Lebanon

BEIRUT, July 22 (Xinhua) -- Palestinian refugees demonstrated for the seventh consecutive day in south Lebanon's Sidon to protest against measures adopted by the Labor Ministry, the National News Agency reported on Monday.

Palestinians also shut down all entrances leading to Ain El Helwe camp while burning tires and vowing to take escalatory measures if the Labor Minister does not exempt Palestinians from work permits.

BEIRUT (AP) — Multiple Airstrikes hit a busy market in a rebel-controlled town in northwestern Syria on Monday, killing at least 27 people and turning several buildings into piles of rubble, according to opposition activists and a war monitor. Shortly afterward, state media said rebels shelled a government-held village, killing seven.

BEIRUT (AP) — Two months of intensive airstrikes by Syrian government forces and their Russian allies, coupled with a fierce ground assault on rebel-controlled Idlib province, have killed hundreds of people and caused massive displacement while achieving little to no gain for President Bashar Assad.

BEIRUT, June 30 (Xinhua) -- Lebanese President Michel Aoun called on Sunday for all Lebanese parties and their supporters to remain calm amid tensions that erupted in Mount Lebanon's Aley district earlier in the day, the Presidency's website reported.

Aoun also called for an emergency meeting on Monday for the Higher Defense Council to discuss the latest security developments in Mount Lebanon.

BEIRUT, June 22 (Xinhua) -- Syrian Ambassador to Lebanon Ali Abdel Karim Ali called on Saturday for a better cooperation between the two countries to secure a safe return for Syrian refugees to their homeland, local media reported.

"Lebanon and Syria have diplomatic ties and it is in the interest of both countries to increase their cooperation," the ambassador was quoted as saying by Elnashra, an online independent newspaper.

Ali noted that most Syrians wish to return from Lebanon to their homeland where they can live with dignity.

ARSAL, Lebanon (AP) — Lebanese authorities are making their most aggressive campaign yet for Syrian refugees to return home and are taking action to ensure they can’t put down roots.

Mirroring the rise of anti-migrant sentiment in Europe and around the world, some in Lebanon say that after eight years of war in neighboring Syria they have had enough of the burden of the highest concentration of refugees per capital in the world — 1 million amid a Lebanese population of nearly 5 million — especially at a time when they are facing austerity measures and a weakened economy.

BEIRUT, June 9 (Xinhua) -- Thousands of Lebanese citizens on Sunday took part in the biggest national beach clean-up campaign, the National News Agency (NNA) reported.

The campaign "Save Our Face," launched by Lebanese Environment Minister Fadi Jreissati in several locations including Beirut, Akkar, Zahrani, Batroun and Tripoli, aims at conveying a cleaner picture of Lebanon.

BEIRUT (AP) — The father could hardly bear seeing his 18-month-old daughter’s panic every time the Syrian government warplanes flew over their home. Every day for a month, she ran to him to hide in his arms, tearful and breathless.

Abdurrahim had refused to flee his hometown throughout years of violence, and he was determined to hold out through the new, intensified government offensive launched in April against Idlib province, the last significant territory held by Syria’s rebels.

But now he had his first child, Ruwaida, to think about.

BEIRUT, June 3 (Xinhua) -- The United States is unwilling to lose its global dominance, taking aggressive and hostile measures against many countries, including trade frictions with China, said Lebanese experts.

It is not the first time that the United States waged such "wars", Hanna Gharib, head of the Lebanese Communist Party, told Xinhua.

"For the United States, no other country is allowed to advance technologically and scientifically. These are not new wars. It waged such wars against a lot of countries in the world such as Japan and Iraq," Gharib said.

BEIRUT (AP) — Israel attacked Syrian military positions in the country’s south early Sunday, killing three soldiers and wounding seven others, Syria’s state-run media reported.

State news agency SANA quoted an unnamed military official as saying the attacks struck military positions in the southern region of Quneitra, near the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights. They also caused material damage, it said.