The Pigeon Express
A Syrian man died after swallowing gasoline he was siphoning out of his vehicle’s tank with a plastic tube, Lebanon’s national news agency reported. Lebanon is witnessing a paralyzing fuel shortage that has driven the public to hoard gasoline and resort to black-market vendors, while many businesses have been forced to shut down. A diesel […]
Four convoys carrying Iranian fuel have arrived in Lebanon under an initiative by the militant group Hezbollah to ease the country’s crippling energy crisis. Eighty lorries with 4 million litres of diesel on board crossed the border from Syria, where a tanker is docked, Hezbollah’s Al-Manar TV said. The fuel is being imported via Syria […]
Lebanon’s richest man Najib Mikati became the prime minister once again ending over a year of uncertainty after the previous administration quit following the devastating Beirut port explosion. Mr Mikati has held the post of prime minister twice before. His appointment comes as Lebanon grapples with some of the severest domestic crises it has faced […]
At least twenty-eight people were killed and 79 injured when a fuel tank exploded in northern Lebanon early on Sunday, the health ministry said. Reports said the army had seized a fuel storage tank hidden by black marketeers and was handing out gasoline to residents when the explosion occurred. Lebanon is suffering from a severe […]
Several protesters were injured in the northern Lebanese city of Tripoli following demonstrations over the government’s decision to further slash the tumbling currency’s value. The pound has been pegged to the dollar at 1,507 since 1997, but the country’s worst economic crisis in decades has seen its unofficial value plummet. On Saturday, money changers told […]
A Turkey power company that provides electricity to Lebanon from two barges shut down supplies over payment arrears and a legal threat to its vessels amid the country’s economic crisis. Karpowership, the company that supplies 370 megawatts (MW) or about one-quarter of Lebanon’s supply, told the government it would have to shut down in the […]
Public anger against Lebanese politicians amplified on Thursday as pharmacies went on strike and petrol stations rationed scarce fuel amid economic crisis. Politicians since late 2019 failed to agree on a rescue plan to unlock foreign cash that Lebanon desperately needs. “We are really looking at the abyss, seeing it very clearly, and I think […]
Volunteers in Lebanon began cleaning beaches on Saturday after an oil spill deposited tar over large stretches of the coast in the southern part of the country. A storm more than a week ago threw tonnes of the sticky, black substance onto beaches in neighbouring Israel, apparently after leaking from an oil tanker off the […]
A dispute led to a group of Lebanese nationals setting fire to an informal refugee settlement in the country’s north. Lebanon’s army arrested eight people. The army said on Sunday it “arrested two Lebanese nationals and six Syrians over a personal dispute … between a number of Lebanese men and Syrian workers,” according to a […]
The caretaker prime minister of Lebanon, Hassan Diab and three ex-ministers have been with criminal neglect over the huge explosion at Beirut’s port that killed more than 200 people this summer. Diab, as well as two former public works ministers and an ex-finance minister, were accused Thursday of criminal neglect “that led to the death […]
At least 70 inmates have broken out of a prison after smashing their cell doors and attacking prison guards in Lebanon. The mass prison break on Saturday occurred at a facility holding pre-trial detainees in Baabda, a suburb of the Lebanese capital, Beirut. According to a police statement, five of the escaped inmates died when […]
Forest fires in Syria this week have killed at least two people and burned swaths of land, state media reported. Syrian state television on Saturday said hundreds of hectares had burned in the countryside of Syria’s coastal Latakia and Tartus provinces, and in the central Homs province. The health ministry said two people died in […]