By Sunniva Rose -- thenationalnews.com -- The fiance of a 27-year-old firefighter who died in the Beirut port blast last August said he would distribute food parcels to the poor to mark their planned wedding day on Sunday. In an emotional Facebook post, Gilbert Karaan paid tribute to "heroine" Sahar Fares. “Our wedding cocktail will be to provide 100 food boxes in the two towns you loved the most, Jdeideh and Qaa – and some medical examinations for the elderly,” he wrote. Ms Fares, a paramedic, became a symbol of Lebanon’s trauma after the blast. She was the only woman in the team of 10 firefighters dispatched by the Beirut Fire Brigade to extinguish a fire raging at the port early evening on August 4.

All 10 firefighters were killed after rushing to the port to fight the warehouse fire, unaware that the burning building housed a dangerous cocktail of chemicals, including thousands of tonnes of ammonium nitrate. More than 200 people were killed and 6,000 injured in the explosion. Senior government officials, including President Michel Aoun, later admitted that they knew that the ammonium nitrate had been stored unsafely there for years. In media interviews in the aftermath of the explosion, Mr Karaan said he had been on the phone to his fiancee while she ran for cover after the fire intensified and stored items exploded. The line went dead as she ran. The couple had been planning their wedding at the time. Photographs posted by Mr Karaan alongside his Facebook message showed Ms Fares smiling and wearing a white dress.

by reuters --- French prosecutors have opened a preliminary investigation into money laundering allegations against Lebanon’s central bank governor, Agence France-Presse reported on Sunday. Riad Salameh is under investigation in relation to possible conspiracy and organised money-laundering, AFP said, citing a source with knowledge of the case. Salameh's French lawyer Pierre-Olivier Sur dismissed the allegations as a politically motivated "communications operation" in a statement sent to Reuters by the bank governor on Sunday. Responding last month to the underlying legal complaint against him by anti-corruption group Sherpa, Salameh said he had demonstrated that his wealth had been acquired before he took up his bank post in 1993.

The French financial prosecutor's office did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Sherpa filed the complaint against Salameh in April, citing investments including millions of euros in property. Lebanon opened its own investigation in April following a Swiss legal request alleging that more than $300 million had been embezzled from the central bank via a company owned by Salameh’s brother. Salameh had no comment at the time when asked by Reuters about the opening of that investigation and actions related to it, including the sealing of his brother's office and the confiscation of files.

dailystar.com.lb — BEIRUT: The Lebanese pound fell for a fifth day in a row Saturday, trading at LL13,500 against the dollar on …

By NADIM SHEHADI OLGA KAVRAN -- arabnews.com -- NEW YORK CITY / BEIRUT: With the Special Tribunal for Lebanon (STL) facing a severe financial crisis and the threat of imminent shutdown, it is imperative to highlight the significance of its recent judgment and the critical importance of permitting the tribunal to complete its mandate. Shutting down the STL now, on the eve of its second major trial, would send a wrong and dangerous message with implications for international criminal justice as a whole and especially for Lebanon. Amid the continuing assassinations in Lebanon and the region, the STL is a unique demonstration of how a rules-based international order can act through multilateral initiatives as a force for justice. Such an institution would be difficult to create today, with tit-for-tat vetoes paralyzing decisions at the UN Security Council. Shutting the STL down, therefore, would be an irreversible decision, and the resulting damage would be unthinkable.

A new generation in Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, Palestine and around the region is calling for justice and accountability from its leadership and the international community. Backing the tribunal and the completion of its mandate supports these aspirations for a better future. The STL is needed more than ever and we should be discussing its expansion rather than its closure. It is the first tribunal of its kind to consider terrorism as an international crime. Trillions have been spent to battle terrorism; the international community cannot balk at a few million for the only instrument it has to fight terror legally. The STL issued its judgment on Aug. 18, 2020, more than 15 years after former prime minister Rafik Hariri’s assassination and just two weeks after the deadly Aug. 4 port blast. The judgment convicted Salim Ayyash, but stopped short of blaming Hezbollah or the Syrian government. While the verdict was found lacking and largely ignored in Lebanon, there have been continuous calls for international support to achieve justice and accountability for the many unaddressed crimes committed in the country, including the port explosion.