by thearabweekly.com -- BEIRUT – Lebanon’s top Christian cleric has urged President Michel Aoun to set up a reconciliation meeting with Prime Minister-designate Saad Hariri to form a cabinet and end the country’s political deadlock. “The tragic state of the country and the people does not justify any delay in the forming of (new) government,” Maronite Patriarch Bechara Boutros al-Rai said at his Sunday sermon at his seat in Bkirki. “The door leading to the road of a solution is the formation of a salvation Cabinet made up of Lebanese elite, personalities who succeeded in Lebanon and the world,” he added. The country’s fractious politicians have been unable to agree on a new administration since the last one quit in the aftermath of the August 4 Beirut port explosion, leaving Lebanon rudderless as it sinks deeper into economic crisis.

Tensions between Aoun and Hariri, who publicly traded blame in December after failing to agree to a cabinet, came to a head last week when a leaked video showed Aoun apparently calling Hariri a liar. Rai said at his Sunday sermon that the situation in Lebanon was now “tragic” and there was no excuse to further delay forming a government. “We wish that his Excellency the president takes the initiative and invites the prime minister-designate to a meeting,” he said. Veteran Sunni politician Hariri was named premier for a fourth time in October, promising to form a cabinet of specialists to enact reforms necessary to unlock foreign aid, but political wrangling has delayed the process. The leaked video that circulated on social media last week showed Aoun talking to caretaker Prime Minister Hassan Diab about Hariri. “There is no government formation, he (Hariri) is saying he gave me a paper, he is lying,” Aoun is heard saying. Sources in the president’s office said the dialogue had been taken out of context and was not complete. After the video circulated, Hariri tweeted Biblical verses referring to wisdom not residing in bodies that were amenable to sin.

by arabnews.com -- NAJIA HOUSSARI -- BEIRUT: Lebanon’s health minister in the caretaker government, Hamad Hassan, who is in hospital fighting a coronavirus infection, has signed the first payment of financial dues for government and private hospitals from the country’s World Bank loan. The decision came after hospitals protested against delays in the paying of bills for coronavirus treatments. About 15,000 beds have been allocated in Lebanese hospitals for use by COVID-19 patients, with 13,000 in private hospitals and 2,000 in government hospitals. But every bed in Lebanon’s hospitals is occupied, together with emergency departments, where hundreds of patients wait for beds to become available. Lebanon’s nationwide lockdown is scheduled to remain in effect until Monday. It will be reviewed after the country’s infection rate is examined in the coming days. Salma Assi, head of the Medical Equipment and Devices Importers Syndicate, said: “Companies received their requests for oxygen equipment today. Some companies expect to receive their requests during this week and others at the end of the week.”

Lebanon is facing a lack of oxygen machines following a huge surge in demand as the coronavirus pandemic wreaks havoc on the country, with some citizens stockpiling them for private use. Assi said: “A mechanism has been put in place to prevent the monopoly of these machines so that the device is delivered based on a doctor’s order, only if a patient can prove a positive PCR test. “There are a lot of machines on the market. We do not know how they were brought or how effective they are. They were sold on the black market.” Lebanon’s lockdown measures have also been compromised in parts of the country. Health violations were recorded in popular areas after shop owners and craftsmen pretended to close their businesses, but continued to trade behind closed doors.

By By Sandy Fitzgerald -- Newsmax.com -- The late Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. taught that people "must learn to live together as brothers and sisters or perish together as fools," and his message still holds true in a nation that has become increasingly divided, his niece, Alveda King, said Monday, on the federal holiday that honors her uncle. "I believe we can begin to learn to live together as brothers and sisters with personal accountability," King said on Fox News' "Fox and Friends." "We have to realize that we are one human race, not separate races." King said she's personally decided "not to argue, not to fuss, even though my political views may vary and be different from others'." For example, she said, she is "very pro-life" and she will "continue to say that it is a civil wrong to abort a baby" but she won't argue or fight with others about it. "I believe we can heal if we begin to communicate with compassion rather than anger," said King. She added that she believes her uncle's advice today would be to "listen to God." "You have to remember Martin Luther King Jr. was a Baptist preacher, so he would be telling us to look to God and to pray for those who are in authority so that we can have peaceful lives," said King. "So we pray for our leaders, when we don't agree we peacefully make that known. We have other elections and things coming up. We can vote again soon. So be aware of that as well."

By NAJIA HOUSSARI -- arabnews.com -- BEIRUT: Many doctors specializing in bacterial and infectious diseases expect a further jump in the number of people of infected with COVID-19 next week in Lebanon with hospitals exceeding their capacity. On Sunday, the total number of laboratory-confirmed infections exceeded a quarter of a million people in the country. In the first 17 days of the year 67,655 new cases were recorded, and the lockdown period is expected to be extended for at least 10 more days. Suleiman Haroun, head of the Lebanese Syndicate of Private Hospitals, said: “The epidemiological scene in Lebanon reflects part of the reality, not all of it. The real situation will be worse yet.” He said: “All the beds designated for COVID-19 patients in hospitals are occupied, as well as in emergency departments, and there are dozens of patients moving from one hospital to another in search of a bed. Hospitals have exceeded their capacity.”

Pulmonologist and intensive care specialist Dr. Wael Jaroush said: “I have never seen anything like what I see in the hospitals now. I never imagined that I would ever go through such an experience. There is no room for patients in the emergency departments. “They are dying in their homes. Some of them are begging to buy oxygen generators, new or second hand. “The price of a new one is normally $700, yet people are selling used devices for about $5,000, and some patients are forced to buy them in foreign currency, meaning that the patient’s family buy the dollar on the black market for more than LBP8,000.”