by npr.org -- High above the Mediterranean Sea, up a mountain wreathed in springtime mist and drizzle, is the monastery where the beloved Lebanese St. Charbel is buried. A hermit who died in 1898, Charbel was canonized in 1977. He is revered for his healing miracles among Lebanon's Christians, who likely number at least a million. In a country where a financial crisis has left health care threadbare and unreliable, many have begun turning to the saint to ward off the coronavirus. "He gives us faith and strength, especially in this time of sickness," said Elie Badr, standing by the tomb outside the monastery earlier this month. "He is the only cure, in my opinion."

A museum in the monastery's crypt exhibits prostheses and calipers — left behind by people who prayed to Charbel and recovered. The monastery itself is nearly 200 years old and follows the traditions of the Lebanese Maronite Order of monks, founded in 1695. Badr wore a mask, kept his distance and held a small bag of mud, which he had just scooped up with a spoon from the grave. He planned to boil it up at home. "St. Charbel instructed that the soil be boiled and drunk as it is a medicine," he said. He planned to give it to his elderly aunt and mother to drink. His faith in the saint is profound, but he also believes in medical science: he is an X-ray technician in a hospital. "We try as much as we can to help the sick and provide them with services," he said. "And with the strength of St. Charbel, we are able to do our part."

by Massoud A. Derhally and Khaled Yacoub Oweis -- Abdul Halim Khaddam, a former Syrian vice president who turned against President Bashar Al Assad’s rule but was largely shunned by the opposition, died on Tuesday in France. His son Jihad confirmed Khaddam's death to The National from Istanbul. Khaddam was 88 years old. Salah Ayach, a close friend to Khaddam in exile, said he died at 5am of a heart attack. The former vice-president fled Syria after the killing of his Lebanese ally Rafik Hariri in February 2005. A UN investigation implicated senior Syrian security officials in the killing, and an international tribunal in the Netherlands indicted several Hezbollah operatives who are being tried in absentia.

Once seen as a possible successor to Hafez, instead he helped Bashar tighten his grip on power after he took office in June 2000. In the days following the elder Assad’s death, Khaddam pushed through decrees elevating Bashar’s military rank to general and making him commander of the armed forces — key moves in the uncertain process of succession. Khaddam went to Beirut to pay condolences to Hariri's family. He was the only Syrian official at the mourning and by the end of 2005 he relocated to Paris. UN investigators interviewed Khaddam as part of their probe into the assassination as someone with near unmatched insight of the functioning of the Syrian regime. A Baath Party stalwart, Khaddam was a provincial governor in charge of the Golan Heights during the 1967 Arab-Israeli war. Hafez Al Assad was defence minister at the time. The loss of the Golan to Israel did not prevent Hafez Al Assad from becoming president in 1970. Khaddam, a close ally of the new president, became foreign minister and the Syrian regime's softer face of its divide and conquer approach to Lebanon. He set up in France an opposition coalition to the regime that was buoyed by the US invasion of Iraq in 2003, expecting the repercussions to weaken Bashar Al Assad. A few months into the Syrian revolt, which broke out in March 2011, Khaddam said: “If the international community does not react to stop these crimes and protect civilians, the Syrians will be forced to take up arms to defend themselves.”

by arabnews.com -- NAJIA HOUSSARI -- BEIRUT: Lebanese quarantine rules were broken on Monday with hundreds heading to banks to collect their salaries in northern and southern Lebanon. Meanwhile, the Lebanese Army closed shops in violation of the shutdown laws in a Hezbollah security zone in the southern suburb of Beirut. The violations came as eight new confirmed cases of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) were recorded in Lebanon on Sunday and Monday. However, this low number was not shared by the director of the Hariri Governmental University Hospital, Dr. Firas Al-Abyad, as most of the laboratories operate at half capacity on weekends. The number of COVID-19 deaths rose to 11. The Ministry of Health said that the latest fatality was a patient in her 80s suffering from chronic illnesses. A source at the hospital told Arab News: “The quarantine is beginning to show its results now and we have to wait to see the newly infected cases in the coming days. We may reach the peak stage and we are preparing for it medically.”

The Ministry of Health said that “out of 446 people infected with the coronavirus, there are 416 Lebanese and the rest are of 18 other nationalities.” It added: “Between Sunday and Monday, the Lebanese Red Cross transferred 430 suspected cases with COVID-19 symptoms and they are waiting for the results of their tests. There are 1,074 people still quarantined for contact with infected patients. There have been 32 cases of recovery so far.” On Monday, journalist May Chidiac was discharged from hospital after she was diagnosed with COVID-19. She spent a week in the hospital. She told Arab News that she did not need oxygen or a ventilator and that “the longest hour in my life was today when I waited for my sister to take me from hospital to home.”

by middleeasteye.net -- Cheering erupted from balconies and windows in Lebanon on Sunday evening, as the country's citizens celebrated their "heroic" medical workers battling the coronavirus pandemic. The initiative spread online with the Arabic hashtag "a cheer for the heroes", shared by public figures including journalists, actors and the Arab pop star Ragheb Alama. In one Beirut neighbourhood, a woman draped in a Lebanese flag sang the national anthem as her neighbours drummed on pots and pans, an AFP journalist said. Elsewhere, Lebanese played drums and blew vuvuzelas, sharing videos of the street performances online. Similar initiatives have gained attention from Italy to France but they have remained rare in the Arab world.