Lebanon's Prime Minister has called on Italian companies to invest in his country as it seeks to address deepening economic challenges.
Saad Hariri met with his Italian counterpart, Giuseppe Conte, in Beirut on Thursday and said that "the coming period in Lebanon is a period of work ... with many investment opportunities."
Italy is a traditional trading partner of Lebanon, has invested in its gas and oil sector and also supports Lebanese military and security forces. Rome has over 1,000 peacekeepers in the U.N. force monitoring the cease-fire with Israel.
Hariri's government hopes to unlock around $11 billion in soft loans and grants pledged by international donors at a conference in Paris last year.
Hariri said he's "convinced that Lebanon can be a regional center for the Italian private sector."
OSLO, Norway (AP) — The head of the Norwegian Nobel Institute said Peace Prize winner María Corina Machado will not attend the awards ceremony in Oslo on Wednesday.
Institute director Kristian Berg Harpviken told public broadcaster NRK the Venezuelan opposition leader was not in the Norwegian capital on the day of the ceremony and her daughter will accept the prize on Machado’s behalf.
The institute did not immediately respond to emails or calls from The Associated Press seeking comment.
A day earlier, a news conference that Machado was expected to attend was canceled. She last appeared in public 11 months ago.
Machado went into hiding and has not been seen in public since Jan. 9, when she was briefly detained after joining supporters in a protest in Caracas, Venezuela’s capital.
The 58-year-old’s win for her struggle to achieve a democratic transition in her South American nation was announced on Oct. 10, and she was described as a woman “who keeps the flame of democracy burning amid a growing darkness.”
Machado won an opposition primary election and intended to challenge President Nicolás Maduro in last year’s presidential election, but the government barred her from running for office. Retired diplomat Edmundo González took her place.
The lead-up to the July 28, 2024 election saw widespread repression, including disqualifications, arrests and human rights violations. That increased after the country’s National Electoral Council, which is stacked with Maduro loyalists, declared the incumbent the winner.
González sought asylum in Spain last year after a Venezuelan court issued a warrant for his arrest.
U.N. human rights officials and many independent rights groups have expressed concerns about the situation in Venezuela, and called for Maduro to be held accountable for the crackdown on dissent that he intensified.
From left: Colombia's former vice president Marta Lucía Ramírez, Pedro Urruchurtu Noselli and Magalli Meda, who are collaborators with the Nobel Prize winner, Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado, are seen at the Grand Hotel in Oslo, Tuesday Dec. 9, 2025. (Cornelius Poppe/NTB Scanpix via AP)
FILE - Opposition leader Maria Corina Machado displays vote tally sheets during a protest against the reelection of President Nicolas Maduro one month after the disputed presidential vote which she says the opposition won by a landslide, in Caracas, Venezuela, Wednesday, Aug. 28, 2024. (AP Photo/Ariana Cubillos, file)
