05 May 2021; MEMO: An Egyptian court has ruled that the Ever Given ship which blocked the Suez Canal in March will continue to be held in the waterway as negotiations continue between its owner and insurance parties.

HERAT, Afghanistan, May 4 (Xinhua) -- At least 12 people were killed as heavy rains and flash floods hit parts of Afghanistan's western province of Herat, the local government said on Tuesday.

"Flash floods engulfed vast areas in Adraskan district and neighboring districts in Herat province on Monday," it said in a statement.

Among the dead were one woman and four children, according to a local government source.

05 May 2021; MEMO: Eritrean President Isaias Afwerki yesterday arrived in the Sudanese capital, Khartoum, for fresh mediation efforts aimed at resolving the Ethiopian Renaissance Dam, local media reported.

DAMASCUS, May 5 (Xinhua) -- One civilian was killed and six others wounded when Israeli missiles hit several military sites in Syria's northwestern coastal city of Latakia on Wednesday, state news agency SANA reported.

The attack, which took place before daybreak, prompted the Syrian air defenses to respond, destroying some of the missiles, according to the report.

A child and his mother were wounded as one of the missiles hit a plastic factory, the report said.

The attack was the latest by Israeli military, targeting militias and military sites in Syria.

ANKARA, May 5. /TASS/: A couple of Turkish private companies have started negotiating an extension or a renewal of gas purchasing contracts with Gazprom due to the upcoming expiration of their current agreements, the Haber Turk TV channel reported on Wednesday. The issue is about purchasing 8 bln cubic meters of gas per year.

BAGHDAD (AP) — Iraq’s vaccine roll-out had been faltering for weeks. Apathy, fear and rumors kept many from getting vaccinated despite a serious surge in coronavirus infections and calls by the government for people to register for shots.

It took a populist Shiite cleric’s public endorsement of vaccinations — and images of him getting the shot last week — to turn things around.

Hundreds of followers of Muqtada al-Sadr are now heading to clinics to follow his example, underscoring the power of sectarian loyalties in Iraq and deep mistrust of the state.

Melbourne, May 5 (PTI) Australia pacer Pat Cummins feels the IPL organisers, in hindsight, could have "tweaked a few things" after deciding to host the league in India amidst a raging COVID-19 pandemic.

Cummins, a key part of the Kolkata Knight Riders team, said previous edition held in UAE was incredibly "well-run" and the organisers pushed it "little step further" by organising it at home this year.

The IPL was "indefinitely suspended" on Tuesday, following multiple COVID-19 cases inside the bio-bubble.

KAMPALA, May 5 (NNN-AGENCIES) — The Ugandan Government through a ‘special waiver’ will allow over 4,000 people including 21 heads of state to attend President Yoweri Museveni’s 6th swearing-in ceremony on May 12.

The gathering of 4,042 people at the same function, is a break away from the government’s own 200-people maximum standard operating procedure (SOPs) instituted by Museveni himself for all public gatherings in a bid to combat the spread of coronavirus (COVID-19).

(Reuters) --- A British academic, who was detained in the United Arab Emirates two years ago on spying charges, has launched legal action against a number of senior officials from the Gulf state, accusing them of assault, torture and false imprisonment.

Matthew Hedges returned to Britain in November 2018 after more than six months in detention after he was pardoned from a life sentence for espionage. His release came after the UAE had released a video of him purporting to confess to being a member of Britain's MI6 intelligence agency.

MOSCOW, May 5. /TASS/: Presidents of Russia and Turkey Vladimir Putin and Recep Tayyip Erdogan expect that the countries will be able to resume tourism thanks to measures against the spread of the coronavirus taken by Turkey.

"The mutual opinion is that the measures taken to counter the epidemic will make it possible to achieve cardinal improvement of the situation and resume bilateral ties in the tourism sphere," the Kremlin said in a statement on Wednesday following their phone call.

The Kremlin added that Erdogan thanked the Russian side for cooperation.

(Reuters) --- Turkey and Egypt will try to improve strained ties at talks starting in Cairo on Wednesday after an eight-year rift which led them to back rival factions in Libya's war and put them at odds in a dispute over east Mediterranean waters.

Relations between the regional powers have been tense since Egypt's army toppled a democratically elected Muslim Brotherhood president close to Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan in 2013.

MOSCOW, May 5. /TASS/: The chair of the State Duma’s committee on culture, Yelena Yampolskaya, First Deputy Speaker Alexander Zhukov and Senator Alexey Pushkov have submitted to the State Duma (parliament's lower house) a bill banning any public move equating the purposes and actions of the Soviet Union and Nazi Germany during World War II. The bill was uploaded to the State Duma’s electronic data base on Wednesday.