Breakfast at an upmarket hotel in the Lebanese capital, Beirut, begins at 6.30am. Nearly three quarters of an hour later, the tables are still set and pristine, the buffet untouched. "There is no one," the restaurant manager said, shaking his head. Beirut should be buzzing, if only with expatriates returning to holiday in their homeland.
If rising sea levels force the people of the Maldive Islands to seek new homes, who will look after them in a world already turning warier of refugees? The daunting prospect of mass population movements set off by climate change and environmental disasters poses an imminent new challenge.
Lebanese anti-Syrian parliamentarian Walid Eido was killed with at least seven other people on Wednesday by a blast on Beirut’s seafront, security sources said. One of Eido’s sons was among the dead. Nine people were wounded. Eido, in his 60s, was a member of the majority anti-Syrian parliamentary bloc of Saad al-Hariri, which controls the Beirut government.
Lebanese commandos have blown up the home of the Islamist militia chief in a besieged refugee camp where fighting flared again on Tuesday in the fourth week of a deadly stand-off. Clouds of white smoke billowed into the sky as the army shelled Fatah al-Islam positions in the Nahr al-Bared camp, the epicentre of the deadliest fighting in decades.
Lebanese troops bombarded a Palestinian refugee camp with artillery and tank fire on Monday, pressing ahead with an assault to crush al-Qaeda-inspired militants dug in there. But after 23 days of often ferocious fighting at the Nahr al-Bared camp, the army did not appear any closer to forcing the Fatah al-Islam group to surrender.
Five Lebanese soldiers were killed on Saturday in the latest bout of heavy fighting against al-Qaeda-inspired militants entrenched in a Palestinian refugee camp, a military source said. At least 125 people, including 53 soldiers and 42 militants, have been killed since the fighting began on May 20, making it Lebanon’s worst internal violence since the 1975/1990 civil war.
Lebanese troops shelled al-Qaeda-inspired militants in the Nahr al-Bared Palestinian refugee camp on Saturday, almost three weeks after fighting broke out. The camp, short of food, water and electricity, has been abandoned by most of its 40 000 residents.
Lebanese troops pounded al-Qaeda-inspired militants dug in at a Palestinian refugee camp in north Lebanon on Friday after the gunmen refused demands they give themselves up. Artillery and tanks blasted several areas of the squalid Nahr al-Bared camp, where Fatah al-Islam fighters have shown stiff resistance in nearly three weeks of often ferocious battles.
Lebanese troops and al Qaeda-inspired militants fought sporadically at a refugee camp in north Lebanon on Wednesday and a Palestinian force took up positions to defuse tension at another camp in the south. Soldiers fired artillery at the Nahr al-Bared camp overnight as the army tightened its grip around militants.
Lebanese troops directed artillery and tank barrages at al-Qaeda-inspired militants dug in at a Palestinian refugee camp on Sunday, the third day of an assault to crush the gunmen. After 12 days of sporadic shelling, the army on Friday attacked Fatah al-Islam positions with the declared aim of wiping out the militants.
Fighting erupted again on Friday between troops besieging a Palestinian refugee camp in northern Lebanon and Islamist militants holed up inside, as the stand-off entered its 13th day. There were no immediate reports of casualties in the fire fight at Nahr al-Bared, located on the Mediterranean coast 90km north of the capital, Beirut.
Palestinian leaders on Monday sought to end a bloody stand-off between the Lebanese army and Islamist militants holed up in a refugee camp. The government is giving the main Palestinian factions time to try to deal with the Fatah al-Islam group, which has been battling the army around the Nahr al-Bared camp.
Senior officials in the Palestine Liberation Organisation and Hamas were on Saturday trying to broker an end to the bloody siege of a Lebanese refugee camp, which began last week when the Lebanese army engaged members of Fatah al-Islam, an al-Qaeda-inspired group, after a bank robbery in the city of Tripoli.
Lebanese troops trying to flush out Islamist militants shelled a Palestinian refugee camp for a third day on Tuesday before a fragile truce took hold, allowing aid trucks to reach civilians trapped there. Heavy fighting at Nahr al-Bared camp near the northern city of Tripoli resumed at dawn and subsided only in the afternoon.
Gun battles raged between Lebanese troops and Islamist militiamen on Tuesday, with both sides vowing to pursue the fighting that has killed 58 people in the last three days. Black plumes of smoke billowed into the sky as troops fired tank shells and artillery at positions of al-Qaeda inspired militants from Fatah al-Islam.
Battles engulfed a Palestinian refugee camp in north Lebanon on Monday as the death toll from two days of fighting between the Lebanese army and al-Qaeda-inspired militants climbed to 71. Thick black smoke billowed from the Nahr al-Bared camp, home to 40 000 Palestinians.
Lebanese troops battled al-Qaeda-linked militants in northern Lebanon on Sunday and at least 11 people were killed, seven of them soldiers, security sources said. They said the fighting broke out between the Lebanese army and members of the Fatah al-Islam militant group after security forces raided homes in Tripoli to arrest suspects accused of robbing a bank.
When he sees politicians in full flow on his television set, Anwar reaches for the remote control. Like many Lebanese, he has developed a strong aversion for the antics of the country’s political class. "I turn to the satirical programmes that send them up instead," the photographer says.
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/ 21 February 2007
Lebanese anti-aircraft guns fired at Israeli warplanes over southern Lebanon on Wednesday, a military spokesperson said, indicating that Lebanon’s army is taking a new assertiveness toward Israel. The Israeli planes had ”violated Lebanese sovereignty, posing a challenge to United Nations Resolution 1701,” the spokesperson said.
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/ 13 February 2007
Eleven people were killed and about 20 wounded in two bomb blasts that wrecked minibuses near the Christian mountain town of Bikfaya north of Beirut on Tuesday. The attacks on the public buses occurred a day before the second anniversary of the assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik al-Hariri.
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/ 8 February 2007
It was projected to be a golden year for Lebanon and one to beat all records; instead 2006, with its string of crises including a 34-day war, proved a disaster for the tourism sector. From the expected 1,6-million visitors, only 1,06-million travelled to the "Switzerland of the Middle East", down almost 7% on 2005 and a huge 17% on the previous year, according to Tourism Ministry figures.
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/ 26 January 2007
A curfew slapped on Beirut after street battles between the government and opposition supporters left four people dead was lifted on Friday, but the army warned it could be re-imposed if fighting flared again. An uneasy calm prevailed in the streets of the capital after the overnight curfew was lifted at 6am local time.
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/ 26 January 2007
Four people were shot dead in clashes between pro- and anti-government activists in Lebanon on Thursday, overshadowing a ,6-billion aid deal by international donors to shore up the United States-backed government. The Lebanese army clamped a night curfew on Beirut, seeking to quell Sunni-Shi’ite tensions in a country still recovering from a 1975/1990 civil war.
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/ 25 January 2007
At least two students were shot dead and 35 others wounded in Beirut street fighting on Thursday between students loyal to the government and opposition supporters, a security source said. Opposition-run television station NBN put the death tally from the fighting, which spilled over from the Arab University campus, at four, including two students.
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/ 24 January 2007
Protesters bent on toppling Lebanon’s Cabinet blocked roads with blazing tyres on Tuesday, sparking clashes with government loyalists in which police said three people were killed and 133 people hurt. The violence raised the stakes in a campaign by Iranian- and Syrian-backed Hezbollah and its Shi’ite and Christian allies to oust Prime Minister Fouad Siniora’s Western-supported government.
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/ 22 January 2007
Six months after thousands of tonnes of fuel oil spilled into the Mediterranean when Israel bombed a Lebanese power plant, the waters are still spitting out black poison despite efforts to clean up the mess. "The rain and the low tide have created new pollution zones," Ahmed Kojok of the Sea of Lebanon association told the media.
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/ 16 January 2007
Lebanon is like a time bomb that could explode at any time if a political standoff between the government and the Hezbollah-led opposition is not resolved quickly, Lebanese Parliament speaker Nabih Berri said. Berri said that an opposition protest campaign to topple Prime Minister Fouad Siniora could get out of hand if there was no solution before the end of the month.
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/ 12 January 2007
Former Lebanese President Amin Gemayel on Friday denied telling an Israeli newspaper that two Israeli soldiers captured by Hezbollah guerrillas in July are still alive, saying he had no information about their condition. Gemayel’s office, who said he was participating in a conference in Madrid, issued a statement saying Gemayel ”denies completely” speaking to any Israeli media.
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/ 5 December 2006
A sea of angry mourners converged on southern Beirut on Tuesday for the funeral of a young Shi’ite man killed during mass opposition rallies amid fears of an outbreak of sectarian violence. ”The blood of the Shi’ites is boiling,” shouted mourners as weeping women tossed rose petals on the coffin.
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/ 4 December 2006
Lebanon’s army deployed more soldiers in Beirut on Monday after the killing of a pro-Syrian Shi’ite Muslim demonstrator raised fears anti-government protests could turn into sectarian violence. Arab League Secretary General Amr Moussa warned the crisis could worsen and indicated he had discussed ideas for a solution with Lebanese officials during a 24-hour visit to Beirut.
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/ 1 December 2006
Beirut was on high alert on Friday as hundreds of thousands of opposition demonstrators, led by the pro-Syrian militant group Hezbollah, staged a massive show of force aimed at pressing the Western-backed government to resign. Lebanese troops and armoured vehicles were heavily deployed in the capital as hordes of protesters packed streets.
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/ 24 November 2006
Lebanon’s Cabinet is to meet on Saturday for the next step towards approving a United Nations plan for an international court to try those accused of murdering ex-premier Rafiq al-Hariri, in a move set to trigger a showdown with the pro-Syrian opposition.