By Riva Gold, Editor at LinkedIn News — Google will delete inactive accounts starting in December, it announced in a blog post. …

By Laure Delacloche -- BBC --- Sonia Constantin's fridge and water boiler are plugged in. Sitting on her sofa with her sister, she appreciates the rediscovered comfort of her home in Beirut, Lebanon's capital – now fully supplied with electricity. A Lebanese professor of educational sciences, Constantin decided to invest $6,500 (£5,140) of her savings in nine solar panels and a battery last September. "We are not looking for a life of luxury, we simply want dignity," she tells me. The investment allowed her to unsubscribe from the privately owned diesel-powered generators which supply power to most households in Beirut. "I have since resumed a normal life: I can charge my phone whenever I want."

Lebanon's national grid has struggled to meet the population's full electricity requirements since the country's civil war began in 1975, forcing consumers to rely on expensive neighbourhood generators to fill the gaps. The civil war ended in 1990 but the grid problems continued. The state provider, Electricity of Lebanon (EDL), ceased supplying power altogether in 2021, when it ran out of fuel, plunging the country into near total blackouts. In Beirut, the blackouts continued for over a year and a half, with EDL only able to provide electricity for an average of 3-4 hours per day.

 by al-monitor.com -- BEIRUT — The death of a Lebanese man in Emirati custody earlier this month has sparked controversy in Beirut, as his family attempts to retrieve the body while United Arab Emirates (UAE) officials deny any wrongdoing in the case. The spat led to a call between the foreign ministers of Lebanon and the United Arab Emirates over the weekend. This past March, UAE authorities arrested Lebanese citizen Ghazi Ezzedine, 55, along with eight other people including his two brothers, on unknown charges, according to the human rights organization Amnesty International. Local reports say Ezzedine died in police custody on May 4 and was buried in the UAE. The family was only notified days later after his son, Fadel, was asked to identify his body at a cemetery in the UAE. He was only allowed to see his father’s face, while the body was kept covered.

The case of Ezzedine, a Shiite who had been working in real estate in the Gulf nation for 30 years, raised questions about the circumstances of his death. In a statement last week, a committee of family members of Lebanese citizens detained in the UAE claimed that Ezzedine died under torture. “If it is found that his death was indeed unlawful, they must ensure that all those suspected of torture and unlawful killing, including those with command responsibility, are held accountable,” Sima Watling, a researcher with Amnesty International, told The Associated Press last Friday. For its part, the Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor called for an “immediate and transparent investigation” into the death of Ezzedine. “The UAE authorities had previously been involved in the illegal detention of foreigners, investigating them and detaining them in inhumane conditions, subjecting them to psychological and sometimes physical torture, and deporting them from the country under broad and unfair security pretexts,” Euro-Med Monitor added in a press statement released last Thursday.

By Saundra Latham, Editor at LinkedIn News — What’s a lonely person to do in modern times? Google how to find friends, …