Middle East & North Africa

12 May 2022; MEMO: An Asiatic cheetah has given birth to three cubs at a facility in Iran, marking the first time the critically endangered species have been bred in captivity.

12 May 2022; MEMO: Palestinian President, Mahmoud Abbas, said on Thursday that Israeli authorities were "fully responsible" for the killing of a veteran Al-Jazeera reporter during provocations in the occupied West Bank and called for an international investigation, Reuters reports.

Shireen Abu Akleh suffered a gunshot wound to the head in Jenin on Wednesday. Al-Jazeera and Qatar, where the news network is based, accused Israeli troops of the killing.

12 May 2022; MEMO: The tourism sector in Turkey is hardest hit by the war between Ukraine and Russia, as the two nations are the first largest group visit Turkey, DW reports.

According to the report, in 2021, around 4.7 million Russian tourists visited Turkey. German holidaymakers were the second-largest group, followed by Ukrainians.

12 May 2022; MEMO: Representatives of Austria and the Syrian education system met to discuss furthering scientific cooperation between them, as Vienna continues to be one of the outliers amongst its other European neighbours in regards to its diplomatic ties with the Syrian regime of Bashar Al-Assad.

12 May 2022; MEMO: The killing of prominent Palestinian journalist and Al Jazeera correspondent, Shireen Abu Akleh, is a "potential war crime", UN Special Rapporteur on Palestine, Francesca Albanese, said in an interview with a Turkish news agency yesterday.

12 May 2022; MEMO: The United Kingdom yesterday announced an exemption of entry visas for all Saudi nationals.

CAIRO, May 12 (NNN-MENA) – The Egyptian army yesterday killed 14 terrorists, during armed clashes and military operations in the North Sinai Governorate.

The Egyptian armed forces confirmed in a statement that, seven terrorists were killed in clashes with law enforcement forces, when they attempted to attack a security outpost in North Sinai.

The terrorists’ automatic rifles, hand grenades and wireless communication devices were seized, according to the statement.

AMMAN, May 12 (NNN-PETRA) – Jordan yesterday called for a just, transparent and immediate investigation, into the killing of Al-Jazeera journalist, Shireen Abu Akleh, to hold perpetrators accountable.

Jordanian Foreign Minister, Ayman Safadi, described the killing as a “heinous crime and a flagrant attack on press freedom,” during a phone call with his Palestinian counterpart, Riyad al-Maliki, according to a statement by the Jordanian Foreign Ministry.

11 May 2022; MEMO: Saudi Arabia's futuristic megacity, NEOM, will hold millions of "Neomians" by the year 2030, according to the project's Head of Tourism.

Speaking to the Emirati newspaper, The National, the NEOM project's Head of Tourism, Andrew McEvoy, said that people are expected to begin arriving to the city in 2024, when "you will see a lot of movement as our first tourism assets begin to open."

11 May 2022; MEMO: Russia's Foreign Minister, Sergei Lavrov, visited Oman on Wednesday, a fellow member of the OPEC+ alliance of oil producers, where he met with the Gulf Arab state's ruling Sultan, Omani state media said, and Reuters reports.

US-allied Gulf states have not taken sides in the Russia-Ukraine conflict while urging restraint and diplomacy to end the crisis. Gulf oil producers had also resisted Western calls to pump more oil and help isolate Moscow.