Beirut Archives - ArabAmericanNews

Posts tagged with "Beirut"

Lebanon

Businessman Mikati secures votes to be designated Lebanon PM

July 26th, 20210 BEIRUT - Wealthy Lebanese businessman Najib Mikati secured enough votes in parliamentary consultations on Monday to be designated the next prime minister. Mikati, who has been prime minister twice before and unlike many Lebanese leaders does not hail from a political bloc or dynasty, received 72 votes out of a total of 118 members of...

Lebanon

Lebanon is “days away” from social explosion, PM Diab warns

July 6th, 20210 BEIRUT — Lebanon is a few days away from a social explosion, caretaker Prime Minister Hassan Diab warned on Tuesday, calling on the international community to save a country in deep economic crisis. The World Bank has called Lebanon's crisis one of the worst depressions of modern history. The currency has lost more than 90 percent...

Lebanon

Lebanon’s lights may go off as cash for electricity runs out

May 7th, 20210 BEIRUT – Lebanon's lights may go off this month because cash for electricity generation is running out, a lawmaker said on Thursday, as the country grapples with a deep economic crisis. Lebanon's parliament had approved a $200 million emergency loan to finance fuel imports for power generation in March, but a committee reviewing the...

World

Well-known Lebanese composer Samir Sfeir believed to be detained in Saudi Arabia for unknown reasons

April 28th, 20210 BEIRUT — Samir Sfeir, a well-known Lebanese music composer, is believed to be detained in Saudi Arabia for unknown reasons, according to local media and international news sources. Sfeir has sung about Lebanon’s President Michel Aoun and is said to be close to the president’s party. He is from Ajaltoun, Lebanon. The Lebanese...

COMMUNITY

Lebanese president Aoun fears chaos as crisis bites

April 2nd, 20210 BEIRUT — Lebanon’s President Michel Aoun said on Wednesday the country could face chaos before it can recover from a financial meltdown. Crushed under a mountain of debt and decades of graft, Lebanon has plunged into its worst crisis since the 1975-1990 civil war. Aoun, a former army commander, and Saad al-Hariri, a three-time...

Lebanon

Lebanon’s largest Christian bloc warns against sidelining president

March 27th, 20210 BEIRUT — Lebanon’s largest Christian bloc, the Free Patriotic Movement (FPM), warned prime minister-designate Saad al-Hariri on Saturday against sidelining President Michel Aoun and other parliamentary blocs in talks over forming a cabinet. Hariri and Aoun have been at loggerheads over the cabinet for months, dashing hopes of a...

COMMUNITY

Roadblocks cleared in Lebanon after week of protests

March 12th, 20210 BEIRUT — Growing resentment and outrage among the Lebanese led to eight days of protests this week, with protesters using burnt tires to block roadways across the country in anger over the nation's economic meltdown and political deadlock amid a pandemic lockdown. The Lebanese army said on Wednesday it had started clearing...

Lebanon

Lebanese anger at economy grows as political deadlock persists

March 6th, 20210 BEIRUT — Protesters blocked some roadways in Lebanon for a second day on Wednesday, after the currency’s fall to a new low further enraged a population long horrified by the country’s financial meltdown. In the past year, Lebanon has been through a popular uprising against its political leaders, the bankruptcy of the state and...

COMMUNITY

Toni Breidinger: First Arab American female driver to compete at NASCAR

February 12th, 20211 NORTH CAROLINA — Toni Breidinger, 21, a rising star in the car racing world, is set to become the first Arab American female driver to compete in a NASCAR national series. Breidinger, who is also a successful model, hails from the Bay Area in California. Her mother was born in Beirut and Breidinger currently has family in...

COMMUNITY

Lebanese filmmaker and Hezbollah critic Lokman Slim shot dead

February 5th, 20210 BEIRUT — Activist, publisher and filmaker Lokman Slim was found dead in a car in Southern Lebanon on Thursday. Slim died from four bullets in the head and one in the back. Slim’s sister Rasha al-Ameer suggested he had been murdered because of his ardent criticism of Shi’a Hezbollah. He was last seen after visiting a poet...

COMMUNITY

In locked-down Lebanon, protester killed in night of unrest

January 28th, 20210 TRIPOLI — A man was killed in the Lebanese city of Tripoli on Thursday in clashes between security forces and protesters angry over a strict lockdown that has cut off livelihoods in a collapsing economy. Omar Taybah, 30, was hit by a bullet overnight, according to a local hospital that treated him, a security source and...

COMMUNITY

Lebanon’s COVID-19 spike overwhelms battered hospitals and exhausted doctors

January 18th, 20210 BEIRUT — COVID-19 patients wait on pavements outside hospitals in Beirut, where emergency rooms are packed and intensive care beds full. Inside, exhausted healthcare workers are succumbing themselves — doctors at one hospital, asking not to be named, said around 40 percent of staff were sick or in isolation. Countries...

COMMUNITY

Lebanon orders three-week lockdown to fight virus spread

January 4th, 20210 BEIRUT - Lebanon announced a full lockdown for three weeks, including a night curfew, to stem a rise in COVID-19 infections that threatens to overwhelm hospitals in a country already facing financial meltdown. Caretaker Health Minister Hamad Hasan said the lockdown would start on Thursday and run until Feb. 1, with further details on...

COMMUNITY

Lebanon’s airline warns of new ticket challenge facing dollar account holders

December 20th, 20200 BEIRUT — The head of Lebanon’s airline said on Sunday the carrier would at some point need to demand payment for tickets bought in Lebanon using “fresh dollars”, or recently transferred currency that is not subject to restrictions imposed since a financial crisis. Middle East Airlines (MEA) Chairman Mohamad El-Hout did not...

COMMUNITY

Two ex-ministers snub judge after being charged over Beirut blast

December 16th, 20200 BEIRUT — Two former Lebanese ministers charged with negligence over a huge explosion at Beirut port in August that killed 200 people snubbed a judge on Wednesday by not turning up for questioning. Judge Fadi Sawan charged three former ministers and the caretaker prime minister last week, sparking fierce debate about whether he had...

COMMUNITY

Lebanon’s president seeks evidence behind U.S. sanctions on son-in-law

November 9th, 20200 BEIRUT — President Michel Aoun said on Saturday that Lebanon would seek evidence and documents from the United States that led Washington to impose sanctions on his son-in-law, Gebran Bassil, a prominent Christian politician. On Friday, the United States blacklisted Bassil, leader of Lebanon’s biggest Christian political...

COMMUNITY

What does Israel have against Palestinian singer Mohammed Assaf?

November 4th, 20200 Why does Israel hate Palestinian singer Mohammed Assaf? On October 16, Avi Dichter, Israeli member of Parliament from the right-wing Likud Party, announced that Assaf’s special permit to enter the occupied Palestinian West Bank would be revoked. Assaf, originally from Gaza, now lives with his family in the United Arab Emirates....

COMMUNITY

In Beirut port, all of Lebanon’s ills are laid bare

October 28th, 20200 BEIRUT — The first of many warnings about a deadly cargo in Beirut’s port came in February 2014, about three months after its arrival. It was made by Colonel Joseph Skaf, described by his family as a diligent customs official. Skaf, then the head of the anti-narcotics and money laundering division, informed the customs authority...

COMMUNITY

Children with cancer need immediate help in the wake of Beirut blast

August 21st, 20200 DEARBORN — Jackie Ayoub, a PhD candidate at the University of Michigan-Dearborn, has set up a GoFundMe page to accept donations that will go towards helping patients of the pediatric oncology unit at Saint George Hospital in Beirut. The unit was badly damaged along with the hospital in the Aug. 4 explosion at the city's port. Now...

COMMUNITY

Tlaib, Dingell lead effort to urge temporary deportation protections for Lebanese nationals after Beirut blast

August 20th, 20200 WASHINGTON, D.C. — U.S. Reps. Rashida Tlaib (D-Detroit) and Debbie Dingell (D-Dearborn) are co-leading an effort to put pressure on the Trump administration to use its powers to defer deportation of Lebanese nationals in light of the Aug. 4 Beirut explosion. The relief effort for the people of Lebanon comes after the Beirut...

Art & Culture

Julia Yezbick explores the uncertainty of belonging, identity in “Marratein, Marratein”

August 19th, 20200 DETROIT — The ART X Detroit (AXD) festival, a twice-yearly festival showcasing works from Kresge Foundation fellows conducting projects in Detroit, Highland Park and Hamtramck, celebrated those works in a virtual celebration on Wednesday evening. AXD organizers say the 22 commissioned pieces showcased this year reflect on “the...

Lebanon

Subdued atmosphere dominates protest in front of the Lebanese embassy in Washington, D.C.

August 18th, 20200 WASHINGTON, D.C. — Between 50 and 60 individuals from the Lebanese diaspora gathered in front of Lebanon’s Embassy in Washington, D.C. on Sunday afternoon. They demonstrated to show solidarity with, and demand justice for, the victims of the Beirut blast. Compared to the demonstrations held last year at the height of the...

Lebanon

U.N. tribunal convicts main defendant in Hariri assassination case

August 18th, 20200 LEIDSCHENDAM, Netherlands — On Tuesday, a U.N.-backed tribunal convicted Salim Jamil Ayyash, allegedly a member of the Hezbollah group, of conspiring to kill former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik al-Hariri in a 2005 bombing that set the stage for years of confrontation between Lebanon’s political forces. Hariri, a Sunni Muslim...

International

Lebanese continue their recovery efforts and demand reform, U.S. joins Beirut blast probe

August 14th, 20200 BEIRUT — Another day of unrest and protests in Beirut on Thursday, as Lebanese security forces tried to stop angry protesters from approaching a meeting of MPs. The MPs gathered for the first time since the port side blast that killed 172 people on Tuesday, Aug. 4, with dozens still missing. The death and injury toll (estimated...

COMMUNITY

Lebanon’s government resigns after outrage over deadly Beirut blast

August 10th, 20200 BEIRUT — On Monday, Lebanese Prime Minister Hassan Diab announced the official resignation of his government after a powerful Beirut port explosion sparked outrage and protests against the country’s leaders. The massive explosion that devastated the capital last Tuesday killed some 200 people and wounded 6,000 others. Diab...

COMMUNITY

After going viral, the bride from Beirut tells her story

August 8th, 20200 BEIRUT — Aug. 4, 2020 was meant to be the happiest day of Israa Al Seblani’s life, but it quickly turned to be the most terrifying. Al Seblani is the bride from the now viral video shoot taken during the explosion in Beirut that has killed more than 150 people and injured more than 5,000 more. “The first thought that...

COMMUNITY

Breaking: Huge explosion rocks Beirut, dozens dead, thousands injured

August 4th, 20200 BEIRUT — A huge explosion in Beirut has caused at least 78 deaths and 4,000 injuries. The explosion sent a shockwave across the Lebanese capital, creating massive destruction, shattering windows and collapsing apartment balconies. Social media became flooded with videos and photos from eyewitnesses on the ground soon after the...

International

Lebanese foreign minister quits over slow reforms, Aoun adviser takes over

August 3rd, 20200 BEIRUT (REUTERS) — Lebanon named the president’s diplomatic adviser as new foreign minister on Monday after Nassif Hitti quit the post, blaming a lack of political will to enact reforms to halt a financial meltdown, which he warned could turn Lebanon into a failed state. Foreign donors have...

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