
World Dec 27, 2020
The blast that blew away Lebanon's faith in itself
by Samia Nakhoul
The lack of answers over the catastrophe is making it difficult for an already crippled nation to rise from the ashes again.
The blast that blew away Lebanon's faith in itself
The lack of answers over the catastrophe is making it difficult for an already crippled nation to rise from the ashes again.
When Lebanon's protest movement erupted in October 2019, Jennyfer, Teymour and Dayna marched in the same euphoric crowd, united in their determination to bring down their corrupt leaders. A nightmarish year — which saw Lebanon's economy go into tailspin and a cataclysmic explosion destroy swaths ...
Race against rain to save historical homes of Beirut
Built in 1920, the house that Riad Asad’s family has called home for decades outlasted 15 years of civil war but took what could be a fatal blow in last month's mammoth, port-side explosion. Asad says his family — who has sought refuge outside Beirut ...
'Murder attempt': Lebanon protest wounds compound fury over blast
Security forces and plain-clothes personnel fired tear gas canisters, rubber bullets and shotgun pellets into the crowd, according to protesters and human rights groups.
Who owned the chemicals that blew up Beirut? No one will say
A probe reveals an intricate tale of missing documentation, secrecy and a web of small, obscure companies that span the globe.
Lebanon's prime minister announced his government's resignation on Monday, saying a huge explosion that devastated Beirut and triggered public outrage was the result of endemic corruption. The Aug. 4 detonation at a port warehouse of what authorities said was more than 2,000 tonnes of ammonium ...
Lebanese protesters stormed several ministries Saturday in apparently planned raids after an explosion blamed on government negligence at Beirut port devastated the city and ignited unprecedented popular rage. The day started with funerals for some of the 158 people killed by Tuesday's monster blast but ...
Rescuers combed through the rubble of Beirut port Friday in a search for survivors that was watched breathlessly by relatives of the missing, after an investigation into the huge blast produced its first arrests. Shock has turned to anger in Lebanon since Tuesday's colossal explosion ...
'State, what state?': Lebanese together in solidarity and rage
In Beirut's beloved bar districts, hundreds of young Lebanese ditched beers for brooms on Wednesday to sweep debris in the absence of a state-sponsored cleanup operation following a deadly blast. "What state?" scoffed 42-year-old Melissa Fadlallah, a volunteer cleaning up the hard-hit Mar Mikhail district ...
Initial investigations point to negligence as cause of Beirut blast, source says
Initial investigations into the Beirut port blast indicate years of inaction and negligence over the storage of highly explosive material caused the explosion that killed more than 100 people, an official source familiar with the findings said. The prime minister and presidency have said that ...
Lebanon, a small multiconfessional country which endured a devastating 15-year civil war, has often been caught in the crossfire of regional conflicts. The tragic explosions at the Beirut port on Tuesday struck with the country mired in its worst economic crisis for decades, marked by ...
Ammonium nitrate: The fertilizer that may be behind the Beirut blast
Ammonium nitrate, which Lebanese authorities have said was the cause of the Beirut blast, is an odorless crystalline substance commonly used as a fertilizer that has been the cause of numerous industrial explosions over the decades. These include notably at a Texas fertilizer plant in ...