Lebanon

BEIRUT — Lebanon decided Thursday to prolong a total lockdown by two weeks to stem an unprecedented rise in coronavirus cases and protect its collapsing health sector.

Lebanese officials imposed an extremely strict nationwide lockdown Thursday as coronavirus cases spiked and the prospects for widespread vaccinations grew dim.

Pope Francis has written a Christmas letter to the people of Lebanon, sending condolences for their sufferings while wishing them hope and peace.

The Hezbollah terrorist group in Lebanon has begun legal action against those who claim the Shiite movement was responsible for the Beirut port blast, claiming such allegations are an “insult” and “a terrible injustice.”

(AFP) — A swathe of new restrictions to curtail a second wave of coronavirus infections were announced or came into force from Austria to Greece, Italy to Portugal on Saturday as the global death toll climbed above 1.3 million.

Hundreds of highly qualified doctors are leaving Lebanon following some of the most turbulent years in the country’s history, undermining its reputation as the medical capital of the Middle East.

Hassan Nasrallah, leader of the Lebanese terrorist organization and political party Hezbollah, gloated on Wednesday over the “humiliating downfall” of U.S. President Donald Trump in the 2020 election.

The Beirut Bar Association on Wednesday presented Lebanon’s public prosecutor with nearly 700 criminal complaints from victims of the Beirut port blast in August.

Saad Hariri was designated as the next prime minister of Lebanon on Thursday, his fourth time at bat since 2009 — The previous prime minister-designate, Moustapha Adib, resigned on September 27, barely a month after receiving his appointment.

A German court has ruled that a migrant who refused to shake a female official’s hand at a naturalisation ceremony should be denied citizenship.

Ex-Lebanese Prime Minister Saad al-Hariri is poised to lead the embattled nation yet again, recent reports indicate. Hariri resigned from the role a year ago after mass protests demanded government reform to address Lebanon’s ongoing financial crisis. He served as

BEIRUT, Lebanon — With no new government in sight to adopt reforms that would release urgently needed international aid, poverty is growing in Lebanon, with a pervasive fear that it’s going to get worse.

A report published Wednesday by the Atlantic Council details the liaisons linking Venezuela’s socialist Maduro regime to the Shiite jihadist organization Hezbollah and its Iranian affiliates, helping Venezuela become “the central hub for the convergence of transnational organized crime and international terrorism in the Western Hemisphere.”

Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah on Tuesday accused Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of “lying” to the United Nations when he exposed what he said was a secret arms depot belonging to the Iranian-backed terror group in a residential area near Beirut’s International Airport.

In his address to the United Nations on Tuesday, Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu exposed a secret arms depot belonging to the Iranian-backed Hezbollah in a residential area near Beirut’s International Airport, warning of another devastating explosion and calling on the Lebanese people to protest against the terror group.

Lebanon suffered another political setback on Saturday when Prime Minister-designate Mustapha Adib, named to the position only a month ago, resigned over his inability to form a government.

Lebanese President Michel Aoun used his address to the 2020 U.N. General Assembly on Wednesday to thank the international community for assisting Lebanon after an explosion rocked Beirut, but also insisted on his country’s sovereignty.

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani delivered a bizarre address to the 2020 U.N. General Assembly in which he claimed Iran single-handedly defeated the Islamic State, portrayed his brutal regime as a paragon of tolerance and human rights, and compared the Iranian people suffering under U.S. sanctions to George Floyd suffering beneath the knee of a policeman.

A weapons depot belonging to the Hezbollah terror group in southern Lebanon exploded on Tuesday, sending shockwaves through the nation just weeks after a similar explosion decimated the port of Beirut.

The huge explosion at Beirut’s port last month laid bare a dockside institution riddled with graft which critics say is a microcosm of a corrupt Lebanese state.

Residents of Beirut, Lebanon, were dismayed on Thursday to see a plume of smoke rising from their seaport only a month after a titanic explosion killed over 200 people and damaged much of the city.

Joe Biden’s claim that he warned America about the coronavirus in January is central to his presidential campaign message. It also happens to repeat a pattern that Biden has displayed throughout his career: falsely claiming to have predicted disaster.

A huge fire broke out Thursday at the Port of Beirut, darkening the sky and sparking panic among residents traumatized by last month’s massive explosion that killed about 190 people and injured 6,000 others.

The Trump administration has blacklisted two former Lebanese ministers, accusing them of conspiring with Iran-backed Hezbollah and participating in widespread corruption at the expense of the Lebanese people.

NICOSIA, CYPRUS (AP) — Cypriot authorities have expressed alarm over the arrival of four boats carrying Syrian and Lebanese migrants in waters off the east Mediterranean island nation’s coastline within a 48-hour span.

The Lebanese military discovered over four tons of ammonium nitrate near Beirut’s port on Thursday, less than a month after a deadly explosion killed nearly 200 people and devastated large parts of the historic city.

BEIRUT — Rescuers resumed a search Friday for possible survivors under rubble in Beirut, buoyed by faint hopes of a miracle a month after a monster blast ripped through the city’s port.

Pope Francis said Wednesday that Lebanon is “more than a state,” it is a “message of freedom,” while calling on Christians everywhere to pray and fast for the troubled nation.

Lebanese Ambassador to Germany Mustapha Adib, 48, was confirmed as the next prime minister of Lebanon in a parliamentary vote on Sunday.

Lebanese President Michel Aoun said on Sunday that he supports calls for Lebanon to become a “secular state,” Agence France-Presse (AFP) reported.