Report notes regional disparities, BEIRUT: An international study estimates that the poverty ratio in Lebanon is around 28.5 of the population, accounting for almost a million Lebanese, with 8 percent of the population, or almost 300,000 individuals, living under conditions of extreme poverty. These figures were disclosed by the International Poverty Center (IPC), an institute jointly supported by the Brazilian Institute for Applied Economic Research (IPEA) and the Bureau for Development Policy at the United Nations Development Program
"This means that the ratio of the nonpoor in Lebanon is at 71.5 percent. This level compares well to that prevailing around 10 years ago in 1997, as national accounts statistics suggest that the growth in real per-capita private consumption was at a notable average of 2.75 percent annually, since 1997," said the study, which was published by Bank Audi’s Lebanon Weekly Monitor on Tuesday. But the IPC stressed that the distribution of this growth in consumption across different regions within Lebanon was again uneven.
"It was the highest in Beirut, at around 5 percent annually, which is not surprising, considering the widespread investment and job creation that took place in the capital after 1997. Also, a higher-than-average growth rate was observed in the South and Bekaa, as it reached 4 percent annually. On the other hand, Mount Lebanon and the North saw trivial growth in consumption, which translated into a relative decline in their mean per-capita expenditure compared to the overall average," the IPC said.
BKIRKI: Maronite Patriarch Nasrallah Butros Sfeir said Tuesday a new president should be elected "as soon as possible," reiterating his support for the head of the Lebanese Armed Forces, General Michel Suleiman. "We support Suleiman because the country needs a president who is for all the Lebanese and who does not distinguish between one party and another," Sfeir said. "The Lebanese are now divided, some are with the East and some with the West," the patriarch added, urging them to be only Lebanese. 
BEIRUT (AFP) Feb 10- At least two people were wounded in an exchange of fire between supporters of rival political factions in Lebanon, a security official said, further heightening tensions in the troubled country. The incident occurred as a convoy of supporters from the Progressive Socialist Party of Druze leader Walid Jumblatt was driving past the local headquarters of the rival Lebanese Democratic Party in Aley, about 15 kilometres (eight miles) east of Beirut the official told AFP. "Shots were heard and a passer-by was wounded by a stray bullet," he said, describing his condition as serious. He said a girl who was travelling in the party convoy was slightly injured. An official from Jumblatt’s party — which is part of the ruling anti-Syrian coalition — told AFP that four people were injured when the convoy came under fire.
Druze leader Walid Jumblatt, a key figure in Lebanon’s ruling anti-Syrian majority, on Sunday launched a verbal assault on the opposition, warning his side was ready for war. "You want disorder? It will be welcomed. You want war? It will be welcomed. We have no problem with weapons, no problem with missiles. We will take them from you," Jumblatt told a news conference.
Los Angeles Times 
Mona Alami , Inter Press, BEIRUT: A bomb tears through the bustling Chevrolet area on the outskirts of Beirut. Bad news travels fast: Captain Wissam Eid from the Internal Security Forces has been killed in the blast. This is a typical day for Lebanese citizens. The past year has already been grim for most Lebanese businesses. Crisis after crisis has weighed down heavily on the land of the cedars. A permanent protest movement, security problems, a summer war in a Palestinian refugee camp, and sporadic bombings have brought Lebanon to its knees. 
BEIRUT (AFP) – Lebanese Shiite opposition chief Hasan Nasrallah and Christian ally Michel Aoun on Wednesday demanded veto power in a future government to solve the country’s protracted presidential crisis. In a rare joint television interview on the second anniversary of their controversial alliance, Nasrallah and Aoun also insisted that their union helped spare Civil War. 
by Jocelyne Zablit, BEIRUT (AFP) Lebanon’s army arrested 17 people on Saturday, including several soldiers, over the shooting deaths of seven people during protests in Beirut that raised fears of civil unrest in a country already gripped by political crisis. "In light of the events that took place on January 27 in the region of Mar Michael and Shiyah and that led to the deaths of seven civilians and left a number of people injured, including soldiers, the military police ordered these arrests," a statement said. 
