Middle East & North Africa

TRIPOLI, May 8 (Xinhua) -- Libya has condemned the deadly attack on a water pumping station in Egypt's western Sinai region, the foreign ministry said Saturday.

Libya stands with Egypt "against anything that threatens its security and stability," the Libyan Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

Earlier on Saturday, at least 11 Egyptian troops were killed in clashes with a group of terrorists at a water pumping station in western Sinai, according to the Egyptian army.

BEIRUT (AP) — Thousands of Lebanese living in nearly 50 countries began early voting Sunday in the country’s closely watched parliamentary elections, days after a similar vote was held in 10 predominantly Muslim nations.

About 195,000 Lebanese had registered to vote Sunday in 48 countries including the United States, Canada, Australia, Russia, European Union member states and several African nations.

The vote in Lebanon takes place May 15.

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Saudi Arabia’s octogenarian monarch underwent a colonoscopy on Sunday, state-run media reported, just weeks after he had the battery of his pacemaker changed.

The report in the official Saudi Press Agency first said only that King Salman, 86, was admitted to King Faisal Specialist Hospital in the Saudi port city of Jiddah for medical tests, without elaborating.

TEL AVIV, Israel (AP) — Israeli police said Sunday forces captured two Palestinians who killed three people in a stabbing attack last week and fled the scene, sparking a massive manhunt and keeping the country on edge.

The two attackers went on a stabbing rampage in the ultra-Orthodox city of Elad on Thursday, Israel’s Independence Day, killing three and wounding at least four others before bolting.

Tehran, IRNA – Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian and his Polish counterpart Zbigniew Rau met and conferred in the Iranian capital on Sunday.

After the end of their meeting, the two foreign ministers are scheduled to attend a joint press conference.

The Polish foreign minister arrived in Tehran on Sunday night for a three-day visit.

Tehran, IRNA – The Islamic Republic of Iran plans to start the longest horizontal offshore drilling in the Middle East from Laft Port to Qeshm Island within a month, an Iranian official said.

Managing Director of Iran Gas Engineering and Development Company (IGEDC) Reza Noshadi made the remark in a news conference on Sunday, saying that the gas pipe-laying has reached Zabol county in Sistan and Baluchestan province, southeastern Iran.

ISTANBUL, 07 May 2022; AA: Saudi Arabia’s flag carrier Saudia resumed flights on Saturday to the Turkish city of Istanbul after a two-year suspension over the coronavirus pandemic.

A flight operated by the airline landed at Istanbul Airport on Saturday from Jeddah with 130 passengers on board.

Passengers were welcomed by flowers upon arrival at the airport.

DIYARBAKIR, 07 May 2022; AA: Turkiye on Saturday officially reopened a 16th-century Armenian church that had been damaged by terrorists before restoration by the Turkish government.

Saying that everyone “shares the excitement” of the renovated Surp Giragos Armenian Church in Diyarbakir, Turkish Culture and Tourism Minister Mehmet Nuri Ersoy told the opening ceremony that services will start tomorrow “and that this structure, which has been the target of terrorism, will be reopened for worship."

BEIRUT (AP) — Umm Khaled hardly leaves the tent where she lives in northwest Syria, and she says she doesn’t pay attention to the news. But she knows one reason why it is getting harder and harder to feed herself and her children: Ukraine.

“Prices have been going up, and this has been happening to us since the war in Ukraine started,” said the 40-year-old, who has lived in a tent camp for displaced people in the last rebel-held enclave in Syria for the past six years since fleeing a government offensive.

BAGHDAD, May 7 (NNN-NINA) – The Iraqi Ministry of Health said yesterday that, about 40 cases of viral hemorrhagic fever (VHF) were registered in the country, eight of whom have died.

Twenty-three infections and five deaths were registered in Iraq’s southern province of Dhi Qar, the ministry’s spokesman, Sayf al-Badr said in a statement.

Al-Badr said, the latest death was confirmed earlier yesterday, in the northern province of Kirkuk.

The first VHF case was detected in Dhi Qar last month, and later appeared in several provinces, he added.