By Fedja Grulovic

SOFIA, Dec 10 (Reuters) - A Bulgarian court has ​rejected Lebanon's request to extradite a ​Russian shipowner linked to the 2020 Beirut port blast, citing ⁠insufficient security guarantees from Lebanese authorities.

Igor Grechushkin, a Cyprus-based Russian businessman whose vessel transported the explosive material that detonated at ​Beirut port in August 2020, killing more than ‍220 people, was detained in ​Bulgaria in September for possible extradition to Lebanon, where he is wanted over his role in the disaster.

JERUSALEM, Dec 10 (Reuters) - Israel has given final approval for ​764 housing units to be ​built in three settlements in the occupied West Bank, ⁠Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich said on Wednesday.

The ultra-nationalist Smotrich, who opposes the creation of a Palestinian state, said that ​since the beginning of his term in ‍late 2022, some 51,370 housing ​units have been approved by the government's Higher Planning Council in the West Bank, territory Palestinians seek for a future state.

At a cafe in a bustling Cairo neighbourhood, Liverpool games once drew wall-to-wall crowds, but with Mohamed Salah off the pitch, his Egyptian fans would now rather play cards or quietly doomscroll than watch the Reds play.

Salah, one of the world's greatest football stars, delivered an unusually sharp rebuke of manager Arne Slot after he was left on the bench for three consecutive games.

Adored by fans as the "Egyptian king", Salah told reporters he had been "thrown under the bus" by the club he has called home for seven-and-a-half years.

At a Damascus air base once off-limits under Bashar al-Assad, a crew now films a TV series about the final months of the ousted leader's rule as seen through the eyes of a Syrian family.

"It's hard to believe we're filming here," director Mohamad Abdul Aziz said from the Mazzeh base, which was once also a detention centre run by Assad's air force intelligence branch, known for its cruelty

The site in the capital's southwestern suburbs "used to be a symbol of military power. Now we are making a show about the fall of that power", he told AFP.

Dec 10 (Reuters) - Groups operating from Israeli-held areas of Gaza say they will continue to fight Hamas despite the killing of their most prominent commander, reporting more recruits since an October ceasefire as they eye a role in the enclave's ​future.

The emergence of the groups, though they remain small and localised, has added to pressures on Islamist Hamas and could complicate ​efforts to stabilise and unify a divided Gaza shattered by two years of war.

ANKARA, Dec 10 (Reuters) - The U.S. is in discussions with Turkey ​regarding Ankara's rejoining the F-35 fighter ​jet programme and Washington hopes that talks will yield a breakthrough ⁠in the coming months, the U.S. ambassador to Turkey said on Wednesday.

Washington removed Ankara from Lockheed Martin's <LMT.N> advanced F-35 programme and imposed ​the sanctions in 2020 over its acquisition of ‍Russian S-400 air defence systems. Turkey ​has said the move was unjust and voiced hope that the sides could overcome the issue during U.S. President Donald Trump's second term.

Deep in the Abu Dhabi desert, a vast AI campus a quarter the size of Paris is starting to emerge, the oil-rich UAE's boldest bet yet on technology it hopes will help transform its economy.

Towering cranes clank as long, low buildings take shape below, the eventual home of data centres powered by five gigawatts of electricity -- the biggest such facility outside the United States.

Scotland's Nnena Kalu took home the Turner Prize on Tuesday, with the autistic artist beating four competitors including an Iraqi painter to the prestigious contemporary art award.

Glasgow-born Kalu, 59, was nominated for her hanging sculptures using wrapped material, including fabric, rope and tape, with the British disability charity Sense hailing her shortlisting as "incredibly significant".

The jury of the prize, established in 1984 to celebrate contemporary British art, hailed Kalu's art as "bold and compelling" as well as "the powerful presence these works have".

UNITED NATIONS, Dec 9 (Reuters) - United Nations ​Secretary-General Antonio Guterres ​condemns a referral by Yemen's Houthis ⁠of some of the dozens of U.N. staff they have detained to a ​special criminal court, his ‍spokesperson said on Tuesday.

U.N. ​spokesperson Stephane Dujarric said the Houthis have arbitrarily detained 59 Yemeni U.N. personnel, who have been held "incommunicado - ⁠some for years - without any due process, in violation of international law."

Dec 9 (Reuters) - Yemen's southern separatists have claimed control over swathes of territory in an apparent major shift in power that risks rekindling a 10-year-old civil war ​after a long lull, raising new uncertainties in a country near important sea routes.

The ​separatist Southern Transitional Council (STC), backed in the past by the United Arab Emirates, says it has taken over the eastern provinces of Hadhramaut and Mahra and is now firmly established across ⁠all provinces of the former state of South Yemen.