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The collapse of two buildings killed 22 people in the northern Moroccan city of Fes, authorities said Wednesday, in the deadliest accident of its kind in the kingdom in recent years.The Fes prosecutor’s office said in a statement the collapse occurred after 11:00 pm (2200 GMT), with women and children among the dead and sixteen people injured.Locals told AFP the buildings did not meet standards as authorities only allow two-storey buildings in that area, but the two buildings had four floors each.”I heard a loud noise around midnight, then screams,” 17-year-old Bilal El Bachir said. “It was shocking. Everyone went outside and I saw what looked like a cloud of dust, and that’s when I realised both buildings had collapsed.””I don’t know why it happened… but I’m sure the upper floors were illegal,” he added. “And these aren’t the only buildings here with illegal floors. I’m afraid this kind of incident will happen again.”The prosecutor’s office said in a statement there had been a family celebration in one of the buildings at the time of the collapse while the other was unoccupied.An investigation had been opened to “determine the real causes” of the incident, the prosecutor’s office added.By Wednesday mid-afternoon, rescue teams had completed searches for survivors, Abdelaziz Makhmakh, regional civil protection commander, told AFP.- Deadliest in a decade -“Construction in the area is almost anarchic, completely out of control,” said 20-year-old Bilal Ben Daoued. “This is supposed to be a modern neighbourhood where plots of land were offered to rehouse families who were living in slums.””It is very clear that the safety conditions are not being respected,” he added. “The investigation needs to explain this to us, and the authorities need to take responsibility.”Local authorities said preliminary reports suggested the buildings were constructed in 2006.Images from the pre-dawn scene showed first responders carrying a corpse in a grey body bag to waiting emergency vehicles, as residents gathered to watch the rescue efforts.Other workers with jackhammers and pickaxes tried to dig through the rubble, at times with the help of mechanical excavators.The official news agency MAP reported the injured were taken to Fes’s University Hospital Centre.The accident was the deadliest of its kind in a decade. In 2014, three buildings in the western city of Casablanca collapsed, killing 23 people.In 2016, there were two deadly building collapses within the span of a week.One was a home in the western city of Marrakech where two children were killed, while the other was a four-storey building that killed four people and injured two dozen more.In February of last year, five people died in the collapse of a house in Fes’s old city.Last May in Fes, nine people died when a residential building collapsed.The structure had been listed as at risk of collapse and its occupants had been ordered to evacuate, a local authority source told AFP at the time.

Reporters Without Borders said on Tuesday that Israel was responsible for nearly half of all journalists killed this year worldwide, with 29 Palestinian reporters slain by its forces in Gaza. In its annual report, the Paris-based media freedom group said the total number of journalists killed reached 67 globally this year, up from 66 killed in 2024.Israeli forces accounted for 43 percent of the total, making them “the worst enemy of journalists”, RSF said in its report, which documented deaths over 12 months from December 2024.The most deadly single attack was a so-called “double-tap” strike on a hospital in south Gaza on August 25, which killed five journalists, including two contributors to international news agencies Reuters and the Associated Press.In total, since the start of the Gaza war in October 2023, after the Hamas attack on Israel, nearly 220 journalists have died, making Israel the biggest killer of journalists worldwide for three years running, RSF data shows.In response to the accusation, the Israeli military told AFP that it “does not deliberately target journalists” and noted that “being in an active combat zone carries inherent risks.” It also said that there have been “dozens of examples of journalists who are active in terrorist organisations in the Gaza Strip.”- ‘Not stray bullets’ -Foreign reporters are still unable to enter Gaza — unless they are in tightly controlled tours organised by the Israeli military — despite calls from media groups and press freedom organisations for access.The RSF annual report also said that 2025 was the deadliest year in Mexico in at least three years, with nine journalists killed, despite pledges from left-wing President Claudia Sheinbaum to protect them.War-wracked Ukraine (three journalists killed) and Sudan (four journalists killed) are the other most dangerous countries for reporters, according to RSF.The overall number of deaths last year is down from the peak of 142 journalists killed in 2012, linked largely to the Syrian civil war. It is also below the average since 2003 of around 80 killed per year.RSF editorial director Anne Bocande noted a growing tendency to “smear” journalists as a way to “justify” the crime of targeting them.”These are not stray bullets. This is a deliberate targeting of journalists because they inform the world about what’s happening on the ground,” she told AFP.The RSF annual report also counts the number of journalists imprisoned for their work, with China (121), Russia (48) and Myanmar (47) the most repressive countries, RSF figures showed.As of December 1, 2025, 503 journalists were detained in 47 countries, the report said.Other organisations use different qualifiers to calculate journalist deaths. According to UNESCO, 91 journalists were killed in 2025.

At a cafe in a bustling Cairo neighbourhood, Liverpool games once drew wall-to-wall crowds, but with Mohamed Salah off the pitch, his Egyptian fans would now rather play cards or quietly doomscroll than watch the Reds play.Salah, one of the world’s greatest football stars, delivered an unusually sharp rebuke of manager Arne Slot after he was left on the bench for three consecutive games.Adored by fans as the “Egyptian king”, Salah told reporters he had been “thrown under the bus” by the club he has called home for seven-and-a-half years.The outburst divided Liverpool fans worldwide — but in the Cairo cafe, people knew what side they were on, and Tuesday’s Champions League clash with Inter Milan went unnoticed.”We’re upset, of course,” said Adel Samy, 40, a longtime Salah fan, who remembers the cafe overflowing with fans whenever he was playing.On Tuesday evening, only a handful of customers sat at rickety tables — some hunched over their phones, others shuffling cards, barely glancing at the screen.”He doesn’t deserve what’s happening,” Samy told AFP.Islam Hosny, 36, who helps run the family cafe, said the street outside used to be packed with “people standing on their feet more than those who sat on chairs” whenever Salah played.”The cafe would be as full as an Ahly-Zamalek derby,” he told AFP, referring to Egypt’s fiercest football rivalry. “Now because they know he’s not playing, no one comes.”At a corner table, a customer quietly asks staff to switch to another match.- ‘Time to leave’ -Since joining the Merseyside team in 2017, Salah has powered the club’s return to the top of European football, inspiring two Premiere League titles, a Champions League triumph and victories at FA Cup, League Cup and FIFA Club World Cup.With 250 goals in 420 appearances, he is Liverpool’s third-highest goalscorer of all time, and for Egyptians, the country’s greatest sporting export.But this season, Salah has struggled for form, scoring five goals in 19 appearances as Liverpool have won just five of their last 16 matches in all competitions, slipping to eighth in the Champions League with 12 points.At the cafe in the Shoubra neighbourhood of Cairo, the sense of disillusionment gripped fans.”Cristiano Ronald, Messi and all players go through dips,” said Mohamed Abdelaziz, 40, but they still play.Shady Hany, 18, shook his head. “How can a player like Mohamed Salah sit on the bench for so long?” he told AFP.”It is time for Salah to leave.”Slot said on Monday he had “no clue” whether Salah would play for Liverpool again.Salah, due to join Egypt for the Africa Cup of Nations after next weekend’s home match against Brighton, has around 18 months remaining on the £400,000-a-week contract he signed in April.Saudi clubs have already set their sights on Salah to land him during the winter transfer window, a Public Investment Fund (PIF) source told AFP. Saudi clubs Al-Ittihad, who had a £150-million bid rejected two years ago, and Al-Hilal are both believed to be monitoring developments while Aramco-backed Al Qadsiah is also keen.Yet, Egyptian sports pundit Hassan Khalafallah believes Salah’s motivations lie elsewhere.”If he cared that much about money, he would have accepted earlier offers from Gulf clubs,” he told AFP.”What matters to Salah is his career and his legacy.”Salah’s journey from the Nile Delta village of Nagrig to global stardom at Anfield has inspired millions.His rise is a classic underdog story — starting at Egypt’s El Mokawloon, moving to Switzerland’s Basel, enduring a tough spell at Chelsea, finding form at AS Roma and ultimately becoming one of the Premier League’s greatest players.”Salah is an Egyptian star we are all proud of,” said Hany.”Saudi Arabia is money, but Salah deserves more. He still has so much ahead of him.”

At a Damascus air base once off-limits under Bashar al-Assad, a crew now films a TV series about the final months of the ousted leader’s rule as seen through the eyes of a Syrian family.”It’s hard to believe we’re filming here,” director Mohamad Abdul Aziz said from the Mazzeh base, which was once also a detention centre run by Assad’s air force intelligence branch, known for its crueltyThe site in the capital’s southwestern suburbs “used to be a symbol of military power. Now we are making a show about the fall of that power”, he told AFP.Assad fled to Russia as an Islamist-led offensive closed in on Damascus, taking it without a fight on December 8 last year after nearly 14 years of civil war and half a century of Assad dynasty rule.The scene at the Mazzeh base depicts the escape of a figure close to Assad, and is set to feature in “The King’s Family” filmed in high-security locations once feared by regular Syrians.The series is to be aired in February during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, prime-time viewing in the Arab world, when channels and outlets vie for the attention of eager audiences.Dozens of actors, directors and other show-business figures who were opposed to Assad have returned to Syria since his ouster, giving the local industry a major boost, while other series have also chosen to film at former military or security sites.- ‘Impossible before’ -“It’s a strange feeling… The places where Syria used to be ruled from have been transformed” into creative spaces, Abdul Aziz said.Elsewhere in Damascus, his cameras and crew now fill offices at the former military intelligence facility known as Palestine Branch, where detainees once underwent interrogation so brutal that some never came out alive.”Palestine Branch was one of the pillars of the security apparatus — just mentioning its name caused terror,” Abdul Aziz said of the facility, known for torture and abuse.Outside among charred vehicles, explosions and other special effects, the team was recreating a scene depicting “the release of detainees when the security services collapsed”, he said.Thousands of detainees were freed when jails were thrown open as Assad fell last year, and desperate Syrians converged on the facilities in search of loved ones who disappeared into the prison system, thousands of whom are still missing.Assad’s luxurious, high-security residence, which was stormed and looted after he fled to Russia, is also part of the new series.Abdul Aziz said he filmed a fight scene involving more than 150 people and gunfire in front of the residence in Damascus’s upscale Malki district.”This was impossible to do before,” he said.- ‘Fear’ -The series’ scriptwriter Maan Sakbani, 35, expressed cautious relief that the days of full-blown censorship under Assad were over.The new authorities’ information ministry still reviews scripts but the censor’s comments on “The King’s Family” were very minor, he said from a traditional Damascene house where the team was discussing the order of scenes.Sakbani said he was uncertain how long the relative freedom would last, and was waiting to see the reaction to the Ramadan productions once they were aired.Several other series inspired by the Assad era are also planned for release at that time, including “Enemy Syrians”, which depicts citizens living under the eyes of the security services.Another, “Going Out to the Well”, directed by Mohammed Lutfi and featuring several prominent Syrian actors, is about deadly prison riots in the infamous Saydnaya facility in 2008.Rights group Amnesty International had called the facility a “human slaughterhouse”.”The show was written more than two years ago and we intended to film it before Assad’s fall,” Lutfi said.But several actors feared the former authorities’ reaction and they were unable to find a suitable location since filming in Syria was impossible.Now, they plan to film on site.”The new authorities welcomed the project and provided extensive logistical support and facilities for filming inside Saydnaya prison,” Lutfi said.As a result, it will be possible “to convey the prisoners’ suffering and the regime’s practices — from the inside the actual location”, he said.