubai: There are cities you visit. There are cities you work in. And then there are cities that quietly become part of who you are. For Antonio Ostuni, Dubai is all three. Sixteen years after first arriving in the emirate as a young Italian hotelier eager to prove himself, there is still no one way»»»

Kuwait Airways has announced the rescheduling of most of its flights due to the closure of the country's airspace on Saturday, July 18, 2026, as regional tensions from the ongoing US-Iran conflict continue to disrupt air travel across the Gulf. In a statement posted on X, the national carrier urged»»»

Sharjah: A Sharjah court has sentenced a man to six months in prison after convicting him of defrauding an Arab buyer of Dh692,000 in a fake wholesale iPhone transaction, ruling that he used deception and false commercial claims to obtain the money without supplying the promised devices. The verdic»»»

MIAMI: Didier Deschamps brings the curtain down on a remarkable 14-year reign as France coach on Saturday when Les Bleus face England in the World Cup third-place play-off. Waiting in the wings is Zinedine Zidane, Deschamps’ former teammate and one of the all-time great French players. Deschamps, 5»»»

Capitals: Qatari embassies abroad have received further rounds of condolences from officials and senior figures following the death of HH the Father Amir Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al-Thani. In Sarajevo, HE Chairman of the Presidency of Bosnia and Herzegovina Dr Denis Becirovic paid tribute at the Qa»»»

BRUSSELS: The EU welcomed the first session of Syria’s People’s Assembly as “another positive step” in the country’s political process. EU foreign affairs spokesperson Anouar El-Anouni said the bloc supports the assembly, which held its inaugural session on July 12, as part of a Syrian-led and Syri»»»

RIYADH: Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan received his Venezuelan counterpart, Felix Plasencia, in Riyadh on Thursday. During the meeting, Prince Faisal congratulated Plasencia on his recent appointment to the position, wished him success and expressed his aspiration to continue worki»»»

A five-year roadmap for trade and economic cooperation between Pakistan and Uzbekistan is expected to be signed next week in Islamabad, according to media reports. The sides have set an ambitious target of increasing bilateral trade from $450 million to $2 billion within five years. Reliance on Afg»»»

Two South African soldiers died on Friday after falling down a mine shaft during an operation targeting illicit mining, a police spokeswoman said. The deaths are the first military fatalities since President Cyril Ramaphosa deployed troops in March to bolster police operations against crime and ill»»»

The new Hungarian government “has engaged in intense reforms to restore the rule of law”, the European Commission said in its 2026 rule of law report published on Friday. “Following continued dialogue with the Commission under the Recovery and Resilience Plan and the general regime of conditionalit»»»

The Israeli parliament, the Knesset, voted to dissolve Friday ahead of the October 27 election. File Photo by Debbie Hill/ UPI | License Photo July 17 (UPI) -- Israel's parliament, the Knesset, voted to dissolve on Friday after pushing through controversial legislation favorable to Prime Minister B»»»

Bulgarian leaders denied any split in the country’s position on Ukraine on Friday as the government and opposition parties clashed over the Kyiv Declaration and Bulgaria’s relationship with the Coalition of the Willing. Prime Minister Rumen Radev and President Iliana Iotova said the document requir»»»

Tunis, July 17 (TAP) - Minister of Foreign Affairs, Migration and Tunisians Abroad Mohamed Ali Nafti received on Friday Finland's Ambassador to Tunisia Teemu Sepponen, to mark the end of his mission. On this occasion, the FM commended the long...»»»

MAKKAH: Saudi artist Basher Al-Khamali has forged a name for himself in the world of mural art in the Kingdom, with his 1,000-square meter mural of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman adorning a wall in Tabuk. It was one of his biggest projects which took him just six days to complete. Speaking to Ara»»»

Iran’s March drone and missile attacks disabled numerous critical US radars and forced it to “expend a significant portion of their air and missile defense stockpiles,” military expert and CAST security think tank senior research fellow Yuri Lyamin told Sputnik. Lyamin pointed out, for example, tha»»»

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have said that shredded iceberg lettuce from Taylor Farms served in Taco Bell have cause many of the cyclosporiasis illnesses. File Photo by Erik S. Lesser/EPA July 17 (UPI) -- Federal officials said they have traced the cyclosporiasis outbreak th»»»

MP Georg Georgiev of GERB-UDF told reporters in the National Assembly on Friday that the Kyiv Declaration of July 15 is a concluding document and does not bear physical, handwritten signatures. Georgiev, who is also former foreign minister, was commenting on a controversy over whether Bulgaria's cu»»»

Dubai: Moving to a new country often begins with excitement to new opportunities, new surroundings, and the promise of a different future. But behind many expatriate stories is a challenge of building a life from the beginning. For Egyptian expat Ahmed Youssef, that challenge came at a time when th»»»

Abu Dhabi: Abu Dhabi Maritime has advised boat owners, jet ski riders and other marine users to familiarise themselves with the fines that apply across the emirate's waterways, encouraging everyone to follow safety requirements and obtain the necessary permits before undertaking maritime activities»»»

MP Ali Fayyad of Hezbollah on Friday charged that the Lebanese leadership "has abandoned its people, indifferent to their suffering and the extent of the crimes committed against them by the Israelis." "This ruling authority seems to have become corrupt and is persisting in its choices despite all »»»