Lebanon

Sri Lanka, Lebanon, Russia, Suriname and Zambia are already in default, Belarus is on the brink and at least another dozen are in the danger zone as rising borrowing costs, inflation and debt all stoke fears of economic collapse.

In a remote village in southern Lebanon, Qassem Shreim crouched low to examine his wheat crop. Food costs have soared amid a global wheat crisis and Lebanon's own economic meltdown, but the builder-turned-farmer feels shielded by his self-sufficiency.

A New Jersey software developer, Alexei Saab, lived a double life as a "sleeper agent" in an Islamic militant group, Hezbollah, and scouted terror targets in New York City, federal prosecutors said on Monday during the start of his trial.

France has issued an international arrest warrant for Carlos Ghosn, the disgraced auto tycoon who jumped bail in Japan and fled to Lebanon in a sensational getaway, prosecutors told AFP on Friday.

Pope Francis is set to visit Lebanon in June, the country's presidency said on Tuesday, in a long-awaited trip that comes amid spiralling financial and political crises.

Lebanon is grappling with an unprecedented financial crisis that the World Bank says is of a scale usually associated with full-scale wars.

Carlos Ghosn, the architect of the Renault-Nissan auto alliance, has been fighting multiple probes since fleeing to Lebanon from Japan in late 2019 and has said he hopes to clear his name in financial misconduct cases against him.

Syrian refugee Ahmad al-Hariri, who fled the war in his country for neighbouring Lebanon 10 years ago, spent the last decade hoping in vain to escape to a new life in Europe.

A large explosion rocked a Palestinian camp in the southern Lebanese port city of Tyre on Friday night, injuring about a dozen people, according to rescue workers on scene and a Palestinian source inside the camp.

Russia's Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Monday that Moscow sent the Lebanese government satellite images from the day of last year's deadly Beirut port blast in an effort to help with the investigation.

Financially crippled Lebanon finds itself in a new tug-of-war between regional kingpins Saudi Arabia and Iran after Riyadh and other wealthy Gulf states expelled the Lebanese envoy, analysts say.

The United Arab Emirates said Saturday it was withdrawing its diplomats from Lebanon, following a similar move by Saudi Arabia over a Lebanese minister's criticism of the Riyadh-led military intervention in Yemen.

Kuwait gave Lebanon's envoy to the emirate 48 hours to leave Saturday, a day after Saudi Arabia made a similar move over a minister's criticism of the Riyadh-led military intervention in Yemen.

Israel does not want war with Lebanon's Hezbollah but is prepared to face about 2,000 rockets a day from the armed group if conflict breaks out, a senior Israeli military official told AFP.

Gunfire killed six people and wounded 30 at a Beirut rally organised by the Shiite Hezbollah and Amal movements Thursday to demand the dismissal of the lead investigator into last year's port blast.

Sri Lanka, Lebanon, Russia, Suriname and Zambia are already in default, Belarus is on the brink and at least another dozen are in the danger zone as rising borrowing costs, inflation and debt all stoke fears of economic collapse.

In a remote village in southern Lebanon, Qassem Shreim crouched low to examine his wheat crop. Food costs have soared amid a global wheat crisis and Lebanon's own economic meltdown, but the builder-turned-farmer feels shielded by his self-sufficiency.

A New Jersey software developer, Alexei Saab, lived a double life as a "sleeper agent" in an Islamic militant group, Hezbollah, and scouted terror targets in New York City, federal prosecutors said on Monday during the start of his trial.

France has issued an international arrest warrant for Carlos Ghosn, the disgraced auto tycoon who jumped bail in Japan and fled to Lebanon in a sensational getaway, prosecutors told AFP on Friday.

Pope Francis is set to visit Lebanon in June, the country's presidency said on Tuesday, in a long-awaited trip that comes amid spiralling financial and political crises.

Lebanon is grappling with an unprecedented financial crisis that the World Bank says is of a scale usually associated with full-scale wars.

Carlos Ghosn, the architect of the Renault-Nissan auto alliance, has been fighting multiple probes since fleeing to Lebanon from Japan in late 2019 and has said he hopes to clear his name in financial misconduct cases against him.

Syrian refugee Ahmad al-Hariri, who fled the war in his country for neighbouring Lebanon 10 years ago, spent the last decade hoping in vain to escape to a new life in Europe.

A large explosion rocked a Palestinian camp in the southern Lebanese port city of Tyre on Friday night, injuring about a dozen people, according to rescue workers on scene and a Palestinian source inside the camp.

Russia's Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Monday that Moscow sent the Lebanese government satellite images from the day of last year's deadly Beirut port blast in an effort to help with the investigation.

Financially crippled Lebanon finds itself in a new tug-of-war between regional kingpins Saudi Arabia and Iran after Riyadh and other wealthy Gulf states expelled the Lebanese envoy, analysts say.

The United Arab Emirates said Saturday it was withdrawing its diplomats from Lebanon, following a similar move by Saudi Arabia over a Lebanese minister's criticism of the Riyadh-led military intervention in Yemen.

Kuwait gave Lebanon's envoy to the emirate 48 hours to leave Saturday, a day after Saudi Arabia made a similar move over a minister's criticism of the Riyadh-led military intervention in Yemen.

Israel does not want war with Lebanon's Hezbollah but is prepared to face about 2,000 rockets a day from the armed group if conflict breaks out, a senior Israeli military official told AFP.

Gunfire killed six people and wounded 30 at a Beirut rally organised by the Shiite Hezbollah and Amal movements Thursday to demand the dismissal of the lead investigator into last year's port blast.