AP – Beirut – Hundreds of protesters showed up in the sweltering summer heat on Saturday evening in downtown Beirut to demonstrate against the sea of garbage taking over the capital’s streets, as Lebanon’s politicians have failed to find a solution.

Using the slogan "You Stink!", and amid a significant security presence, the protesters called for the government to fall. They chanted about moving the garbage – uncollected for a week now – from the streets to the homes of Lebanon’s parliament members. 

Piles of garbage in some areas of the city have risen to several metres in height, as political bickering has stymied any resolution.

Aleppo, Syria, Jul 24, 2015 / 06:07 am (CNA/EWTN News).- With half of Syria’s population displaced due to its ongoing civil war, Church leaders in the country are seeking to send a message of hope and support for the persecuted Christian minority who have chosen to stay.

“At the time of this writing, Aleppo is undergoing a massive assault by jihadists, and bombs have been falling for hours. It is as if everything is being done to scare people and push them to leave,” Melkite Archbishop Jean-Clement Jeanbart of Aleppo wrote in a July 17 letter.

Summer in the city can be rough. But we’ve never seen anything like Beirut, where a malodorous mix of political paralysis and festering garbage has residents in a rage.

(https://www.hrw.org/) It reportedly began as a traffic dispute and ended in a vicious public murder, a man stabbed to death in broad daylight on a busy sidewalk in central Beirut.

Bystanders captured the attack on film and footage clearly shows a man repeatedly stabbing George Ibrahim al-Reef despite pleas from al-Reef’s wife Rola. The authorities later arrested Tarek Yateem, a bodyguard for the powerful chairman of Société Générale de Banque au Liban (SGBL) and charged him with premeditated homicide – a crime punishable by death. Lina Haider, who was traveling in the car with Yateem, is charged with being an accessory to al-Reef’s murder.

The sun has very nearly set on Beirut, and in a bar called Anise, they’re mixing the first cocktail of the evening.There’s vodka, vermouth and iced glasses. And next to the bunches of mint for mojitos are sage, wild oregano, rosemary and the Lebanese favorite, za’atar, a kind of wild thyme.

Here in Lebanon, mixologists and brewmasters are taking a national cuisine and reimagining it in liquid form.

Anise is one leader in this trend for cocktails with herbs usually found in salads or breads. Co-owner Marwan Matar says that since the bar opened a couple of years ago, he’s been bringing trunkfuls of herbs from his family’s village.

AFP

King Salman of Saudi Arabia is expected to arrive in France later on Friday for a Riviera beach holiday, bringing with him no fewer than 1,000 people from his entourage.

While the king’s three-week visit is a boon for the local economy, it has also sparked anger due to the closure of a public beach for the privacy and security of the royal party.

The king’s inner circle will be put up at the family’s private villa, which stretches across a kilometer of Riviera coastline between Antibes and Marseille.

Beirut: The humid summer air of Beirut has started to reek as uncollected trash piles up in the streets after protesters shut down Lebanon’s largest landfill at a time of political paralysis.

Residents walking by the garbage spilling out of dumpsters and into the paths of passing cars lift their shirts or scarves over their noses to protect themselves from the smell.

The growing heaps have been dusted with white poison powder to keep away rats and insects, but the measure does little to combat the odour.

The US Defense Security Cooperation Agency (DSCA) has notified Congress of a potential foreign military sale (FMS) of BGM-71 tube-launched, optically-tracked, wireless-guided (TOW) 2A missiles and associated equipment to Lebanon.

Under the estimated $245m sale, the Lebanese Government has requested the supply of 1000 BGM-71E-4B-RF 2A Tow anti-armour radio-frequency missiles, along with 500 BGM-71-H-1-RF tow bunker buster radio frequency missiles, and 50 M220A2 TOW launchers.

BABAK DEHGHANPISHEH, Reuters

An unlikely group in the Middle East has found common ground in recent days: Saudi Arabia, Israel and hardliners within Iran have all made clear they consider the landmark nuclear deal between Tehran and world powers a very bad idea.

All of these players feel a direct threat to their power and influence as a result of last Tuesday’s agreement.

For the first time in more than three decades, Iran, a country with a highly educated population of some 80 million and huge oil and gas reserves, is poised to rejoin the international community and the result could be profound change both inside and outside the country.