KYIV: Ukraine will no longer abide by US President Donald Trump’s demands not to strike Russian oil refineries, President Volodymyr Zelensky said in remarks published Thursday, amid deepening tensions between the two leaders over a US-Russia diesel agreement. Relations between Kyiv and Washington h»»»

RIYADH: Houthi attempts to target the Two Holy Mosques in Saudi Arabia are heinous and brutal, the Coalition to Restore Legitimacy said on Thursday. Developing»»»

President Joseph Aoun on Thursday threw his support behind Lebanese Ambassador to the U.S. Nada Hamadeh Moawad following the complaint that was filed against her by a pro-Hezbollah lawyer. “On what basis did the press start highlighting the reports against the Lebanese Ambassador in Washington and »»»

Berlin: The State of Qatar, reprsented by the Ministry of Culture is participating in the fourth edition of Al Diwan Arabic Book Fair, set to be held in Berlin on Oct. 16-18 with the participation of over 110 publishers form the Arab World and Germany. The fair presents a diverse range of Arabic pu»»»

Damascus, Oct. 15 (SANA) Syria’s People’s Assembly reviewed issues related to the 2025 and 2026 state budgets and began preparations for discussions on the 2027 budget, the assembly said on Thursday. The review took place at a meeting of the Budget and Accounts Committee chaired by committee head A»»»

A look at Uganda, where Chinese tech is transforming transport with electric buses, motorbikes and three-wheelers. Plus: An autonomous tractor aids farmers in India, and Austria bests the rest of Europe at night trains. https://p.dw.com/p/5NYzuAdvertisementMobility on the African continent has alwa»»»

Schools to be shut until Monday, people urged to stay at home Istanbul: Istanbul was on Thursday battling to recover from flooding caused by what officials said was the heaviest rainfall in the city since records began more than 80 years ago, as the downpour continued. The rain began lashing Turkey»»»

Stockholm: The fifth round of political consultations between the foreign ministries in the State of Qatar and the Kingdom of Sweden was held in Stockholm on Thursday. Secretary General of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs HE Dr. Ahmed bin Hassan Al Hammadi headed the Qatari side, while Director-Gene»»»

RIYADH: Students in Riyadh returned to online classrooms this week, swapping desks and school corridors for laptops and tablets at home following the recent attacks on the capital. While some students welcome the change, citing improved concentration, longer sleeping hours and less time spent commu»»»

RIYADH: Saudi telecom operator STC Group is offering free, unlimited calls to and from the Kingdom for roaming customers abroad amid ongoing flight disruptions, helping travelers stay connected with their families. The initiative, announced on X, runs from Oct. 12 to Oct. 19. “We understand how dif»»»

PARIS: France is starting to put into action operational elements of an agreement to help protect Saudi ‌Arabian oil ‌facilities, Foreign ‌Ministry spokesperson Pascal Confavreux said on Thursday. He declined to elaborate on what were the means sent ‌to Saudi ‌Arabia. French President ‌Emmanuel Mac»»»

GPSSA processes 44,760 registration transactions in 2026 The number of Emiratis registered under the UAE’s General Pension and Social Security Authority (GPSSA) has reached 190,063, marking a 13.6% increase compared to the previous year. According to figures released on Thursday, the authority proc»»»

IFM and Inception42 evaluated the models on an audited suite of 24 Arabic benchmarks Mohamed bin Zayed University of Artificial Intelligence’s (MBZUAI) Institute of Foundation Models (IFM), and Inception42 have introduced Jais 3, a fleet of models built for Arabic, and part of the Jais family first»»»

BAKU:His Highness the Amir of the State of Qatar Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani met with President of the Republic of Azerbaijan HE Ilham Aliyev, on the sidelines of the 7th Summit of the Conference on Interaction and Confidence Building Measures in Asia (CICA) held in Baku, Azerbaijan. During the»»»

Prime Minister Edi Rama has ruled out the possibility of resigning as escalating protests entered their third day, with violent clashes reported in the capital, Tirana. In a written response to international news agency Reuters, Rama said he would not allow violence to jeopardize Albania’s ambition»»»

Riyadh: The Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), announced that the GCC-EU Summit, originally scheduled to be held in Riyadh on October 24, 2026, has been rescheduled to a later date to be mutually agreed upon between the GCC and European sides. GCC Secretary General, Jasem Mohamed Albudaiwi, said in a »»»

Doha: Minister of State for International Cooperation HE Maryam bint Ali bin Nasser Al Misnad met separately today with Ambassador of the European Union (EU) to Qatar HE Antonino Maggiore and Ambassador of the People's Republic of China to Qatar HE Cao Xiaolin. Discussions during the meetings cover»»»

MoHRE urges employers to report absences within five days through approved channels Dubai: Employers in the UAE must report a domestic worker's absence within five days if the worker stops reporting for duty without a valid reason and their whereabouts are unknown, the Ministry of Human Resources a»»»

Iran’s deputy army coordinator said the Strait of Hormuz is closed and that any transit through the vital waterway requires coordination, citing rising U.S. gasoline prices as proof. Rear Admiral Habibollah Sayyari, Chief of Staff and Deputy Coordinator of Iran’s Army, said the Strait of Hormuz is »»»

BEIRUT: A Hezbollah MP acknowledged Thursday that a 500-kilogram shipment of explosives seized last week by Lebanese authorities belonged to the group, a rare admission by the Iran-backed militants. “The vehicle and its cargo belong to the resistance” against Israel, lawmaker Hassan Fadlallah said.»»»

Police have conducted 140 operations targeting vote buying and opened two pre-trial proceedings, acting Interior Ministry Secretary General Lyubomir Nikolov told reporters here on Thursday. The Interior Ministry has taken all necessary measures to safeguard citizens’ right to vote freely and ensure»»»

TIRANA: Protesters and police clashed in Albania’s capital on Thursday, the third straight day of violence, with prime minister Edi Rama condemning “chaos” that has left government buildings badly damaged. Thousands of demonstrators are demanding Rama’s resignation and more support for students, ci»»»

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio will hold a phone call with President Joseph Aoun at 7:00 PM Thursday, media reports said. The discussions will tackle the issues of the seized Hezbollah explosives and the judicial complaint that was filed against Lebanese Ambassador to the U.S. Nada Hamadeh Moa»»»

Houthi attacks on Saudi airports and energy installations, together with the threats they pose to shipping in the Red Sea, show the Yemeni rebel group’s intentions to expand their control in Yemen and beyond. Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and Hezbollah have been involved in developing th»»»

Showers lash Al Dhaid, Mleiha, rainy cloud warnings remain in place until 10pm Dubai: Heavy rain and hail fell over parts of Sharjah on Thursday afternoon, as unsettled weather continued to sweep across the UAE and the National Center of Meteorology (NCM) issued alerts for convective clouds and fla»»»

Damascus, Oct. 15 (SANA) Syria’s central bank will begin taking legal action against unlicensed currency exchange and money transfer operators on Sunday, Oct. 18, without prior notice, ending the period in which violators were warned to regularize their status. The Central Bank of Syria said on Thu»»»

ISTANBUL: A heavy downpour has shut down Istanbul, flooded homes and roads and killed at least three people, officials said Thursday, as rescuers worked overnight to save hundreds of people stranded at their workplaces. The downpour Wednesday night flooded homes and businesses and inundated roads a»»»

A blaze has occurred at a Starlink satellite internet service facility near Bulgaria’s capital Sofia, Bulgarian Prime Minister Roumen Radev has said. The incident follows a fire at a SpaceX station in Poland, which serviced the Ukrainian military, in late September. Ukraine has relied heavily on St»»»

PESHAWAR: The roof of a school collapsed in Pakistan’s northwestern city of Peshawar, killing a teacher and 32 students, mostly aged under 14, health officials said on Thursday, as residents and rescuers scrambled to pull children from the rubble. Twenty more students were taken to hospital after t»»»

German airline beats Air France-KLM as Portugal seeks to expand TAP’s global network Dubai: Portugal’s government has chosen Lufthansa as the successful bidder for flag carrier TAP Air Portugal, selecting the German airline over Air France-KLM in a long-delayed privatisation that could reshape one »»»

Bangkok: Minister of Finance HE Ali bin Ahmed Al Kuwari met with Chancellor of the Exchequer of the United Kingdom HE John Healey on the margin of the Annual Meetings of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank Group, held in Bangkok, Kingdom of Thailand. During the meeting, a range»»»

Baku: The Amir HH Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani met with President of the friendly Republic of Uzbekistan, HE Shavkat Mirziyoyev, on the margin of the 7th Summit of the Conference on Interaction and Confidence Building Measures in Asia (CICA) in Baku, Azerbaijan. The meeting discussed cooperation»»»

Baku: The Amir HH Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani praised the convening of the 7th Summit of the Conference on Interaction and Confidence Building Measures in Asia (CICA) in Baku, the Republic of Azerbaijan. His Highness expressed hope that its outcomes would contribute to the continent's security »»»

Doha, Qatar: Minister of Interior and Commander of the Internal Security Force (Lekhwiya), HE Sheikh Khalifa bin Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani, met with HE Anas Khattab, Minister of Interior of the Syrian Arab Republic, during his visit to Damascus, the Syrian capital. During the meeting, the two side»»»

At least four NATO surveillance aircraft were operating west, south and north of the Kola Peninsula on Wednesday, as Russia’s military imposed new restrictions on civilian aviation and commercial shipping across increasingly large areas of the Barents Sea and White Sea. The Northern Fleet has not o»»»

Cairo: The State of Qatar participated in the 73rd session of the World Health Organization (WHO) Regional Committee for the Eastern Mediterranean, which concluded today in Cairo, Egypt. The session was held under the theme: "Together for a Healthier Future: Action, Access, and Equity." Assistant M»»»

Member of Hezbollah’s Loyalty to the Resistance bloc MP Hasan Fadlallah on Thursday warned Lebanese authorities that any measures against its fighters and military capabilities would have serious repercussions for domestic stability. In a statement, MP Fadlallah accused Lebanese authorities of expl»»»

LONDON: Israel is refusing to allow the construction of a critical military outpost for the Board of Peace in Gaza, The Guardian reported. The international organization, authorized last year by the UN and chaired by US President Donald Trump, issued its first construction contract for Gaza in earl»»»

NEW DELHI: Mohammad Yousuf Ali and his elder son went to buy juice while the rest of the family waited for their flight to Madinah. They were only a few hundred meters away when a Houthi projectile hit the area and left them severely wounded. Both were taken to hospital, the father in critical cond»»»

Calling line identification on recipient’s handset will now contain number and name New Delhi: The Department of Telecommunications (DoT) has asked telecom operators to implement Calling Name Presentation (CNAP) services across their service areas from November 1, 2026, in a move that will allow mo»»»

LONDON: Israel’s prime minister should be prosecuted for war crimes, the latest winner of the Nobel Peace Prize has said. Navi Pillay said she is “confident” that Benjamin Netanyahu will eventually face prosecution in the International Criminal Court. The South African judge, who led the UN’s Indep»»»

Arab Finance: Minister of Housing, Utilities, and Urban Communities Randa El-Menshawy has discussed a proposal to establish a real estate investment fund to maximize returns on assets owned by the New Urban Communities Authority (NUCA), as per a statement. This aligns with the government’s plans to»»»

Somalia announced on Thursday that its parliamentary and presidential elections are scheduled for 2027, despite an increasingly fractured political landscape and concerns over escalating instability. The Election Commission confirmed that the parliamentary polls would be held on April 15, 2027, fol»»»

CHICAGO, IL: The Donald Trump administration is seeking to build a case to strip Rep. Ilhan Omar of her US citizenship and ultimately deport her, The Wall Street Journal reported on Wednesday. The investigation focuses in part on how the Minnesota Democrat obtained citizenship after arriving in the»»»

TOKYO: Japanese Foreign Minister Toshimitsu Motegi on October 15, held a telephone call with Saudi Arabian Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan Al-Saud to confirm Japan’s support for Riyadh’s efforts to restore stability in the Strait of Hormuz. According to the Foreign Ministry in Tokyo, at t»»»

In an interview with France 24 on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in September, Massad Boulos, US President Donald Trump’s senior adviser for Arab and African affairs described the three rounds of UN and US-backed Western Sahara negotiations held earlier this year as “constructive and prod»»»

Tunis, Oct.15 (TAP) - President Kais Saied chaired Thursday in Bizerte a ceremony to commemorate the 63rd anniversary of Evacuation Day. The Head of the State saluted the flag at the Martyrs Square as the national anthem was performed and reviewed a...»»»

DUBAI: The UAE is developing an artificial intelligence-enabled system that would flag when a product is likely to face barriers in a given market, its Foreign Trade Undersecretary Fahad Al-Gergawi has said. Speaking to Arab News, Al-Gergawi said the technology would within minutes suggest alternat»»»

More than half of Bulgarians (53%) believe that various forms of aggression have increased over the past three years, according to a nationally representative survey conducted by Trend Research Centre among 800 people through face-to-face interviews between September 5 and 18, 2026. The findings we»»»

Philippine peso hits record low of ₱63.06 amid Middle East conflict pressures MANILA: The peso weakened past ₱63 to the US dollar for the first time, hitting a new record low in early trading, data from the Bankers Association of the Philippines (BAP) showed. It touched ₱63.15 per dollar, beating t»»»