CAIRO, December 12, 2010 (From AFP) - Winds, rain, sandstorms and hail battered the southern and eastern Mediterranean on Sunday, killing at least five people, closing ports and disrupting traffic in the Suez Canal. Winds topped 100 kilometres (60 miles) per hour and waves reached up to 10 metres (32.8 feet) tall as cities in Lebanon and Israel suffered power cuts. At least three people were killed in Egypt when a factory collapsed in heavy rain in the densely populated northern port city of Alexandria. Six others were also seriously injured in the collapse, a security official said, adding that 30 people could have been working in the six-storey factory. The official Egyptian MENA news agency reported that streets in the northern Beheira governorate were inundated and its cities and villages also experienced power cuts. The storms, which briefly disrupted flight schedules, come after unseasonably high temperatures and a lack of rain ravaged forests across the region and left farmers struggling to survive. An Italian container ship was also stranded off Egypt's northwestern coast of Marsa Matruh after its engines broke down, with 21 crew on board still waiting to be rescued. In Egypt, the bad weather forced several ports to close and disrupted traffic in the Suez Canal, which links the Mediterranean to the Red Sea. The waterway was hit by poor visibility and winds of up to 40 knots an hour, said an official at the canal, Egypt's third-largest source of foreign revenue after tourism and remittances from expatriate workers. The authorities barred south-bound ships from entering the waterway, and north-bound traffic from the Red Sea was limited.

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