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Blaze at Cairo Telecom Building Kills 4 and Disrupts Internet, Phone

A boy wearing a mask looks on, as firefighters work to extinguish a fire that erupted in a telecommunications building in the Ramses district of downtown Cairo, Egypt July 7, 2025. REUTERS/Amr Abdallah Dalsh
A boy wearing a mask looks on, as firefighters work to extinguish a fire that erupted in a telecommunications building in the Ramses district of downtown Cairo, Egypt July 7, 2025. REUTERS/Amr Abdallah Dalsh
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Blaze at Cairo Telecom Building Kills 4 and Disrupts Internet, Phone

A boy wearing a mask looks on, as firefighters work to extinguish a fire that erupted in a telecommunications building in the Ramses district of downtown Cairo, Egypt July 7, 2025. REUTERS/Amr Abdallah Dalsh
A boy wearing a mask looks on, as firefighters work to extinguish a fire that erupted in a telecommunications building in the Ramses district of downtown Cairo, Egypt July 7, 2025. REUTERS/Amr Abdallah Dalsh

Four workers were killed and at least 22 others were injured in a fire that broke out on Monday at a key data center in Cairo, Hossam Abdel Ghaffar, the spokesperson at Egypt's Health Ministry, told Reuters on Tuesday.

The blaze at a Telecom Egypt facility, which state TV said was contained on Monday, caused disruptions to communications across the capital.

Egypt's Minister of Communications and Information Technology, Amr Talaat, said in a statement on Tuesday that services will be gradually restored within 24 hours.

In a statement on Tuesday, Telecom Egypt said it mourned the employees that lost their lives and offered support for their families.

The fire halted phone calls, and disrupted internet access, with internet monitoring group Netblocks saying network data showed national connectivity at 62% of ordinary levels.

The health ministry posted alternative numbers for ambulance services across different governorates in case people were unable to reach its main hotline.

Besides phone calls, some digital banking services were also impacted including credit cards, ATM machines and online transactions, a bank source and residents said on Monday. Banks had already been closed for the day.

The injuries were mostly because of smoke inhalation, health ministry spokesperson Ghaffar said on Monday.

The state news agency MENA said on Monday the fire had been prevented from spreading to the entire building and neighboring rooftops.

An initial examination indicated that the fire was likely to have been caused by an electrical short circuit, MENA cited a security source as saying.

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Arab World

Israel Approves Nearly 800 Housing Units in Three West Bank Settlements 

Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich attends a Plenum session of the Knesset, Israel's Parliament, also attended by Argentine President Javier Milei (not pictured), in Jerusalem, June 11, 2025. (Reuters) 
Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich attends a Plenum session of the Knesset, Israel's Parliament, also attended by Argentine President Javier Milei (not pictured), in Jerusalem, June 11, 2025. (Reuters) 
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Israel Approves Nearly 800 Housing Units in Three West Bank Settlements 

Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich attends a Plenum session of the Knesset, Israel's Parliament, also attended by Argentine President Javier Milei (not pictured), in Jerusalem, June 11, 2025. (Reuters) 
Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich attends a Plenum session of the Knesset, Israel's Parliament, also attended by Argentine President Javier Milei (not pictured), in Jerusalem, June 11, 2025. (Reuters) 

Israel has given final approval for 764 housing units to be built in three settlements in the occupied West Bank, Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich said on Wednesday.

The ultra-nationalist Smotrich, who opposes the creation of a Palestinian state, said that since the beginning of his term in late 2022, some 51,370 housing units have been approved by the government's Higher Planning Council in the West Bank, territory Palestinians seek for a future state.

"We continue the revolution," Smotrich said in a statement, adding the latest approval of housing units "is part of a clear strategic process of strengthening the settlements and ensuring continuity of life, security, and growth ... and genuine concern for the future of the State of Israel."

The units will be spread out between Hashmonaim, just over the Green Line in central Israel, and Givat Zeev and Beitar Illit near Jerusalem.

Most world powers deem Israel's settlements - on land it captured in a 1967 war - as illegal and numerous UN Security Council resolutions have called on Israel to halt all settlement activity.

"For us, all the settlements are illegal...and they are contrary to all the resolutions of international legitimacy," Wasel Abu Yousef, a member of the Palestine Liberation Organization's Executive Committee, told Reuters.

Israel says settlements are critical to its security and cites biblical, historical and political connections to the territory.

Israeli settler attacks against Palestinians have been on the rise. At least 264 attacks in the West Bank against Palestinians were reported in October, the biggest monthly total since UN officials began tracking such incidents in 2006, according to a UN report.

Arab World

Lebanon Foreign Minister Declines Tehran Visit, Proposes Talks in Neutral Country 

Lebanon's Foreign Minister Youssef Rajji. (NNA)
Lebanon's Foreign Minister Youssef Rajji. (NNA)
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Lebanon Foreign Minister Declines Tehran Visit, Proposes Talks in Neutral Country 

Lebanon's Foreign Minister Youssef Rajji. (NNA)
Lebanon's Foreign Minister Youssef Rajji. (NNA)

Lebanon's Foreign Minister Youssef Rajji said on Wednesday he had declined an invitation to visit Tehran for now, proposing instead talks with Iran in a mutually agreed neutral third country, Lebanese state news agency NNA reported.

Rajji cited “current conditions” for the decision not to go to Iran, without specifying further, and stressed that the move does not mean rejection of dialogue with Iran.

Last week, Iran's Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi invited Rajji to visit Iran in the near future to discuss bilateral ties.

Rajji expressed “readiness to establish a new phase in constructive ties between Lebanon and Iran on condition that they are strictly based on mutual and absolute respect of each country’s independence and sovereignty and non-interference in their internal affairs in any way and under any pretext.”

“The establishment of any strong state cannot take place if the state, through its army, does not have sole control over possession of arms and does not have monopoly over decisions of war and peace,” he stressed.

Rajji added that Araqchi was “always welcome to visit Lebanon.”

The Lebanese government earlier this year decided to impose state monopoly over arms, which effectively calls for Hezbollah to disarm. Iran is the party’s main backer.

Hezbollah’s critics have over the years accused it of following an Iranian agenda at the expense of Lebanon’s interests.

They also accuse it of usurping the state’s decision-making power when it comes to war and peace. In 2023, the party started firing rockets at Israel in support of Hamas in Gaza. The clashes escalated to all-out war in 2024 with Hezbollah left severely battered.

Arab World

At Least 19 Killed in Collapse of Two Buildings in Morocco’s Fez

Emergency personnel search for victims in the rubble of two collapsed buildings in Fez late on December 9, 2025. (AFP)
Emergency personnel search for victims in the rubble of two collapsed buildings in Fez late on December 9, 2025. (AFP)
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At Least 19 Killed in Collapse of Two Buildings in Morocco’s Fez

Emergency personnel search for victims in the rubble of two collapsed buildings in Fez late on December 9, 2025. (AFP)
Emergency personnel search for victims in the rubble of two collapsed buildings in Fez late on December 9, 2025. (AFP)

At least 19 people were killed and 16 injured early on Wednesday after two buildings collapsed in Fez, one of Morocco's oldest cities, the state news media reported, saying the blocks had shown signs of neglect for some time. 

Local authorities in the Fez prefecture reported two adjacent four-storey buildings had collapsed overnight, the state news agency said. 

The buildings were inhabited by eight families and were in the Al-Mustaqbal neighborhood, it reported. 

As soon as they were informed of the incident, local authorities, security services, and civil protection units moved to the scene and immediately began search and rescue operations, it said. 

Fez, a former capital dating back to the eighth century and the country's third-most populous city, was caught up in a wave of protests two months ago against the government over deteriorating living conditions and poor public services. 

The state news website SNRT said "the scene indicates that the two collapsed buildings had been showing signs of cracking for some time, without any effective preventive measures being taken."