BRUSSELS: The European Union and international donors on Monday pledged seven billion euros ($7.5 billion) to help Turkiye and Syria in the aftermath of the earthquake that devastated parts of the neighboring countries last month.
Ursula von der Leyen, the president of the EU’s executive arm, said 3.3 billion euros ($3.5 billion) of the total amount will be raised by the 27-nation bloc.

LONDON: The UAE, Saudi Arabia and Bahrain were the happiest Arab countries from 2020 to 2022, according to the World Happiness Report, which was published on Monday.

Lebanon, suffering from economic malaise and a political crisis, was the unhappiest Arab state and second-last out of the 137 countries measured in the study.

The report, titled “World Happiness, Trust and Social Connections in Times of Crisis,” surveyed respondents from around the world for the three years spanning the COVID-19 pandemic.

WASHINGTON: US President Joe Biden expressed support in a call Sunday with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for “compromise” in controversial plans for reforms to the Israeli judiciary, the White House said.
In his first comments on the issue, Biden said the reforms must respect what he called core democratic values, a statement from the White House said.
The judicial reform plans of Netanyahu’s hard-right government have triggered 11 straight weeks of protests.

CAIRO: Sudan’s political factions have agreed to form a new transitional government on April 11, Khalid Omar Yousif, the spokesperson for the signatories to the political settlement, said on Sunday.
Sudan’s military leaders who took over in a coup in late 2021 have been negotiating a deal with the civilian political parties previously in power aimed at restoring a civilian government.

BAGHDAD: Iran’s top security official on Sunday signed a deal with Iraqi authorities for “protection” of their common border, the Iraqi prime minister’s office said, months after Tehran struck Kurdish opposition groups in Iraq’s north.

Iraq’s autonomous Kurdistan region hosts camps and rear-bases operated by several Iranian Kurdish factions, which Iran has accused of serving Western or Israeli interests in the past.