Qatar is still bustling with life just days before the end of the first World Cup in the Middle East.

At Katara beach in Doha, children play soccer on the golden sand during the day, while others go for a swim at night in waters lit by the capital's glimmering skyline.

A Libyan intelligence official accused of making the bomb that brought down Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland, in 1988 in an international act of terrorism has been taken into U.S. custody and will face federal charges in Washington, the Justice Department said Sunday.

The arrest of Abu Agila Mohammad Mas'ud Kheir Al-Marimi is a milestone in the decades-old investigation into the attack that killed 259 people in the air and 11 on the ground. American authorities in December 2020 announced charges against Mas'ud, who was in Libyan custody at the time. Though he is the third Libyan intelligence official charged in the U.S. in connection with the attack, he would be the first to appear in an American courtroom for prosecution.

Belgium on Friday detained four people including a former MEP as part of a probe into suspected corruption by "a Gulf country" at the EU parliament, the prosecutor's office said.

Israel's presidency on Friday granted prime minister-designate Benjamin Netanyahu a 10-day extension to clinch a coalition deal, as post-election negotiations with his right-wing allies grind on.

Chinese President Xi Jinping will meet Arab leaders at summits in Riyadh on Friday after striking a series of agreements with Saudi Arabia, strengthening ties as the top oil exporter quarrels with Washington.

Arab Gulf countries, strategic partners of Washington, are bolstering ties with China as part of an eastward turn that involves diversifying their fossil fuel-heavy economies. 

As a Gulf-China summit takes place in Riyadh on Friday, AFP examines key areas of economic cooperation between the six-member Gulf Cooperation Council and the world's second-largest economy. 

President Joe Biden said Thursday that the United Arab Emirates facilitated Brittney Griner's release from Russia in a prisoner swap.

Biden thanked the UAE "for helping us facilitate Brittney's return, because that's where she landed" en route back to the United States. Biden said the basketball star would be back home within 24 hours.

World Cup host Qatar is investigating the death of a migrant worker, an official said Thursday, after reports he died at a training base during the ongoing football tournament.

Israel's prime-minister designate Benjamin Netanyahu struck a deal with an ultra-Orthodox Jewish party Thursday on allocating cabinet jobs in a key step towards forming a government ahead of a looming deadline.

Chinese President Xi Jinping met Saudi Arabia's powerful crown prince on Thursday on an Arab outreach visit that will yield billions of dollars in deals and has earned a rebuke from Washington. 

About $30 billion in agreements will be signed on Thursday, Saudi state media said, as China seeks to shore up its Covid-hit economy and as the Saudis, long-term U.S. allies, push to diversify their economic and political alliances.