by reuters – RIYADH/BEIRUT — Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Al Hariri visited Saudi Arabia on Wednesday for the first time since his abrupt resignation during a visit there in November set off a major political crisis. Lebanese officials said at the time that Riyadh had forced its long-time ally Hariri to quit and put him […]

by Gulfnews – Sami Moubayed, – Damascus: Lebanon’s long overdue decision, to drill for oil and gas reserves in an offshore water area, has sparked escalating tensions between Beirut and Tel Aviv, threatening, yet again, another military confrontation between the two countries. Israel falsely claims that part of the triangular water area, known as Block 9, is […]

by Naharnet – Senior Saudi official Nizar al-Alula continued his meetings for the second day in a row with Lebanese officials and met on Tuesday with former prime ministers Najib Miqati and Tammam Salam and Fouad Saniora. The ex-Premiers have received the Saudi diplomat at their residences in the presence of Saudi ambassador to Lebanon […]

by Mxolisi Mngadi – mg.co.za – Two Lebanese citizens are expected to appear at the Kempton Park Magistrate’s Court on Monday for allegedly illegally exporting components of drones to Hezbollah in Lebanon. Johannesburg-based businessman Usama Darwich Hamade, 53, was arrested at his Kempton Park home, while his brother Issam Hamade, 55, was arrested at OR Tambo International Airport after he […]

BY KARISSA BELL – Mashable – Vero, a photo-sharing app that launched in 2015, is the latest app to benefit from ongoing frustration with Instagram’s hated algorithm. A week ago, the app was ranked so low it didn’t even appear in the App Store’s top 1,500 apps; today it’s the most popular app in the entire App […]

BEIRUT – Arabnews – In a message from King Salman to Lebanese President Michel Aoun, Saudi envoy Nizar Al-Aloula reaffirmed his country’s “support for Lebanon and its sovereignty and stability,” the presidential palace said in a statement. Al-Aloula, who arrived in Beirut on Monday, also reaffirmed “the strong relations between Lebanon and Saudi Arabia, while […]

BEIRUT(Xinhua) — Lebanese President Michel Aoun said Monday that Lebanon sought stability in the south, but was ready to defend itself if attacked by Israel, in a meeting with the top UN peacekeeper Monday at the presidential palace in Baabda. United Nations Under-Secretary-General for Peacekeeping Operations Jean-Pierre Lacroix over the weekend made his first visit to […]

JERUSALEM (Reuters) – Church leaders in Jerusalem shut the Church of the Holy Sepulchre on Sunday in protest at a new Israeli tax policy and a proposed land expropriation law which they called an unprecedented attack on Christians in the Holy Land. Roman Catholic, Greek Orthodox and Armenian church leaders said the holy site, a […]

  by Rami Rayees – Thearabweekly.com Energised by a new electoral system of proportional representation, Lebanon continues to push towards its parliamentary elections in May. However, weighed down by a bloated public sector and an economic system that prioritises tourism and services at the expense of the wider economy, electoral reform is unlikely to have much of an […]

by ctvnews.ca — Residents of the Lebanese city of Tripoli donned bright, curly wigs and dark body paint last Sunday for Zambo, a festival on the eve of the start of the Orthodox Christian period of Lent. The origins of the annual celebration remain unclear and it only seems to take place in a seaside suburb of Tripoli, […]