Hundreds of ecstatic fans waving Bulgarian flags turned out at Sofia airport Sunday to give a triumphant welcome home to Dara, the winner of the Eurovision Song Contest, after her surprise victory.

Leading figures from the fields of sport, music and politics in Bulgaria fired off messages of congratulations -- some of whom had even helped rally support for her before Saturday's voting.

Dara triumphed in Vienna with catchy floor-filler "Bangaranga", which swept the 70th edition of the world's biggest live televised music event.

US authorities on Friday detailed charges against a commander of an Iran-backed Iraqi militia who was allegedly involved in plotting terrorism against Jewish people in Europe, Canada and the United States.

Mohammad Baqer Saad Dawood Al-Saadi, 32, is said to have directed and urged others to attack US and Israeli interests, and to kill Americans and Jews, in retaliation for the war against Iran.

He was identified as a senior figure in Kataeb Hezbollah, a US-designated foreign terrorist organization linked to Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).

Prosecutors said Friday that they will seek the death penalty for a Chicago man charged with fatally shooting two Israeli embassy staffers in the US capital last year.

Elias Rodriguez was arrested immediately after the May 21 shooting of Yaron Lischinsky, 30, and his fiancee, Sarah Milgrim, 26, outside the Capital Jewish Museum in Washington.

US Attorney Jeanine Pirro said in a court filing that prosecutors will seek the death penalty for Rodriguez, who faces murder, firearms and hate crime charges.

Lawyers for a prominent pro-Palestinian protest leader requested Friday that US immigration authorities terminate their push to deport him, alleging the Trump administration "secretly engineered" the outcome of his case.

US President Trump has championed the effort to deport Mahmoud Khalil who was arrested by undercover federal agents in March 2025, one of the first detentions of foreigners linked to pro-Palestinian activity in the United States.

The Iran team will head to Turkey for a training camp before taking part in the World Cup in the United States, local media reported Friday.

"The next phase of the national team's preparation is set to be hosted in Antalya, Turkey," Iranian Football360 website reported, adding that the squad would then travel to their World Cup base in Tucson, Arizona.

Antalya also hosted the Iran team for training and matches in March.

Wearing traditional Palestinian dresses, the white fabric intricately embroidered in a rainbow of colours, dozens of smiling brides clutched red bouquets as they walked with their grooms past the tents and ruined buildings of Gaza City.

To the tune of popular songs played from loudspeakers in a city square, the couples whose marriages had been long-delayed by war and displacement, sat on stage with joy written across their faces.

Oscar-winning Iranian director Asghar Farhadi condemned Friday both the killing of civilians in US and Israeli attacks on his country and the "massacring" of protesters by the Islamic republic.

Farhadi, who travelled from Tehran last week, trod a fine line when asked for his thoughts about events in his war-hit homeland at the Cannes Film Festival, where his latest film, the French-language "Parallel Tales", received its premiere.

Israel and Lebanon agreed to extend a ceasefire and hold expanded talks on a political settlement, the United States announced Friday, even as Israel carried out new strikes that it insists are not subject to the truce.

Israel has been pounding Lebanon and invaded its south in response to fire from Hezbollah, the Iranian-backed Shia movement that is not part of the ceasefire diplomacy.

Envoys from Israel and Lebanon's government, which has struggled to restrain Hezbollah, met for two days in Washington and said they would extend the ceasefire that was set to expire Sunday.

Rows of green tobacco plants stretched towards the bush in a vast field of a crop that has rebounded to record levels in Zimbabwe, driven largely by smallholders contracted to Chinese firms.

A few dozen aspiring tobacco farmers inspected the broad leaves on a field day of training in the cultivation of the plant, of which Zimbabwe is Africa's leading producer.

Among them was Read Sola, 64, one of more than 300 farmers now growing tobacco in the southern Matabeleland region, which historically is not tobacco country.

Endangered Egyptian vultures, with their vivid yellow face and white plumes, would usually be nesting across the Balkans in their dozens by April.

But experts tracking the rare birds say local teams have struggled to find more than a handful in recent weeks, raising fears that the wars in the Middle East may have further disrupted their already perilous journey from Africa.

"The war is adding to the risks already present along this species' migration route," Nikolai Petkov, project manager at the Bulgarian Society for the Protection of Birds, told AFP.