Computer whiz Carlo Acutis, who died of leukemia in 2006 aged 15, will be raised to sainthood by Pope Leo XIV in a solemn ceremony in St Peter's Square at the Vatican.

Oslo, Norway -- An electric plane took to the skies between the Norwegian airports Stavanger and Bergen on Thursday, simulating a cargo flight for the first time in real-life conditions, Norwegian airlines operator Avinor announced. The small aircraft -- an Alia built by US aircraft manufacturer Beta -- flew the...

Rome, Italy -- Italian fashion legend Giorgio Armani, king of a high-end lifestyle empire, has died at the age of 91 "surrounded by his loved ones", his company said Thursday. "With infinite sorrow, the Armani Group announces the passing of its creator, founder, and tireless driving force: Giorgio Armani," it...

Istanbul, Turkey - Turkish authorities Wednesday said they have banned a planned concert Friday in Istanbul by Enrico Macias after calls to protest the French singer's pro-Israeli views. The Istanbul governorate said in a statement that it had wanted to prevent any demonstrations on the sidelines of the concert "against...

Kinshasa, DR Congo -- Qatari investment firm Al Mansour Holding hopes to invest $21 billion in the Democratic Republic of Congo where Doha is mediating to end years of conflict in the east, the Congolese government announced Wednesday. Group founder and royal family member Sheikh Mansour bin Jabor bin Jassim...

Abu Dhabi, UAE -- Researchers at NYU Abu Dhabi (NYUAD) have developed an ingestible device that uses light to activate neurons in the gut. This new technology, called ICOPS (Ingestible Controlled Optogenetic Stimulation), provides a non-invasive way to study and potentially treat digestive and metabolic disorders. Unlike current methods that...

Paris, France -- French judicial authorities have issued arrest warrants for ousted Syrian president Bashar al-Assad and six other top former officials over the bombardment of a rebel-held city in 2012 that killed two journalists, lawyers said Tuesday. Marie Colvin, 56, an American working for The Sunday Times of Britain,...

Paris, France -- American artificial intelligence firm OpenAI said Tuesday it would add parental controls to its chatbot ChatGPT, a week after an American couple said the system encouraged their teenaged son to kill himself. "Within the next month, parents will be able to... link their account with their teen's...

Paris, France - Apple will update software on iPhone 12 handsets across the EU to lower the power of their radio transmitters, it said Monday, after Brussels confirmed the device does not meet health standards. The software update, scheduled "in the coming weeks" across the EU, is in line with...

Geneva, Switzerland -- Shenzhen-Hong Kong-Guangzhou has overtaken Tokyo-Yokohama to become the world's top cluster for innovation, the United Nations said Monday. The UN's World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) said the Chinese cluster had leapfrogged its Japanese rival in its 2025 Global Innovation Index. The change at the top of the...

GENEVA, 31st August 2025 (WAM) -- The International Air Transport Association (IATA) said Sunday that global passenger demand grew by 4 percent in July. The IATA released data for July 2025 global passenger demand. Following are the highlights: • Total demand, measured in revenue passenger kilometers (RPK), was up 4.0...

Beijing, China -- China's factory output ticked up in August but still recorded a fifth straight month of contraction, official data showed Sunday, as Beijing and Washington press on with trade talks. The Purchasing Managers' Index -- a key measure of industrial output -- was 49.4, the National Bureau of...

Dubai, UAE -- The United Arab Emirates has continued to attract global companies looking to establish regional or global headquarters. In 2025, several major corporations, including PayPal and Veon, have either announced or completed the relocation of their headquarters to the UAE. This trend is supported by the country's legislative...

Khanke, Iraq - Archaeologists in drought-hit Iraq have discovered 40 ancient tombs after water levels in the country's largest reservoir declined, an antiquities official said Saturday. The tombs, believed to be over 2,300 years old, were unearthed at the edges of the Mosul Dam reservoir in the Khanke region of...

Jeddah - Zawiya 97, a new cultural hub for handicrafts in Historic Jeddah, located next to Nassif House, combines heritage with contemporary creativity as part of the Year of Handicrafts 2025 initiative and serves as an interactive platform for local and international artisans to showcase their work. Throughout July and...

ABU DHABI – Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC) has sold a 3 percent stake in its logistics and shipping subsidiary, ADNOC Logistics & Services (ADNOC L&S), for approximately AED 1.16 billion ($316 million). The placement of 222 million shares to institutional investors was significantly oversubscribed by seven times within...

Beijing, China -- A dozen furry dolls strung together on a metal chain dangled from Labubu fan Maki Li's neck as he proudly posed for photos in front of a store selling the toys in central Beijing on Friday. Made by Chinese toymaker Pop Mart, the fanged creatures have taken...

AlUla, Saudi Arabia -  AlUla Governorate achieved a new international milestone, showcasing the clarity of its skies, after a sky photograph taken in the governorate was selected by the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) as the "Astronomy Picture of the Day," among the world's leading astronomical images. The...

Riyadh, Saudi Arabia - Bank credit extended to the public and private sectors in the Kingdom continued its upward trend, reaching its highest level by the end of June 2025 at USD 849.67 billion (SAR 3,186,271 million), marking an annual growth of 15.8% with an increase of more than USD...

Ajman, UAE -- Real estate transactions valued at AED 1.48 billion ($381 million) were recorded in Ajman in July 2025. Omar bin Omair Al Muhairi, Director-General of the Department of Land and Real Estate Regulation in Ajman, confirmed that the month of July witnessed 220 real estate valuation transactions, with...

Riyadh, Saudi Arabia -- Saudi Arabia’s non-oil exports rose by 17.8 percent in the second quarter of 2025, according to official data. The increase included a 46.2 percent rise in re-exports, while national non-oil exports excluding re-exports grew by 5.6 percent, the General Authority for Statistics of Saudi Arabia reported....

Dubai, UAE -- Dubai’s Creator HQ, the first headquarters for content creators in the UAE and the Middle East, has attracted 2,415 members from 147 countries within six months of its launch. The initiative aims to position the UAE as a global hub for the content economy, with a target...

Abu Dhabi, UAE --  The UAE Cyber Security Council (CSC) has warned of the serious risks posed by using open and untrusted public Wi-Fi networks, revealing that more than 12,000 breaches have been recorded through such networks in the country since the beginning of this year. According to the Council,...

Buraidah, Saudi Arabia -- The Buraidah Date Carnival witnessed growing economic and tourism activity, making it a key destination for thousands of visitors from across the Kingdom, the Gulf, and the world. The event combined morning date auctions with a variety of cultural and entertainment activities held in the evening...

Washington, United States -- Elon Musk's SpaceX is gearing up for the next test of its Starship megarocket on Sunday, after a string of recent failures that has prompted some observers to question its viability. The world's most powerful launch vehicle is set to lift off from the company's Starbase...

Pekanbaru, Indonesia -- Armed with colourful oars, rowers pack into long boats in western Indonesia, paddling furiously in front of race crowds swelled by the viral success of a young boy famous for his dancing at the front of the traditional vessels. The annual Pacu Jalur race on Sumatra island...

NEW YORK and RIYADH — The ATP Tour, in a landmark partnership with the Public Investment Fund (PIF), has unveiled ATP Tennis IQ Powered by PIF, a cutting-edge technology platform designed to revolutionize how players access data and improve their performance. The new system aims to level the playing field...

Vienna, Austria - A research team from Graz University of Technology in Austria has succeeded in developing an innovative fastening system under a scientific project called ReCon, marking a breakthrough in the construction sector. The system enables the connection and disassembly of building components with ease, allowing the separation of...

Geneva, Switzerland - Faced with climate change diminishing farmers' yields, Nestle announced Wednesday that it was working on a technique to produce chocolate by using up to 30 percent more of the cocoa fruit. Chocolate is traditionally made using only cocoa beans taken from inside the pod, meaning that a...

Paris, France - Developer Jonathan Jacques-Belletete has taken a gamble on forthcoming game "Hell is Us", hoping to ape the budget success of indie hit "Clair Obscur: Expedition 33" to tangle with industry heavyweights. "I'd had it up to here" with work on big-spending productions whose price tag can run...

New York, United States -- US aviation giant Boeing is in talks to sell up to 500 aircraft to Chinese companies, Bloomberg News reported Thursday, citing sources familiar with the matter. The deal would be a major win for the struggling US manufacturer, with company shares rising as high as 3.7...

Washington, United States - Developers added 12 gigawatts (GW) of new utility-scale solar electric generating capacity in the United States during the first half of 2025, and they plan to add another 21 GW in the second half of the year, according to the US Energy Information Administration's latest survey...

Sydney, Australia - Australia's national newswire has agreed to provide content to Google's Gemini artificial intelligence to improve its responses, the two firms said. Financial details of the agreement, which was announced Tuesday, were not provided. The deal would help deliver real-time information to "enhance" responses in the Gemini app,...

Dubai, UAE --  ‘Big-ticket’ events are playing a pivotal role in driving international tourism and accelerating economic growth, according to experts speaking recently at Arabian Travel Market (ATM) 2025. In the GCC alone, the event and exhibition market is expected to reach US$827 million by 2029, growing at a CAGR...

Dubai, UAE -- Dubai International Chamber, one of the three chambers operating under the umbrella of Dubai Chambers, has announced that it attracted 143 companies to Dubai during H1 2025, representing a 138 percent increase compared to the 60 companies attracted in H1 2024. These included 31 multinational companies (MNCs),...

Dubai, United Arab Emirates -- Dubai police said on Monday they caught three thieves just hours after they stole a precious pink diamond worth $25 million. "The Dubai Police General Command has foiled the theft of a very rare pink diamond, valued at $25 million," the police said in a...

Tehran, Iran - The streets of Tehran have become a confusing maze for driver Farshad Fooladi amid widespread GPS disruption, still ongoing nearly two months after the end of Iran and Israel's unprecedented 12-day war. "For weeks I have been unable to work," said Fooladi, who uses Iran's homegrown ride-hailing...

Muscat, Oman -- The latest data released by the Statistical Centre for the Cooperation Council for the Arab Countries of the Gulf (GCC-Stat) showed that the value of gross national income (the total income earned by citizens and companies) of the GCC countries at current prices in 2023 amounted to...

Geneva, Switzerland -- An investigation conducted by the World Economic Forum's board on Friday cleared the body's founder Klaus Schwab and his wife of wrongdoing, after a probe into whistleblower complaints. "Following a thorough review of all facts, the Board has concluded that ... there is no evidence of material...

Riyadh, Saudi Arabia -- First, deeply religious Saudi Arabia opened its doors to Western raves and music festivals. Now it's turning to long-neglected Saudi traditions as it seeks to draw tourists and reshape its national identity. In "Terhal", a lavish stage show in Riyadh, an actor in a red-and-white headdress...

Anchorage, United States - Stepping foot on Western soil for the first time since he ordered the invasion of Ukraine, Vladimir Putin basked in choreographed pageantry courtesy of Donald Trump -- but was also confronted by signs of US power. In made-for-television images, Putin and Trump each flew in their...

San Francisco, United States -- Elon Musk has accused Apple of unfairly favoring ChatGPT on its App Store and threatened legal action, triggering a fiery exchange with OpenAI CEO Sam Altman on Tuesday. "Apple is behaving in a manner that makes it impossible for any AI company besides OpenAI to...

San Francisco, United States -- Perplexity AI offered Google on Tuesday $34.5 billion for its popular Chrome web browser, which the internet giant could potentially be forced to sell as part of antitrust proceedings. The whopping sum proposed in a letter of intent by Perplexity is nearly double the value...

Zakopane, Poland -- Saudi photographer Fahad Alayyash gazed over the Alpine-like panorama of the Tatras, Poland's highest mountain range -- and a surprising new hotspot for Arab tourists. The 38-year-old is among thousands of Gulf residents spending their summer vacation in Zakopane, a resort known for its ski lifts and...

Montreal, Canada - Palestinian-Canadian Faiza Najjar was able to leave Gaza last year, but could not bring her four adult daughters with her. She watched from a distance as food shortages in the territory worsened. From Canada, where she lives with her six other children, Najjar pursued a months-long effort...

Paris, France -Fingerprints, access keys and facial recognition are putting a new squeeze on passwords as the traditional computer security method -- but also running into public hesitancy. "The password era is ending," two senior figures at Microsoft wrote in a July blog post. The tech giant has been building...

London, United Kingdom - US President Donald Trump's media group and Tesla, the electric carmaker owned by tech billionaire Elon Musk, are among an increasing number of companies buying huge amounts of bitcoin. The aim? To diversify reserves, counter inflation and attract investors, analysts say. Who also invests? Companies frequently...

Abu Dhabi, UAE -- Abu Dhabi’s artificial intelligence (AI) sector witnesses a 61 percent increase between June 2023 and June 2024, according to data published by the Abu Dhabi Chamber, which said the emirate has 673 AI companies. Globally, there are approximately 90,904 AI companies as of 2024, which places...

Washington, United States -- US semiconductor giants Nvidia and Advanced Micro Devices have agreed to pay the United States government 15 percent of their revenue from selling artificial intelligence chips to China, according to media reports Sunday. Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang met with US President Donald Trump at the White House...

Oslo, Norway -- Norway's sovereign wealth fund, the world's largest, said Monday that it was selling its investments in 11 Israeli companies, following reports it had invested in an Israeli jet engine maker even as the war in Gaza raged. Nicolai Tangen, chief of Norges Bank Investment Management (NBIM), which...