Huge blaze destroys prestigious Arab film studio in Egypt

Huge blaze destroys prestigious Arab film studio in Egypt
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A fire in Cairo has destroyed one of the Arab world’s most prestigious and oldest film production houses, founded 80 years ago. (X/@MouradTeyeb)
Huge blaze destroys prestigious Arab film studio in Egypt
2 / 2
A fire in Cairo has destroyed one of the Arab world’s most prestigious and oldest film production houses, founded 80 years ago. (X/@MouradTeyeb)
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Updated 16 March 2024
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Huge blaze destroys prestigious Arab film studio in Egypt

Huge blaze destroys prestigious Arab film studio in Egypt
  • Flames overtook the Al-Ahram Studio in Cairo’s Giza district, burning everything inside and spreading to three surrounding buildings
  • Local media reported that the fire broke out 24 hours after filming finished for a Ramadan television series

CAIRO: A fire in Cairo has destroyed one of the Arab world’s most prestigious and oldest film production houses, founded 80 years ago.
Flames overtook the Al-Ahram Studio in Cairo’s Giza district, burning everything inside and spreading to three surrounding buildings, which were evacuated before the blaze reached them.
Residents of neighboring buildings were still sleeping on the ground in nearby streets at dawn on Saturday.
Security sources said that there were no deaths, though some people suffering from smoke inhalation were treated at the scene.
Local media reported that the fire broke out 24 hours after filming finished for a Ramadan television series.
The cause of the fire is still unknown, and firefighters needed more than six hours to extinguish it, according to the security sources.
Yusif Mohammed, a neighbor who witnessed the fire, told AFP that flames “reached the surrounding buildings before fire trucks arrived.”
“No one knows what really happened” to cause it, he said.
The fire erupted after the production team of the series “El-Moallem,” starring Egyptian star Mustafa Shaban, concluded a regular filming day.
Egypt’s Premier Mostafa Madbouly, along with several top officials and ministers, rushed to the site to oversee the firefighting efforts, assess the damage, and expedite the compensation process.
An official statement said that the premier and his colleagues toured the site and the affected residential buildings.
They were briefed about the situation by the governor of Giza who said that the blaze significantly damaged the facades of seven buildings.
The statement added that the premier ordered the urgent formation of a committee to prepare estimates about the time and cost to restore the buildings to their pre-fire condition.
He announced compensation for the affected families to cover the rent until the buildings are rehabilitated to their original state.
A local resident told Arab News that a woman saw the flames in the studio and tried to call the studio’s security guard and others for help, but before action could be taken the fire engulfed the entire studio and spread to nearby residential apartments.
The witness added: “What happened was that those filming inside the studio were shooting a scene with flares, but as we know, the studio is all made of wood, and I assume the flares set a small fire to the wood that escalated over time.”
Security forces evacuated a number of workers and technicians from the studio after the fire.
Al-Ahram Studio was founded in 1944 and built on 27,000 sq m containing three production stages, a screening room and an editing suite.
Many Egyptian films and television series were produced there.
In the 1950s, Egypt was the third-biggest film producer in the world.


Lebanon hopes for neighborly relations in first message to new Syria government

Lebanon hopes for neighborly relations in first message to new Syria government
Updated 26 December 2024
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Lebanon hopes for neighborly relations in first message to new Syria government

Lebanon hopes for neighborly relations in first message to new Syria government
  • Lebanon’s Iran-backed Hezbollah played a major part propping up Syria’s ousted President Bashar Assad through years of war
  • Syria’s new Islamist de-facto leader Ahmed Al-Sharaa is seeking to establish relations with Arab and Western leaders

DUBAI: Lebanon said on Thursday it was looking forward to having the best neighborly relations with Syria, in its first official message to the new administration in Damascus.
Lebanese Foreign Minister Abdallah Bou Habib passed the message to his Syrian counterpart, Asaad Hassan Al-Shibani, in a phone call, the Lebanese Foreign Ministry said on X.
Lebanon’s Iran-backed Hezbollah played a major part propping up Syria’s ousted President Bashar Assad through years of war, before bringing its fighters back to Lebanon over the last year to fight in a bruising war with Israel – a redeployment which weakened Syrian government lines.
Under Assad, Hezbollah used Syria to bring in weapons and other military equipment from Iran, through Iraq and Syria and into Lebanon. But on Dec. 6, anti-Assad fighters seized the border with Iraq and cut off that route, and two days later, Islamist militants captured the capital Damascus.
Syria’s new Islamist de-facto leader Ahmed Al-Sharaa is seeking to establish relations with Arab and Western leaders after toppling Assad.


Iraqi intelligence chief discusses border security with new Syrian administration

Iraqi intelligence chief discusses border security with new Syrian administration
Updated 26 December 2024
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Iraqi intelligence chief discusses border security with new Syrian administration

Iraqi intelligence chief discusses border security with new Syrian administration

BAGHDAD: An Iraqi delegation met with Syria’s new rulers in Damascus on Thursday, an Iraqi government spokesman said, the latest diplomatic outreach more than two weeks after the fall of Bashar Assad’s rule.
The delegation, led by Iraqi intelligence chief Hamid Al-Shatri, “met with the new Syrian administration,” government spokesman Bassem Al-Awadi told state media, adding that the parties discussed “the developments in the Syrian arena, and security and stability needs on the two countries’ shared border.”


Israeli minister’s Al-Aqsa mosque visit sparks condemnation

Israeli minister’s Al-Aqsa mosque visit sparks condemnation
Updated 26 December 2024
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Israeli minister’s Al-Aqsa mosque visit sparks condemnation

Israeli minister’s Al-Aqsa mosque visit sparks condemnation
  • Ben Gvir has repeatedly defied the Israeli government’s longstanding ban on Jewish prayer at the site in Israeli-annexed east Jerusalem

JERUSALEM: Israel’s National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir visited Jerusalem’s Al-Aqsa mosque compound on Thursday, triggering angry reactions from the Palestinian Authority and Jordan accusing the far-right politician of a deliberate provocation.

Ben Gvir has repeatedly defied the Israeli government’s longstanding ban on Jewish prayer at the site in Israeli-annexed east Jerusalem, which is revered by both Muslims and Jews and has been a focal point of tensions in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

“I went up to the site of our temple this morning to pray for the peace of our soldiers, the swift return of all hostages and a total victory, God willing,” Ben Gvir said in a message on social media platform X, referring to the Gaza war and the dozens of Israeli captives held in the Palestinian territory.

He also posted a photo of himself on the holy site, with members of the Israeli security forces and the famed golden Dome of the Rock in the background.

The Al-Aqsa compound in Jerusalem’s Old City is Islam’s third-holiest site and a symbol of Palestinian national identity.

Known to Jews as the Temple Mount, it is also Judaism’s holiest place, revered as the site of the second temple destroyed by the Romans in 70 AD.

Under the status quo maintained by Israel, which has occupied east Jerusalem and its Old City since 1967, Jews and other non-Muslims are allowed to visit the compound during specified hours, but they are not permitted to pray there or display religious symbols.

Palestinians claim east Jerusalem as their future capital, while Israeli leaders have insisted that the entire city is their “undivided” capital.

The Palestinian Authority’s foreign ministry said in a statement that it “condemns” Ben Gvir’s latest visit, calling his prayer at the site a “provocation to millions of Palestinians and Muslims.”

Jordan, which administers the mosque compound, similarly condemned what its foreign ministry called Ben Gvir’s “provocative and unacceptable” actions.

The ministry’s statement decried a “violation of the historical and legal status quo.”

The office of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a brief statement that “the status quo on the Temple Mount has not changed.”


UN force sounds alarm over Israeli ‘destruction’ in south Lebanon

UN force sounds alarm over Israeli ‘destruction’ in south Lebanon
Updated 26 December 2024
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UN force sounds alarm over Israeli ‘destruction’ in south Lebanon

UN force sounds alarm over Israeli ‘destruction’ in south Lebanon
  • Under the ceasefire agreement, UNIFIL peacekeepers and the Lebanese army were to redeploy in south Lebanon, near the Israeli border, as Israeli forces withdrew over 60 days

BEIRUT: The United Nations’ peacekeeping force in Lebanon expressed concern on Thursday at the “continuing” damage done by Israeli forces in the country’s south despite a ceasefire in the war with Hezbollah.
The truce went into effect on November 27, about two months after Israel stepped up its bombing campaign and later sent troops into Lebanon following nearly a year of exchanges of cross-border fire initiated by Hezbollah over the war in Gaza.
The warring sides have since traded accusations of violating the truce.
Under the ceasefire agreement, UNIFIL peacekeepers and the Lebanese army were to redeploy in south Lebanon, near the Israeli border, as Israeli forces withdrew over 60 days.
UNIFIL said in a statement on Thursday that “there is concern at continuing destruction by the IDF (army) in residential areas, agricultural land and road networks in south Lebanon.”
The statement added that “this is in violation of Resolution 1701,” which was adopted by the UN Security Council and ended the last Israel-Hezbollah war of 2006.
The UN force also reiterated its call for “the timely withdrawal” of Israeli troops from Lebanon, and “the full implementation of Resolution 1701.”
The resolution states that Lebanese troops and UN peacekeepers should be the only forces in south Lebanon, where Hezbollah exerts control, and also calls for Israeli troops to withdraw from Lebanese territory.
“Any actions that risk the fragile cessation of hostilities must cease,” UNIFIL said.
On Monday the force had urged “accelerated progress” in the Israeli military’s withdrawal.
Lebanon’s official National News Agency (NNA) reported on Thursday “extensive” operations by Israeli forces in the south.
It said residents of Qantara fled to a nearby village “following an incursion by Israeli enemy forces into their town.”
On Wednesday the NNA said Israeli aircraft struck the eastern Baalbek region, far from the border.


Syria forces carry out operation against pro-Assad ‘militias’: state media

Syria forces carry out operation against pro-Assad ‘militias’: state media
Updated 26 December 2024
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Syria forces carry out operation against pro-Assad ‘militias’: state media

Syria forces carry out operation against pro-Assad ‘militias’: state media
  • Operation had already succeeded in ‘neutralizing a certain number’ of armed men loyal to Assad

DUBAI: The new Syrian military administration announced on Thursday that it was launching a security operation in Tartous province, according to the Syrian state news agency.

The operation aims to maintain security in the region and target remnants of the Assad regime still operating in the area.

The announcement marks a significant move by the new administration as it consolidates its authority in the coastal province.

The operation had already succeeded in “neutralizing a certain number” of armed men loyal to toppled president Bashar Assad, state news agency SANA reported said.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitor has reported several arrests in connection with Wednesday’s clashes.

Further details about the scope or duration of the operation have not yet been disclosed.