Lebanon

BEIRUT (AP) — Once again, Syrian President Bashar Assad has snapped up a prize from world powers that have been maneuvering in his country’s multi-front wars. Without firing a shot, his forces are returning to towns and villages in northeastern Syria where they haven’t set foot for years.

Assad was handed one victory first by U.S. President Donald Trump’s decision to withdraw American troops from northeastern Syria, analysts said. Then he got another from a deal struck between Turkey and Russia, Damascus’ ally.

BEIRUT (Reuters) - Kurdish politician Hevrin Khalaf spent the final months of her life building a political party that she hoped would help shape Syria’s future, drawing the attention of U.S. officials who said it would have a say in what happened once the war ended.

To her colleagues in the Future Syria Party and Kurdish communities in Syria’s northeast more broadly, her killing became a symbol of betrayal by the United States.

BEIRUT (AP) — The crowd hurled potatoes that thudded on the sides of the hulking U.S. armored vehicles. “What happened to Americans?” one man shouted in English up at the sole U.S. soldier visible on the back of a vehicle. The soldier stared silently straight ahead, away from the show of fury.

It was yet another indignity in a U.S. withdrawal that has been carried out over the past two weeks with more haste and violence than expected — and which may now be partially reversed.

BEIRUT (Reuters) - Lebanon’s cabinet is expected to halve ministers’ wages on Monday among other reforms in a bid to ease an economic crisis and defuse the biggest protests against the ruling elite in decades.

Across the country, people blocked roads for a fifth day. Schools, banks and businesses closed. Hundreds of thousands of people have flooded the streets, furious at a political class they accuse of pushing the economy to the point of collapse.

BEIRUT (AP) — The Latest on Turkey’s invasion of northern Syria (all times local):

11:15 p.m.

A senior Syrian Kurdish official says his forces will pull back from a border area in accordance with a U.S.-brokered deal after Turkey allows the evacuation of its remaining fighters and civilians from a besieged town there.

Redur Khalil, a senior Syrian Democratic Forces official, said Saturday the plan for evacuation from the town of Ras al-Ayn is set for the following day, if there are no delays.

19 Oct 2019; MEMO: Lebanese prime minister, Saad Al-Hariri, cancelled the cabinet meeting which planned to take place on Friday, amidst calls for him to resign, Lebanese mass media reported.

Hariri declared a 72-hour ultimatum for his partners in government, to announce their support for reformations and anti-corruption plans, which were already agreed upon.

BEIRUT (Reuters) - Lebanon’s Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah said on Saturday that the group was not demanding the government’s resignation amid widespread national protests.

Nasrallah said in a televised speech that he supported the government, but called for a new agenda and “new spirit,” adding that ongoing protests showed the way forward was not new taxes.

Any tax imposed on the poor would push him to call supporters to go take to the streets, Nasrallah added.

BEIRUT (AP) — Lebanon’s prime minister gave his partners in government a 72-hour ultimatum to come up with “convincing” solutions for a rapidly worsening economic crisis, as nationwide protests against the country’s entire ruling political class escalated.

BEIRUT (Reuters) - Thousands of protesters blocked roads and burned tires across Lebanon for a second day on Friday, demanding the demise of a political elite they say looted the economy to the point of breakdown.

The nationwide protests, Lebanon’s biggest in years, brought ordinary people from all sects and walks of life to the streets. They carried banners and chanted slogans calling on the government to resign.

BEIRUT (AP) — The latest on Turkey’s invasion of northern Syria (all times local):

03:15 a.m.

Australia has ruled out retrieving dozens of Australian women and children from refugee camps during the cease-fire in Syria.

Australian Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton said Friday the situation remained too dangerous to send Australian troops or officials into the war-torn nation.

Dutton says he is hopeful the cease-fire will lead to lasting peace.