By ZEINA KARAM Associated Press

Police firing tear gas and water cannons battled thousands of Lebanese protesters Saturday demonstrating against government corruption and political dysfunction amid a trash crisis, with the sound of gunfire echoing through the streets into the night.

Footage on local television showed at least one wounded protester among downtown Beirut's Ottoman-era buildings and lavish apartment complexes. An Associated Press journalist saw riot police used batons to beat back protesters while others were carried away, overcome by tear gas. Private television station LBC reported police attacked one of its crew.

UN.org

21 August 2015 – Determining that the situation in Lebanon continues to constitute a threat to international peace and security, the Security Council today decided to extend the present mandate of the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) for one year, until 31 August 2016.

In a unanimously adopted resolution, the 15-member body “strongly” called upon all parties to respect the cessation of hostilities, to prevent any violation of the Blue Line and to respect it “in its entirety.”

By Joseph A. KechichianSenior Writer

Beirut: Lebanese media outlets have revealed that General Michel Aoun, the leader of the Free Patriotic Movement (FPM), has settled on his son-in-law Foreign Minister Jibran Bassil to succeed him.

According to the LBCI television network, Aoun apparently told his apparatchiks that he would also select the two party vice-presidents, one of whom was expected to be his nephew, Alain Aoun. Bassil is married to Chantale Aoun with whom he has three children.

Aoun told senior members gathered in his Rabieh home that “the agreement over the elections [scheduled for September 20, 2015] was based on the will of the majority,” and that he blessed it, even if the exercise prevented the party’s estimated 14,000 members from actually voting for any candidates.

Roula Khalaf

I must have passed the yellow house on Sodeco square a thousand times, giving no more than a fleeting thought to its ravaged façade. I figured it was another desolate building bearing the scars of the 1975-1990 civil war that no one had bothered to fix up.

While much of Beirut was beautified with renovations over the past two decades and some old buildings were torn down to make way for modern constructions, others had remained stuck in time