CAIRO -- China provided on Thursday a batch of Sinopharm COVID-19 vaccines to the Arab League (AL) general secretariat in Cairo, the Chinese embassy in Egypt said in a statement.

"This is a vivid interpretation of the China-Arab community of health and wellness, and it marks another solid step towards building a China-Arab community with a shared future," Chinese Ambassador to Egypt Liao Liqiang was quoted as saying in the statement. (China-Arab League-Vaccine)

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CAIRO -- Egypt and China signed on Thursday a deal to conduct cooperation on technology incubators, the Chinese embassy in Cairo said.

The deal was signed by Shanghai Institute of Microsystem and Information Technology (SIMIT) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences with Egypt's Electronics Research Institute (ERI), the embassy said in a statement. (Egypt-China-Tech Incubators-Cooperation)

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RAMALLAH -- Palestine on Thursday extended its coronavirus-related state of emergency by a month following an increase in confirmed COVID-19 cases.

In a decree issued by Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, the state of emergency was extended effective immediately so as to give the government enough power to tackle the increase in coronavirus cases.(Palestine-COVID19 Emergency State-Extension)

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ANKARA -- Nine soldiers were killed on Thursday when a military helicopter crashed in eastern Turkey, the Turkish Defense Ministry said.

"Nine heroic soldiers fell as martyrs and four were injured in the accident," the ministry said in a statement.

The contact with the Cougar-type military helicopter, which took off from the eastern province of Bingol to the Tatvan town at 1:55 p.m. local time (1055 GMT), was cut off at 2:25 p.m., the ministry said. (Turkey-Helicopter-Crash)