by Jean-Marc Mojon and Layal Abou Rahal BEIRUT, Lebanon (AFP) –Lebanese Prime Minister Hassan Diab was expected to announce his government’s resignation Monday amid popular outrage over the deadly Beirut port explosion that has reignited angry street protests. The under-fire cabinet, struggling to weather the political storm, met amid widespread demands for an end to an entrenched political system widely seen as inept, corrupt and dominated by sectarian interests and family dynasties. During the session, […]

BEIRUT, Lebanon (AFP) — Lebanon’s finance minister stepped down Monday in the fourth resignation from a government under fire over the deadly port blast that ripped through the capital, a ministry official told AFP. The resignation of the minister, Ghazi Wazni, brings the entire government of Prime Minister Hassan Diab closer to collapsing over the August 4 explosion that has reignited angry street protests. © Agence France-Presse

BEIRUT, Lebanon (AFP) — Lebanon’s information minister Manal Abdel Samad on Sunday quit in the first government resignation since a deadly port blast killed more than 150 people and destroyed swathes of the capital. “After the enormous Beirut catastrophe, I announce my resignation from government,” she said in a statement carried by local media, apologizing to the Lebanese public for failing them. The head of Lebanon’s Maronite church meanwhile called on the entire government to […]

BEIRUT, Lebanon (AFP) — Sixteen staff members at Beirut’s port, the site of a massive explosion, have been detained over the deadly blast that devastated large parts of the city, a military prosecutor said Thursday. Lebanese authorities had announced an investigation into Tuesday’s explosion, which they said was triggered by a fire igniting 2,750 tonnes of ammonium nitrate stored in a warehouse at Beirut’s port. Lebanon’s foreign minister said on French radio Thursday that an […]