Middle East & North Africa

New Delhi, May 22 (PTI) Senior Congress leader P Chidambaram on Sunday wondered whether the states can afford to give up revenue from VAT on petrol and diesel unless the Centre devolves more funds or gives them more grants, likening their situation to being between the devil and the deep sea .

The former finance minister's remarks come a day after the government announced Rs 8 per litre cut in excise duty on petrol and Rs 6 reduction on diesel.

DAMASCUS, May 21 (NNN-SANA) – Three people were killed in an Israeli missile strike, targeting military sites south of the capital, Damascus, last night, according to a statement from the Syrian military.

The statement said, the air defences intercepted most missiles, which were fired from the Israel-occupied Golan Heights.

The pro-government Sham FM radio said, strikes at the international airport in Damascus caused a fire near it, leading to the postponement of two flights.

JERUSALEM, May 21 (NNN-PNA) – The Israeli health ministry, last night, reported the country’s first suspected case of monkeypox, after the viral disease has recently been detected across North America and Europe.

Earlier in the day, a man in his 30s, returning from western Europe, visited Ichilov Hospital in Tel Aviv, with suspicious lesions of the virus, according to separate statements issued by the ministry and the hospital.

ISTANBUL, May 20 (Xinhua) -- Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his visiting Colombian counterpart Ivan Duque Marquez on Friday signed a joint declaration on strategic cooperation and partnership.

"We have raised the relations between our countries to the strategic partnership level with this joint declaration," Erdogan said at a joint press conference with Duque after the signing ceremony in Istanbul.

Pune, May 20 (PTI) AstroSat, India's first dedicated astronomy mission which is into space since 2015, has detected the birth of a black hole for the 500th time, Pune-based research institution IUCAA has said, a development scientists termed as a remarkable achievement .

Black holes are objects with a gravitational pull so strong that not even light can escape. They are the subjects of intense scrutiny from astronomers from all over the world. Scientists across the world are studying their formation.

20 May 2022; MEMO: Deputy General Guide of Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood, Ibrahim Mounir, denounced "the slander and lies" contained in a report shared by the Grand Mufti of Egypt, Shawki Allam, to members of the British House of Commons during his visit to the United Kingdom.

20 May 2022; MEMO: Israeli ruling coalition became a minority in the country's Knesset yesterday after an Arab lawmaker resigned.

Ghaida Rinawie Zoabi, an Israeli-Arab with the liberal Meretz Party, handed her resignation to Prime Minister Naftali Bennett, leaving his party with only 59 seats out of a 120-seat parliament.

20 May 2022; MEMO: Israel's ruling coalition does not intend to surrender, despite recently becoming a minority government, its Foreign Minister and alternate premier declared on Friday, and Anadolu News Agency reports.

Striking an assertive tone, Yair Lapid tweeted that it was still too early to "mourn" the government's dissolution, admitting, however, that it was in a shaky situation after left-wing lawmaker, Ghaida Rinawie Zoabi, exited the coalition on Thursday over its harassment of Palestinians.

20 May 2022; MEMO: Turkiye's fourth drillship, bought last year from a South Korean shipyard, was set to join its three other drillships in less than a week, local Turkish media reports.

According to the report, Turkiye's national oil and gas company, TPAO, the drillship, called "Cobalt Explorer" has now arrived, as the country is working to develop its extensive gas resources amid a growing need for the security of supply.

20 May 2022; MEMO: Qatar hopes to welcome the world to Doha for the soccer World Cup but also "we expect and we want people to respect our culture", Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani said on Friday in Berlin when asked about gay people attending the tournament, Reuters reports.

The Gulf, Muslim-majority State will host the first World Cup in the Middle East for a month from late November.