Doha: Undoubtedly, facing the title-holders in a tournament opener is going to ramp up the pressure, and Algeria’s pedigree in African and Arab football, along with their impressive FIFA World Cup history, make them a complex challenge for any competitor. Nevertheless, it seems that Sudan were not »»»

Spain, Ireland, Slovenia, and the Netherlands have said they will boycott the next Eurovision Song Contest after Israel was cleared to take part. Earlier this year, several broadcasters urged contest organizers the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) to bar Israel over alleged vote-rigging and the wa»»»

India's travel chaos has worsened after the country's largest airline IndiGo cancelled hundreds of scheduled flights on Friday after three days of widespread disruption across its network. The carrier, which has a 60% market share in India and flies more than 2,000 flights a day, has been facing pi»»»

South Korea's Defense Ministry has launched an investigation into allegations that a military propaganda unit secretly sent anti-Pyongyang leaflets to North Korea, officials said Friday. This 2013 file photo shows balloons carrying flyers ready to be floated across the inter-Korean border by right »»»

The mineral-rich east of the Democratic Republic of Congo has been dogged by conflict for more than 30 years, since the 1994 Rwandan genocide. Numerous armed groups have competed with the central authorities for power and control of the potential fortune in this vast nation. The instability has suc»»»

The law on combating extremism was sent for re-examination by President Nicusor Dan, who assessed that the current form of the normative act could lead to "amplification of tensions"."I have submitted to Parliament the request to re-examine the law amending GEO 31/2002 on combating extremism. The R»»»

A long-term peace cannot be conceived without Ukraine and the European Union member states agreeing to the proposed solutions, Prime Minister Ilie Bolojan said on Thursday.He made the remarks at a joint press conference with Austrian Chancellor Christian Stocker, in response to a question about Eur»»»

Romania, as a border country of the European Union, bears the primary responsibility of preventing illegal border crossings, a duty it has fulfilled over the years, said on Thursday Prime Minister Ilie Bolojan."As far as combating illegal migration is concerned, Romania, as an EU border country, ha»»»

Prime Minister Rosen Zhelyazkov said he is prepared to leave office only if parliament adopts a vote of no confidence. He made the statement during today’s parliamentary blitz control, responding directly to a question from Bogdan Bogdanov of WCC-DB, who had asked when he intended to resign. Zhelya»»»

Forty-story buildings from the State Mortgage Company (SMC) in Bishkek will be earthquake-resistant. Gulzat Totubaeva, head of the Public Relations Department at the State Mortgage Company (SMC), announced at a briefing. According to her, construction of a residential complex at the intersection of»»»

New Delhi: India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi hosted Russia’s President Vladimir Putin Friday, with defence and trade ties centre stage as New Delhi faces heavy US pressure to stop buying Moscow’s oil. Putin was given a red carpet welcome with honour guard and 21-gun salute at the presidential pa»»»

President Joseph Aoun has said the next round of talks with Israel will begin on December 19, calling the reaction to initial negotiations this week "positive". "It is natural that the first session would not be highly productive, but it paved the way for upcoming sessions that will begin on the 19»»»

DOHA: DPS Monarch International School hosted its annual production, Raabta – The Ties that Heal, a transformative journey that unfolds across five enchanting realms, narrating a timeless tale of family warmth, sparkling joy of friendship, strength of knowledge, powerful unity of teamwork, and harm»»»

DOHA: Institution of Civil Engineers (ICE) Qatar held its Annual Gala Dinner recently, uniting leaders and innovators committed to shaping a more sustainable future for the nation. With regional representatives in attendance, the event highlighted Qatar’s remarkable engineering achievements, from w»»»

President Rumen Radev will award the Presidential Badge of Honour to firefighters and volunteers for their active participation in tackling fires this year, as well as for their contribution to national security, the President’s Press Secretariat said on Friday. The ceremony will take place to mark»»»

Special Envoy of the Minister of Foreign Affairs H E Ambassador Faisal bin Abdullah Al Hanzab met yesterday with United Nations Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Afghanistan H E Richard Bennett currently visiting the country. During the meeting, they discussed joint efforts bet»»»

Dubai: The UAE Lottery has announced new rules after transforming its Lucky Day draw with a new weekly format and refreshed prize structure, bringing players more frequent chances to win. The revamped game, which begins tomorrow, December 6, features a Dh30 million jackpot, an enhanced Dh5 million »»»

As relentless harassment from Israeli settlers drove his brothers from their Bedouin community in the central occupied West Bank, Ahmed Kaabneh remained determined to stay on the land his family had lived on for generations. But when a handful of young settlers constructed a shack around 100 meters»»»

Abu Dhabi: Al Maryah Community Bank (Mbank), the UAE’s first fully integrated digital bank, has announced a strategic collaboration with 7X, a leading trade, transport, and logistics group. The collaboration between both entities aims to enable blockchain-powered digital payments using AE Coin, the»»»

DOHA: The Primary Health Care Corporation (PHCC) has announced that it is continuing to receive new students for the medical checkups required for registration in government schools for the 2025–2026 academic year. The checkups will be available at all PHCC health centers throughout the academic ye»»»

Dubai: The Dubai Shopping Festival kicks off today, December 5, 2025, with the much-loved DSF Drones Show returning to the skies between Bluewaters and The Beach, JBR. Visitors can catch two nightly performances at 8pm and 10pm throughout the season. ‘Dubai, City of Dreams’ runs until December 25, »»»

NEW DELHI (Sputnik) - Russia and India today jointly defend the principles of equality, cooperation and mutual respect of peoples in the international arena, Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Friday. "In his letters to Leo Nikolaevich Tolstoy, he talked a lot about the future of the world — »»»

A federal grand jury on Thursday turned aside the Trump administration's request to re-indict Letitia James, attorney general of New York. File Photo by Derek French/UPI | License Photo Dec. 5 (UPI) -- A federal grand jury has rejected the Justice Department's bid to re-indict New York Attorney Gen»»»

India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi hosts Russia's President Vladimir Putin at a summit on Friday, with defense and trade ties taking center stage as New Delhi faces heavy US pressure to stop buying Moscow's oil. Both leaders will also discuss the geopolitical situation in the wake of the Russian »»»

Syrian President Ahmad al-Sharaa received on Monday a UN Security Council delegation and several UN officials at the People’s Palace in Damascus. “Al-Sharaa and the UN delegation discussed the Israeli aggressions on the country’s territory,” said Syria's permanent representative to the United Natio»»»

Qissati, a luxury fragrance brand inspired by His Highness Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai's book My Story, has officially launched sales at THAT Concept Store, located in the Mall of the Emirates. The launch event was held on N»»»

Endangered penguins living off South Africa's coast have likely starved en masse due to food shortages, a study said Friday, with some populations dropping by 95 percent in just eight years. Fewer than 10,000 breeding pairs of the small, black and white African Penguin are left globally, according »»»

A depressing pattern has taken hold in the way parts of the Western press cover Russia: take a volatile subject, strip it of the conditional language that contains it, and then act surprised when the public grows more fearful, more hardline, and less able to distinguish deterrent rhetoric from an i»»»

Doha: The Centre for Conflict and Humanitarian Studies, in partnership with the Doha Forum, will organise the Qatar Mediation Forum 2025 on Monday and Tuesday. The forum will bring together a select group of diplomats, policymakers, and mediation experts, particularly from the United Nations, the A»»»

Jeddah: The star-studded opening night at the Red Sea International Film Festival on December 4 unfurled with confident flair, led by British director Rowan Athale’s gritty boxing drama Giant, which set an emotionally charged tone for the evening. This year’s theme, “For the Love of Cinema,” wasn’t»»»

Dubai: UAE non-oil private sector activity expanded at its quickest pace in 11 months during November, with the S&P Global PMI climbing to 54.8 from October's 53.8. The reading beat the long-run average of 54.3 and signalled robust business conditions driven by stronger new orders and positive mark»»»

Witnesses, aid workers and researchers said the Rapid Support Forces, which surrounded El-Fasher in Darfur before capturing it in late October, have been holding survivors from the siege in a systematic campaign, demanding ransom for their release and killing or beating those whose families cannot »»»

Meta is shifting some of its investments in the metaverse to AI glasses and wearables, hoping to capitalise on the "momentum" in that segment, a company spokesperson has said. Over the last decade, Meta has poured billions of dollars to build the metaverse, which lets people to interact in a virtua»»»

Russia is waiting for the reaction from Washington to Russian President Vladimir Putin's discussions with US special envoy Steve Witkoff and US President Donald Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner earlier this week, Kremlin aide Yury Ushakov said. "We are now waiting for the reaction of our American c»»»

France’s President Emmanuel Macron will work toward the release of a French journalist in jail in Algeria “as soon as possible,” his office said Thursday, a day after an Algerian court confirmed his incarceration. An appeals court upheld a seven-year prison term against Christophe Gleizes, a sports»»»

The Supreme Court on Thursday ruled that Texas may use its redrawn maps. File Photo by Aaron Schwartz/UPI | License Photo Dec. 5 (UPI) -- The conservative-leaning Supreme Court on Thursday permitted Texas to use new congressional maps in the next midterm elections that were redrawn to favor the Rep»»»

Dubai: The Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI) Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) unanimously voted on Friday to cut the benchmark lending rate by 25 basis points (bps), lowering the repo rate to 5.25% from 5.50%. This marks the second rate reduction in six months, following a 50-bps cut in June. Sign up fo»»»

Mumbai: IndiGo cancelled over 550 domestic and international flights this week, snarling operations at key airports including Mumbai with 85 disruptions, Bengaluru at 73, Hyderabad at 68, Chennai at 31 and Delhi at 30. Passengers at Hyderabad vented frustration with slogans as delays piled up. The »»»

Kyrgyzstan’s external debt has been reduced to 37 percent, Finance Minister Almaz Baketaev told reporters. According to him, this result was achieved over the past four years as part of implementing the president’s directive to reduce the debt burden on the budget. The head of the ministry describe»»»

The recent statement by Lord Darroch—the UK’s former ambassador to the US and adviser to the prime minister—calling for recognition of Somaliland’s independence is far from an isolated episode of political exotica or the private opinion of a retired diplomat. Lord Darroch of Kew is a figure with di»»»

1/10Vladimir Putin — US$200 billion: Russian President Putin is often listed as the wealthiest politician in the world, primarily due to estimated stakes in energy and natural-resource companies. His exact wealth is not confirmed, but analysts believe his influence and long political career contrib»»»

The parliament of the Faroe Islands voted on Thursday to legalise abortion until the end of the 12th week of pregnancy, overturning a decades-old law that prohibited abortions in most cases. Previous legislation allowed abortions only in certain circumstances - such as rape, incest or risk to the h»»»

Taiwan says it will block access to popular Chinese social media app RedNote or Xiaohongshu for one year following concerns over online shopping scams. The island's Criminal Investigation Bureau said Thursday has detected more than 1,700 fraud cases on since last year with total losses worth more t»»»

Pictured is an image from a video published by U.S. Southern Command on Wednesday showing an attack on an alleged drug-trafficking boat in the eastern Pacific Ocean. Image courtesy of U.S. Southern Command/X Dec. 4 (UPI) -- The U.S. military on Thursday struck another alleged drug-trafficking boat »»»

Italy will not join the NATO initiative to buy US weapons for Ukraine while peace negotiations are underway, Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani has said. The EU has renewed its push to finance additional arms deliveries to Kiev amid signals from Washington that it will seek a diplomatic solution to en»»»

A high-ranking ICC official, Nicolas Herrera, secretly financed the sanctioned UPC armed group in the Central African Republic, according to court materials obtained by Sputnik. Nicolas Herrera, a high-ranking official in the Registry Office of the International Criminal Court (ICC), secretly recru»»»

Frustration mounts as IndiGo flights are disrupted “Someone please tell my boss not to fire me” IndiGo delays leave passengers helpless Passengers face last-minute cancellations IndiGo disruptions impact UAE-bound flights Passengers stranded amid nationwide delaysPassengers across India voiced frus»»»

When Bahara was four months pregnant, she went to a Kabul hospital to beg for an abortion. "We're not allowed," a doctor told her. "If someone finds out, we will all end up in prison." Abortion in Afghanistan is illegal and you can be locked up for having or assisting one. Also In This Package Five»»»

A strike on an alleged drug-trafficking boat in the eastern Pacific Ocean killed four people on Thursday, the US military said, amid a growing controversy over a campaign that has taken more than 87 lives. Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth and President Donald Trump's administration have especially co»»»

Two labourers stand on the roof of a house in Kenner, outside New Orleans, as US Border Patrol agents clamber up a ladder, getting closer. As the agents move in, trying to arrest them, the men step to the roof's edge, poised in an apparent act of resistance - but it's too high to jump. On the groun»»»