Ananova
A heavy sandstorm
has engulfed most of Egypt, reducing visibility to less than 500
metres and forcing several flights - including a plane carrying
Sudanese President Omar el-Bashir - to land elsewhere.
President
El-Bashir, who is on a one-day official visit, instead landed
in the Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheik, where he met Egyptian
President Hosni Mubarak.
Airport officials
say five other international flights were diverted from Cairo
either to Cyprus or to the southern Red Sea resort of Hurghada,
some 300 miles south of Cairo.
They included
a British Airways flight from London, Ghana Airways from Nairobi,
CorsAir from Paris and EgyptAir from Dar es Salaam.
In the Suez
Canal area, port authorities declared a state of emergency for
possible disruption to traffic in the strategic waterway.
Weather forecasters
expect the sandstorm, centred in the Western Desert, to last for
two days.
Egypt is often
hit by fierce sandstorms at this time of the year.
In the Lebanese
capital Beirut, a similar storm has reduced visibility to 500
yards and briefly disrupted air traffic.
Jets operated
by Air France, AirLanka and a private plane from Abu Dhabi were
kept circling over Beirut airport.
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