Al Jazeera –

Despite a deadly sandstorm blanketing the country, thousands of people are planning to protest in Lebanon’s capital Beirut, the latest demonstration in a campaign against government’s failure to provide basic services like rubbish collection. 

The protests on Wednesday will coincide with a dialogue session by political leaders to tackle the issues that have led to months of political deadlock.

In an attempt by authorities to prevent clashes with the protesters, Beirut’s centre was completely blocked off with barbed wire and metal barriers on Wednesday morning.

Beirut (AFP) – Protesters angry over a lack of basic services and Lebanon’s political paralysis returned to Beirut’s streets on Wednesday as party leaders met seeking to end months of gridlock.

A protest movement across Lebanon’s sectarian fault lines has sprung up, initially motivated by a trash collection crisis but increasingly focused on the country’s stagnant political class.

On Wednesday, as politicians arrived downtown, the first batch of protesters threw eggs at their convoys, chanting: "Thieves, thieves, get out!"

Authorities beefed up security measures, erecting large metal barricades preventing access to parliament where political figures were meeting.

Al Jazeera

File Photo – September 14 2008

Beirut – As Lebanon braces itself for another round of popular protests this week by civil society activists, the country’s politicians are scrambling to achieve an agreement on pressing political issues that have so far kept the government in a political deadlock for months.

On Wednesday, a new round of dialogue is expected to take place following a call by parliament speaker Nabih Berri on August 30 to address a number of issues including: the vacant presidency, the parliament and government agenda, as well as the electoral draft law.

A sandstorm shrouds the capital city of Beirut, Lebanon, Tuesday, Sept. 8, 2015. The unseasonal sandstorm hit Lebanon and Syria, reducing visibility and sending dozens to hospitals with breathing difficulties because of the fine dust. (AP Photo/Hussein Malla

Lebanese walk on the Ramlet al-Baida seaside corniche as a sandstorm shrouds the coastal capital of Beirut, Lebanon, Tuesday, Sept. 8, 2015. The unseasonal sandstorm hit Lebanon and Syria, reducing visibility and sending dozens to hospitals with breathing difficulties because of the fine dust. (AP Photo/Hussein Malla)

Lebanese anglers cast fishing poles from a rocky coastal area along the Beirut coastline during a sandstorm in Beirut, Lebanon, Tuesday, Sept. 8, 2015. The unseasonal sandstorm hit Lebanon and Syria, reducing visibility and sending dozens to hospitals with breathing difficulties because of the fine dust. (AP Photo/Hassan Ammar)

Al Jazeera

An unseasonable sandstorm has hit Lebanon and Syria, leaving two people dead and sending hundreds to hospitals for breathing difficulties.

Tuesday’s deaths occurred in Lebanon where at least 750 others were hospitalised for asphyxiation or shortness of breath, the health ministry said.

The meteorological department at Beirut’s Rafik Hariri International Airport described the storm as being "unprecedented" in Lebanon’s modern history.

Visibility was significantly reduced and Beirut’s Traffic Management Centre advised drivers to be cautious in order to avoid accidents.

Raghida Dergham, Al Arabiya

Major world powers’ disregard for Lebanese affairs has allowed regional powers influential in Lebanon to neglect the state, constitution, people and independence. The youth movement that began with the slogan You Stink has sought to rouse the international community from its slumber to force the ruling political class to change, and stop ignoring the constitution and ordinary people’s rights, from having a president to collecting waste.

The youthful civil movement’s call for international intervention is aimed at putting international pressure on regional countries influential in Lebanon to reach accords on many levels, starting with the garbage and electricity crises, as well as the presidential vacuum.

BBC

"Denmark has decided to tighten the regulations concerning refugees in a number of areas," the advert begins.

It warns that Denmark has recently passed legislation cutting benefits by up to 50% for newly arrived refugees.

The governing Venstre (Liberal) party won power in June after running on an anti-immigration platform.

emirates247.com

Lebanese Christian couples take part in a mass wedding at the Maronite Patriarchate in Bkerke on September 6, 2015. Thirty seven couples got married during the event organized by the Maronite league. (AFP)

Lebanese Maronite Christian Patriarch, Cardinal Mar Bechara Boutros al-Rahi (C) poses among couples who took part in a mass wedding at the Maronite Patriarchate in Bkerke on September 6, 2015. Thirty-seven couples got married during the event organised by the Maronite league.  (AFP)

Lebanese Maronite Christian couples take part in a mass wedding at the Maronite Patriarchate in Bkerke on September 6, 2015. Thirty seven couples got married during the event organised by the Maronite league.  (AFP)

Makram Rabah

Following the assassination of former PM Rafik Hariri in 2005, politicians and activists were debating how to brand the opposition movement to demand the immediate withdrawal of the Syrian regime from Lebanon, which was accused of killing Hariri. Many people at the time were eager to pronounce it a revolution, something which the Western media jumped on and coined as “the Cedar Revolution”.

However, Samir Kassir, a prominent columnist and intellectual, later to be assassinated, warned that it was perhaps more appropriate  to describe it as an uprising rather than a revolution. Kassir’s reasoning was plain and simple: the Lebanese had neither the stamina nor the vison to wage a revolution. What was needed was a swift political protest movement with a limited agenda, capable of achieving short-term gains.

Lebanese protestors take part in a gathering in Tyre organised by "You Stink", the non-partisan group that has organised a series of protests against Lebanon’s political class and corruption, September 5, 2015 (AFP Photo/Jihad Siqlawi)

Beirut (AFP) – Only a small number of people turned out Saturday at demonstrations around Lebanon called by the "You Stink" group to protest what they call a corrupt and inept political class.

The collective had called Friday for demonstrations in the coastal city of Tyre and in Zrariyeh, both in southern Lebanon.

On Saturday around 300 people turned out in Tyre, an AFP correspondent said.

"We elected them MPs, and they have become wolves who are never satisfied," banners read.

"Thieves, thieves," people chanted.

Alex Thomson’s View

Dear old UK. Looked at from Beirut you just have to laugh at the British going on about a refugee “crisis”. It seems like parochial angst, leaves on the railway lines or any other such Terribly British Concern. The chattering anxieties of island races with nothing much to worry about.
Not just the UK but the EU generally, talking of a refugee “crisis”. Here in Lebanon they shrug or laugh at this stuff.Why? Because officially Lebanon now has a little over 1.2 million Syrians living here according to the UNHCR. Most Lebanese insist the real figure is two million or more.  All that in a country of around five million.

It is as if Britain absorbed the populations of Birmingham, Greater Manchester, Tyneside, Bristol, the entire central belt of Scotland and many, many more. And all of that in one of the less stable, more politically fractured and long-time president-less countries of the world.