The toll has repeatedly ratcheted higher since the first bodies were found on Thursday. The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), Filippo Grandi, described the shipwreck as a "heart-wrenching tragedy".

At least 61 migrants drowned when a boat they boarded in Lebanon sank off Syria's coast, a Lebanese minister said, the deadliest such shipwreck from Lebanon in recent years.

Lebanon and the IMF reached a conditional agreement on the loan in April to help the country stem its economic crisis, which the World Bank has branded one of the planet's worst in modern times. But Lebanon has yet to enact the reforms needed to unlock the funds.

The United States Secretary of State Antony Blinken said the US is supporting Lebanon through its incredibly challenging economic issues.

Newspaper clippings, film negatives and diary entries from the years before Lebanon's 1975-1990 civil war tell a story of government corruption, public sector strikes and student protests. They are shown alongside contemporary pictures, video footage and art installations illustrating today's Lebanon, in the grip of political paralysis and its worst...

With four out of five Lebanese now considered poor according to the United Nations, the country has been desperately seeking a bailout from the International Monetary Fund.

Israeli energy ministry's announcement comes less than 10 days after Energean announced it was "on track to deliver (the) first gas from the Karish development project within weeks." Israel says the Karish field is located entirely within its exclusive economic zone, but Lebanon insists that part of the field falls...

When a branch of the Byblos bank opened in the southern town of Ghaziyeh, a depositor, reported to be in his 50s, stormed the premises with his adult son. He threatened bank employs with a gun, which a Lebanese TV channel said may have been a toy, and demanded his...

It was just the latest in a string of heists as Lebanese depositors, whose savings have been trapped in banks for almost three years, take matters into their own hands.

Negotiations between Lebanon and Israel have been mediated by the US to delineate a shared maritime border.

Lebanon's economy collapsed in 2019 after decades of corruption and mismanagement, leaving the state unable to provide electricity for more than an hour or two.

US mediator Amos Hochstein on Friday noted progress in indirect talks between Lebanon and Israel over a maritime border dispute but said more work was needed for a final agreement. The dispute which involves competing claims over offshore gas fields escalated in June after Israel moved a production vessel near...

Once the flagship of Lebanon's economy, the banking sector is now widely despised and avoided after banks barred depositors from accessing their savings, stopped offering loans and closed hundreds of branches and slashed thousands of jobs. Last month, a local man was widely cheered as a folk hero after he...

Shocked at the death of a Syrian detainee in custody of security officials, Lebanon has arrested five State Security agents on suspicion of torturing to death Bashar Abdel Saud. The arrests were made on the orders of the government’s commissioner to the military courts who had ordered an investigation into...

Saudi Arabia has seized over 700 million narcotic pills that entered its territory via Lebanon in the past eight years, its ambassador to Beirut said Tuesday. The kingdom suspended fruit and vegetable imports from Lebanon in April last year, accusing it of inaction after seizing millions of captagon amphetamine pills...

Tracy Chamoun, an ex-ambassador and granddaughter of late president Camille Chamoun, announced Monday she will run for the presidency of Lebanon. "I announce to the Lebanese people, and their lawmakers... my candidacy in Lebanon's upcoming presidential elections," Chamoun told a news conference marking the launch of her campaign for the...

The vessels, from the Roman, Byzantine and Islamic periods, were reconstructed at the world-famous museum's conservation laboratories, and will be shown as part of its "Shattered Glass of Beirut" showcase, before returning to Lebanon later this year.

Lebanon will start an investigation into an audio recording that threatened to attack the embassy of Saudi Arabia in Beirut. In this connection, the interior ministry of Lebanon has ordered the arrest of people guilty of making threats, and also revealed that a Saudi national was likely the man who...

A cloud of dust rose over the port after the collapse, which brought down the last of the northern block of silos that was more heavily damaged in the blast and where a fire had been burning since last month. The remaining southern block is more stable and not at...

Israeli Defense Minister Benny Gantz has warned Hezbollah that any attack on its gas assets could set off war, after Hassan Nasrallah threatened to “sever” Israel’s hands if it taps a disputed offshore field. Last month, Israel said that it had downed three drones launched by Hezbollah towards Karish.

Before the Covid-19 pandemic and the country's worst-ever economic crisis, 20 to 30 films were produced in Lebanon. Today, it is difficult to make one without a foreign partner.

Bassam al-Sheikh Hussein held bank staff hostage in Beirut last week to demand access to his trapped savings. After a long stand off Hussein turned himself in after the bank agreed to let him draw out $30,000 of his more than $200,000 in trapped savings.

The incident was the latest involving local banks and angry depositors unable to access savings that have been locked in Lebanese banks since the country's economic crisis began in 2019.

“Progress towards a resolution can only be reached through negotiation by the two governments,” State Department spokesperson Vedant Patel said.

Iraq has agreed to renew a one-year deal to provide Lebanon with fuel for its power plants in exchange for in-kind services, Lebanon's Prime Minister said in a statement Thursday. Iraq signed an agreement in July 2021 to give cash-strapped Lebanon one million tonnes of fuel oil to help keep...

The two former ministers Ali Hassan Khalil and Ghazi Zeaiter had been summoned for interrogation by the judge investigating the blast. However, the investigation into the cause has been stalled amid political interference and no state official has yet been held accountable.

More than 30 people fled a Lebanon detention center at dawn on Sunday, security forces said, after sawing their way through a window, according to a judicial official. "At dawn... 31 detainees managed to escape" from a detention center in the Adlieh district of the capital Beirut, the Internal Security...

The Laodicea, which was docked in the northern port of Tripoli, was cleared to leave after investigations failed to prove it carried stolen goods, officials said. It set sail at 8:00 am (0500 GMT), according to Lebanese state media, and was later reported by authorities in Damascus to have arrived...

The 2020 disaster, one of history's biggest non-nuclear explosions, killed more than 200 people and decimated vast areas of the capital.

The portside blast of haphazardly stored ammonium nitrate, one of the biggest non-nuclear explosions ever, killed more than 200 people, wounded thousands more and decimated vast areas of the capital.

The Aug 4, 2020 mega-blast killed more than 200 people and destroyed thousands of homes in the Lebanese capital. The explosion was blamed on a fire that ignited tonnes of ammonium nitrate fertiliser haphazardly stored for years at Beirut harbor.

The prosecutor found that the grain aboard the vessel belonged to a Syrian merchant, the judicial official said.

"I remain optimistic that we can make continuous progress as we have over the last several weeks and I look forward to coming back to the region and being able to make the final arrangements," said Amos Hochstein after meeting Lebanon's top leaders.

US envoy Amos Hochstein arrived in Beirut Sunday to push talks to resolve a bitter maritime border dispute between Lebanon and Israel over Mediterranean waters with offshore gas fields. "Reaching a resolution is both necessary and possible, but can only be done through negotiations and diplomacy," the US State Department...

Parts of Beirut's grain silos collapsed on Sunday, just days before the second anniversary of a catastrophic explosion at the Lebanese capital's port that ravaged the stores and parts of the city. AFP correspondents said a cloud of dust covered Beirut's port, while local media reported that two towers fell...

The cost of living in Beirut is also more than its purchasing power, which is the lowest among Arab cities. Lebanon is experiencing its worst ever economic crisis.

Lebanon's parliament approved on Tuesday a $150 million World Bank loan to import wheat, as shortages of subsidized bread intensify in the cash-strapped country, local media reported. Long lines have formed in front of bakeries and supermarkets where people wait hours for a bag of subsidized Arabic bread -- in...

Agritech, proptech and fintech sectors remain popular among investors as the region's startups raise nearly 76% of their capital with UAE-based firms leading from the front.

Victims of Lebanon's deadly 2020 port blast have filed a quarter-billion-dollar lawsuit against a US firm for its suspected links to the tragedy, a Swiss foundation assisting the plaintiffs said Wednesday. Accountability Now said in a statement that the claim was filed this week in Texas against US-Norwegian geophysical services...

Iran and its influence in the Middle East took center stage on Tuesday in talks between Israeli Prime Minister Yair Lapid with French President Emmanuel Macron during Lapid's first trip abroad in office.

Israeli Prime Minister Yair Lapid makes his first foreign trip as premier on Tuesday to Paris, where he will ask President Emmanuel Macron to intervene in a gas dispute with Lebanon.

Foreign ministers of Arab nations discussed in Beirut a range of regional crises, with emphasis on food security and the impact of Ukraine war on their countries.

Lebanon is grappling with an unprecedented financial crisis, branded by the World Bank as one of the planet's worst since the 1850s.

Israel on Sunday approved housing allowances for South Lebanon Army (SLA) veterans residing in the Jewish state, providing "historic justice" to former members of the Christian-led militia, officials said.

The 66-year-old billionaire, who had been widely expected to keep his job, secured 54 votes during parliamentary consultations, giving him a clear edge over other potential nominees.

Lebanon's crumbling electricity sector has cost the country more than $40 billion since the end of its 1975-1990 civil war.

Prime Minister Najib Mikati on Monday said Lebanon was ready to expel Syrian refugees living in the country if the international community does not work to repatriate them. Lebanon, grappling with its worst ever economic crisis, has the world's highest proportion of refugees in its population, with the government estimating...

Lebanon Tuesday made a new offer to a visiting US mediator over a maritime border deal with Israel, holding back on demands for territory where Israel plans to imminently extract gas, an official said. Beirut's proposal however included a claim for all of a separate field that it had initially...

The use of tobacco by people across the world has gone down, and the Middle East has been no exception, where many users have kicked the habit.

The UN's mission in Lebanon called Sunday for the country's military to guarantee the security of its peacekeepers, alleging personnel were "threatened" by armed men the day before. A routine UNIFIL patrol was confronted on Saturday by "a group of men in civilian clothes" in southern Lebanon.