CAIRO: Egyptian authorities said three British tourists were missing after a scuba diving boat they were cruising in caught fire on the Red Sea coastline on Sunday.

The Red Sea Governorate said 26 people including 12 crew members were rescued when the medium-sized scuba diving boat, Hurricane, went up in flames off the southern Red Sea resort town of Marsa Alam.

A search party was launched to find the remaining three tourists.

Citing initial investigations, Egyptian authorities said an electrical short circuit in the boat’s engine room sparked the blaze.

TUNIS: The European Union on Sunday said it is considering more than one billion euros in aid to boost crisis-hit Tunisia’s economy and reduce the flow of irregular migrants across the Mediterranean Sea.
The North African country, highly indebted and in talks for an IMF bailout loan, is a gateway for migrants and asylum-seekers attempting the dangerous voyages to Europe.

BUDAPEST: An 11-year-old child died after losing consciousness on board a Turkish Airlines flight en route to New York from Istanbul, with medical services unable to resuscitate the child after the plane made an emergency landing in Budapest, news agency MTI reported.
MTI said the Airport Medical Service was scrambled to the scene after flight TK003 landed in Budapest on Sunday, but the child could not be saved despite prompt medical attention.

AL-MUKALLA: Two Yemeni soldiers were killed and three others were injured on Sunday morning when Al-Qaeda militants attacked their outpost in the southern province of Shabwa, local officials and media reports said.

This was Al-Qaeda’s bloodiest strike on government troops in the south in months.

Shabwa Defense Forces said that Al-Qaeda attacked a military outpost in Al-Musenah region of Shabwa with heavy machine guns and other weapons, triggering clashes that left two soldiers dead and three others wounded.

RIYADH: A meeting of foreign ministers from the Gulf Cooperation Council on Sunday condemned Israel’s continued construction of settlement units in occupied Palestinian territories.

The 156th ministerial meeting was held at the headquarters of the General Secretariat of the GCC in Riyadh, the Saudi Press Agency reported.