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27 May 2021; MEMO: A multibillion-dollar sale of advanced US weapons to the United Arab Emirates (UAE) could be at jeopardy due to Washington's concern over Abu Dhabi's growing relations with China, the Wall Street Journal reported.

The paper quoted US officials as saying that American spy agencies have in recent weeks monitored two planes belonging to China's People's Liberation Army which landed at an airport in the UAE and unloaded crates of undetermined materials.

27 May 2021; MEMO: Kenya and Egypt have signed a technical agreement on defence cooperation as tensions run high in the Renaissance Dam (GERD) negotiations which have been ongoing for years with no resolution.

Egypt has worked hard to mobilise African support for its position on the dam and has signed similar agreements with Burundi and Uganda.

27 May 2021; MEMO: A delegation from the Syrian regime arrived in the Saudi capital, Riyadh, on Tuesday, in the first public official visit to the kingdom since the outbreak of the Syrian revolution in early 2011, the SANA news agency reported.

New Delhi, May 27 (PTI) The Delhi High Court Thursday allowed duty free import of Amphotericin B, used for treating black fungus patients, primarily those affected by it after recovering from COVID-19, on furnishing of a bond by the importers till the Centre takes a final decision on waiving the customs duty on it.

The high court said the medicine is required to save lives of thousands of people suffering from Mucormycosis and the central government shall seriously consider waiver of customs duty till the drug is in short supply in India.

New Delhi, May 27 (PTI) Google CEO Sundar Pichai on Thursday said the company continues to engage closely with partner Jio on the initiative of building an affordable smartphone and that work is underway on the project.

Last year, Google had picked up a 7.7 per cent stake in Jio Platforms for Rs 33,737 crore. It had also entered into a commercial agreement with Jio Platforms to jointly develop an entry-level, affordable smartphone.

Kigali, May 27 (AP-PTI) French President Emmanuel Macron made a key visit to Rwanda on Thursday as his country tries to mend relations with the central African country 27 years after the genocide.

Macron arrived in the Rwandan capital, Kigali, early Thursday and is due to hold talks with Rwandan President Paul Kagame.

26 May 2021; MEMO: Syrian Foreign Minister Faisal Mekdad accused Israel of launching attacks on oil tankers as they made their way to Syria over the past few months, warning that such attacks "cannot continue without a price."

Israeli attacks constitute a "violation of international law" and there must be a "deterrence" to stop Israel, the top diplomat in the Bashar Al-Assad regime added in an interview with the Lebanon-based Al-Mayadeen TV.

26 May 2021; MEMO: Russian gas producer Gazprom has resumed supplies to Turkey via the Blue Stream gas pipeline, the Interfax news agency quoted the company as saying yesterday.

Gazprom had suspended the supply for planned maintenance on 12 May and restarted earlier than the scheduled date of 27 May.

New Delhi, May 26 (PTI) Facebook-owned WhatsApp has approached the Delhi High Court challenging the new IT rules for social media intermediaries requiring the messaging app to trace chats and make provisions to identify the first originator of information, the company's spokesperson said.

The new Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021 were announced by the government on February 25 and it require large social media platforms like Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp to comply with the norms by May 25.

Colombo, May 26 (AP-PTI) Sri Lanka has received 500,000 doses of Sinopharm coronavirus vaccine donated by China as the Indian Ocean island nation faces severe shortage of vaccines amid a recent rise in infections.

The vaccine stock that arrived early Wednesday is the second donation from China, following a shipment of 600,000 doses in March.

Sri Lanka is facing a shortage of vaccine after the producer in neighboring India failed to provide the promised Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine stocks. The government on Tuesday agreed to buy 14 million doses of Sinopharm from China.