BEIRUT: Lebanon’s budget deficit in the first eight months of 2013 soared to 28.96 percent of spending compared to 18.48 percent in the same period of 2012, the Finance Ministry said Wednesday. According to the ministry, the deficit reached LL3.952 trillion ($2.63 billion) through August of this year compared to LL2.245 trillion in the same […]

President Michel Suleiman revealed on Thursday evening that he asked security forces and the army to deploy the necessary units to control the security situation in the northern city of Tripoli. Suleiman’s request came as Tripoli has been witnessing intense clashes between the city’s rival neighborhoods of Jabal Mohsen and Bab al-Tabbaneh. "It is not […]

Former deputy Prime Minister and ex-Minister Elias Murr has been appointed the head of the INTERPOL Foundation for a Safer World for a seven-year term. The appointment was made unanimously by INTERPOL’s Executive Committee ahead of the organization’s 82nd General Assembly held in Colombia. The Assembly, which opened in Colombia on Monday, is focusing on […]

 At least 48 percent of Lebanon’s privately-held wealth is concentrated in the hands of some 8,900 citizens — just 0.3 percent of the adult population — according to calculations based on a new report. The nation’s staggering wealth inequality is detailed in Credit Suisse’s Global Wealth Databook 2013, released last week. The distorted wealth figures […]

BEIRUT: President Michel Sleiman vowed Monday to help secure the release of two bishops kidnapped in April by armed men near the Turkish border. A statement from his office said Sleiman’s remarks came during a meeting with senior security and military officers at the presidential palace in Baabda. The meeting addressed ways to improve the […]

This month both Israel and Cyprus were reminded of an important lesson in searching for offshore oil and gas: nothing is guaranteed until you start to drill. Lebanon should pay attention. As recently as early September, Shemen Oil and Gas Resources – an Israeli company chaired by former Israeli Army Chief of Staff Gabi Ashkenazi […]

I’VE spent most of my career covering Middle East politics. I always thought it was its own unique field. But, in the last few weeks, I’ve felt myself to be at a real advantage trying to explain American politics. You see, it turns out that all those years covering Sunnis and Shiites, Israelis and Palestinians, […]

Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi has congratulated the families of the nine pilgrims who were released on Saturday following a 17-month kidnapping ordeal in Syria but called for setting free two bishops and three priests abducted there. During a mass on a pastoral visit to the Metn district, al-Rahi said: “We congratulate their relatives on their […]

Qatari mediation secured the release of the Lebanese pilgrims abducted in Syria. The nine Lebanese Shiite pilgrims who were abducted in Syria’s Azaz last year were freed Friday night after prolonged efforts to release them. The Qatari Foreign Ministry said that “Qatari mediation secured the release of the Lebanese pilgrims abducted in Syria.”   General […]

President Michel Suleiman lamented on Friday that the international community was not sufficiently sharing the burden of the displaced Syrians, who have put a severe strain on Lebanon’s economy. Suleiman told the ambassadors of major powers and U.N. Special Coordinator for Lebanon Derek Plumbly that “the participation of countries in sharing the burden of Syrian […]