Severed cables bring down phone lines linking Europe, Asia

Internet and telephone communications between Europe, the Middle East and Asia were severely disrupted after three undersea cables were damaged in the Mediterranean, France Telecom said. “The causes of the cut, which is located in the Mediterranean between Sicily and Tunisia, on sections linking Sicily to Egypt, remain unclear,” a statement said yesterday, while a spokesman said it was unlikely to have been an attack. The company said it was sending a ship to fix the lines but that it would not arrive until Monday and repairs could take until December 31. Sixty-five per cent of traffic to India was down, while services to Singapore, Malaysia, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Taiwan and Pakistan were also severely hit.