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Egypt's Alexandria and Dekheila Ports Pause Activity Due to Weather

Egypt's Alexandria and Dekheila ports were closed on Wednesday due to poor weather conditions. (Reuters file photo)
Egypt's Alexandria and Dekheila ports were closed on Wednesday due to poor weather conditions. (Reuters file photo)
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Egypt's Alexandria and Dekheila Ports Pause Activity Due to Weather

Egypt's Alexandria and Dekheila ports were closed on Wednesday due to poor weather conditions. (Reuters file photo)
Egypt's Alexandria and Dekheila ports were closed on Wednesday due to poor weather conditions. (Reuters file photo)

Egypt's Alexandria and Dekheila ports, which both lie along the Mediterranean, were closed on Wednesday due to poor weather conditions, the Alexandria Port Authority said in a statement.

The ports are among the biggest in Egypt and each can handle a maximum of 1 million 20ft-equivalent units (TEUs).

High winds and a dust storm were blamed for the stranding on Tuesday morning of a 400-meter-long container ship that ran aground in Egypt's Suez Canal, blocking vessels from passing through.

Four Egyptian Red Sea ports had been shut on Tuesday, also due to weather conditions, and all except the Ain Sokhna port have now re-opened said the Red Sea Ports Authority and the Suez Canal Economic Zone Authority in separate statements.

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China Expands Visa-free Entry to More Countries in Bid to Boost Economy

Shoppers with their purchased goods walk past a popular outdoor shopping mall in Beijing, on Nov. 14, 2024. (AP Photo/Andy Wong)
Shoppers with their purchased goods walk past a popular outdoor shopping mall in Beijing, on Nov. 14, 2024. (AP Photo/Andy Wong)
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China Expands Visa-free Entry to More Countries in Bid to Boost Economy

Shoppers with their purchased goods walk past a popular outdoor shopping mall in Beijing, on Nov. 14, 2024. (AP Photo/Andy Wong)
Shoppers with their purchased goods walk past a popular outdoor shopping mall in Beijing, on Nov. 14, 2024. (AP Photo/Andy Wong)

China announced Friday that it would expand visa-free entry to citizens of nine more countries as it seeks to boost tourism and business travel to help revive a sluggish economy.
Starting Nov. 30, travelers from Bulgaria, Romania, Malta, Croatia, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Estonia, Latvia and Japan will be able to enter China for up to 30 days without a visa, Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lin Jian said.
That will bring to 38 the number of countries that have been granted visa-free access since last year. Only three countries had visa-free access previously, and theirs had been eliminated during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The permitted length of stay for visa-free entry is being increased from the previous 15 days, Lin said, and people participating in exchanges will be eligible for the first time. China has been pushing people-to-people exchange between students, academics and others to try to improve its sometimes strained relations with other countries, The Associated Press reported.
China strictly restricted entry during the pandemic and ended its restrictions much later than most other countries. It restored the previous visa-free access for citizens of Brunei and Singapore in July 2023, and then expanded visa-free entry to six more countries — France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain and Malaysia — on Dec. 1 of last year.
The program has since been expanded in tranches. Some countries have announced visa-free entry for Chinese citizens, notably Thailand, which wants to bring back Chinese tourists.
For the three months from July through September this year, China recorded 8.2 million entries by foreigners, of which 4.9 million were visa-free, the official Xinhua News Agency said, quoting a Foreign Ministry consular official.