By Kyle Stucker -- .seacoastonline.com -- WASHINGTON -- Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, D-N.H., decried Lebanon’s ongoing detention of Dover restaurant owner Amer Fakhoury Wednesday, calling the three-month detention both “illegal” and suggesting his treatment could constitute a human rights violation. Shaheen made the comments during a U.S. Senate Committee on Foreign Relations hearing that involved Lebanon and Iraq. “I think this is a very serious situation that has not been taken seriously by officials of the Lebanese government and they need to be on notice that we are looking very carefully and very closely at what they are doing,” said Shaheen. Going further, Shaheen outlined her office is working with government departments to do “everything we can” to ensure the Lebanese-American is returned home safely.

Lebanese newspaper Al Akhbar and other Middle Eastern outlets have described Fakhoury, 57, the owner of Little Lebanon To Go in downtown Dover, as the “butcher of Khiam.” The reports have alleged Fakhoury tortured inmates and committed other human rights violations while working as a senior warden at Khiam Prison in southern Lebanon in the 1980s and ’90s. Fakhoury’s family and his attorney, Celine Atallah, have denied the claims. Lebanese officials detained Fakhoury, on Sept. 12, eight days after he and his wife, Michelle, arrived in Lebanon for a vacation and to visit family there for the first time in nearly two decades. Amer and Michelle Fakhoury planned a temporary closure of Little Lebanon To Go while they visited Lebanon and other countries on their vacation. The restaurant remains closed. Shaheen said Wednesday that Fakhoury is currently in “very critical” health due to mistreatment, rib fractures, various infections, a 40-pound weight loss and an aggressive form of lymphoma that has developed since he’s been detained “without charge” or due process. Shaheen entered a two-page document into the Senate record Wednesday that she said “clearly indicate(s) that (Fakhoury) is not the individual that the Lebanese and Hezbollah-linked papers allege him to be.”

by AP — Lebanon’s armed forces have deployed near the presidential palace east of Beirut to prevent friction between rival Lebanese protesters …

by bloomberg.com -- Dana Khraiche -- Lebanon’s central bank plans to slash interest rates in an attempt to ease the country’s economic crisis and is considering formalizing temporary capital controls set individually by local lenders. Governor Riad Salameh told the Association of Banks in Lebanon that he will issue a circular within days to lower rates “to revive the economy” and limit the increase in “doubtful” loans, according to a document summarizing the meeting and seen by Bloomberg. The decision may buy much-needed time for Lebanon, which is reeling under its worst financial crisis in decades while authorities struggle to form a government after the resignation of Prime Minister Saad Hariri following weeks of mass protests against corruption and deteriorating living standards.

Salameh said he was considering issuing instructions that would formalize recent restrictions on capital movements imposed by commercial lenders, according to the document. The measures would be temporary until a government is formed and the financial and economic situation returns to normal, the document stipulated. The governor also said that 165 billion Lebanese pounds ($109.2 million) had been withdrawn per day from the central bank in the last two months, and that the bank is waiting for a new batch of pound banknotes to arrive on Dec. 20.

Debt Risk

President Michel Aoun convened a meeting last week that brought together Salameh, the finance minister, the economy minister and the head of the Association of Banks. They tasked the governor with taking “temporary and necessary” steps to protect the stability of the banking system. The crisis has undermined confidence in Lebanon’s ability to repay its vast public debt. The country’s debt risk, measured by credit default swaps, has surged to more than 2,500 basis points, the second-highest after Argentina, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

By Louis Casiano | Fox News — The Trump administration has released $105 million in military assistance to Lebanon after months of delay without providing an …