RABAT: The partial collapse of a textile factory near Morocco’s commercial capital of Casablanca has killed five people, a labor union said on Saturday in a revised toll.
Local authorities had initially reported two fatalities and five “seriously injured” in the incident early on Thursday in the town of Tit Mellil.
“The tragedy has claimed the lives of five workers,” the textile and clothing branch of the Democratic Confederation of Labour said in a statement on Saturday.

RIYADH: Although the conflict in Sudan is viewed by many in the international development sphere as a major setback, the EU’s special representative for the Sahel believes donors and aid agencies must not lose hope but continue to remain engaged.

Speaking to Arab News on the sidelines of the Ministerial Meeting of the Global Coalition to Defeat ISIS in Riyadh on Thursday, Emanuela C. Del Re said there were great hopes that Sudan would stabilize and prosper following the toppling of longtime dictator Omar Al-Bashir in 2019.

PARIS: French President Emmanuel Macron on Saturday urged his Iranian counterpart Ebrahim Raisi to “immediately end” Tehran’s support for Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, which involves supplying Moscow with attack drones, the Elysee said.
Macron in a telephone call underlined the serious “security and humanitarian consequences” of Iran’s drone deliveries “and urged Tehran to immediately end the support it thus gives to Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine,” said a statement.

CAIRO: Several social media posts have surfaced expressing concern over the health of Egypt’s Coptic Pope Tawadros after he showed signs of tiredness during the last Easter sermon at the Cathedral of the Nativity of Christ in the New Administrative Capital in Cairo.

He is the 118th pope of Alexandria and patriarch of the See of St. Mark, succeeding the late Pope Shenouda III as leader of the Coptic Orthodox Church of Alexandria.

AL-MUKALLA: The Iran-backed Houthis have rebuffed demands from local rights groups in Yemen to release 17 members of the Bahai sect.

The group have upped their verbal assault against the religious minority, accusing them of being “infidels and Western stooges.”

On May 25, armed Houthis raided a Bahai gathering in Sanaa and seized 17 people, including five women.

They have denied requests from relatives and sect members to meet them or at least reveal their whereabouts.