DIRS.INFO The most relevant business & tech news

More device explosions were reported across Lebanon on Wednesday, a day after pagers belonging to Hezbollah members detonated across the country, killing at least 12 people and injuring nearly 3,000, state media reported. According to Lebanon's National News Agency, or NNA, "a number" of wounded people had been taken to hospitals in the southern suburbs of Beirut after their wireless pagers exploded. At least three people were killed in device explosions Wednesday, NNA reported. Al-Manar, a Hezbollah-affiliated news agency, reported that wireless devices exploded in people’s hands across the country. The Associated Press reported that its own journalists were in Beirut at a funeral for four people killed by exploding pagers the day before when they heard "multiple explosions at the site."

Persons: NNA, Israel, Firas Abiad Organizations: Lebanon's National News Agency, Associated Press, Public, National News Agency Locations: Lebanon, Beirut, Israel

Most of the injuries were to the face, abdomen, hands, and eyes, he said, according to NNA. Footage from inside one of the hospitals showed chaotic scenes with staff attending to dozens of men bandaged and bleeding. Abiad visited several hospitals in the capital, Beirut, on Tuesday evening and then again on Wednesday morning, NNA reported. The American University of Beirut Medical Center said it had received more than 190 patients and was operating at full capacity. AUBMC added that its paging system had been upgraded in April 2024 and began operating on August 29, 2024.

Persons: Firass Abiad, Abiad, NNA, ” AUBMC, Pagers, AUBMC Organizations: Public, NNA, Healthy Ministry, American University of, American University of Beirut Medical Center Locations: Lebanon, Beirut, American University of Beirut

☆ Lebanon: More explosions one day after blasts injure thousands, state media reports
▼ + stars: | 2024-09-18 | by ( Rob Picheta | Tamara Qiblawi | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +1 min

CNN —Dozens of walkie talkies exploded across Lebanon on Wednesday, a security source told CNN, one day after blasts targeting the pagers of Hezbollah members injured thousands. Preliminary information suggested that there were between 15 and 20 explosions in southern suburbs of Beirut, and a further 15 to 20 blasts in southern Lebanon, the source said. At least three people were killed in Sahmar in Rashaya and Western Bekaa in southern Lebanon, state media outlet NNA reported. Hassan Hankir/ReutersThe latest blasts come almost exactly 24 hours after the near-simultaneous explosions targeting pagers of the militant group Hezbollah, exposing a massive security breach among its members. Hezbollah on Tuesday vowed to respond to what it called an Israeli attack, which killed multiple people and injured thousands across Lebanon on Tuesday.

Persons: “, Hassan Hankir, Firass Abiad, … Organizations: CNN, Army Command, Lebanese Army, Lebanese Health Locations: Lebanon, Beirut, Sahmar, Rashaya, Sidon, Gaza

☆ Hezbollah hand-held radios detonate across Lebanon, sources say
▼ + stars: | 2024-09-18 | by ( ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +4 min

The hand-held radios were purchased by Hezbollah five months ago, around the same time that the pagers were bought, said a security source. The two sides have been engaged in cross-border warfare since the Gaza conflict erupted last October, fuelling fears of a wider Middle East conflict that could drag in the United States and Iran. But given the scale, the impact on families, on civilians, there will be pressure for a stronger response," said Mohanad Hage Ali of the Carnegie Middle East Center. One Hezbollah official said the detonation was the group's "biggest security breach" in its history. It followed a series of assassinations of Hezbollah and Hamas commanders and leaders blamed on Israel since the start of the Gaza war.

Persons: Tuesday's detonations, Firass Abiad, Tuesday's, Gold Apollo, Israel, Ayman Safadi, Mohanad Hage Ali Organizations: American University of, American University of Beirut Medical Center, Hezbollah, Reuters, Lebanese Health, Israel, Jordan's, Carnegie Middle East Center Locations: American University of Beirut, Lebanon, Israel, Lebanon's, Beirut's, Iran, Lebanese, Beirut, Hungary's, Budapest, Gaza, United States

☆ Lebanon daycare abuse prompts alarm as economic despair deepens
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-12 | by ( Emilie Madi | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

BEIRUT, July 12 (Reuters) - The alleged abuse of toddlers at a daycare in crisis-stricken Lebanon has sparked alarm over the physical and emotional wellbeing of children in the country, where a nearly four-year economic meltdown is seeping into all aspects of life. The videos - shot on a mobile phone months ago but only recently circulated on social media - prompted an outcry from parents. Lebanon's health ministry meanwhile said in an online statement on Tuesday that it had shut down the daycare after carrying out a "rapid investigation" into the alleged violence. "This closure is not enough, and the punishment must be a lesson," the statement quoted minister Firas al-Abiad as saying. "That was just the tip of the iceberg, what we saw this week at the nursery," Higgins said.

Persons: Tatiana Tannous Hachem, Hachem, Firas, Ettie Higgins, Higgins, Emilie Madi, Rajaa bint Talal, Maya Gebeily, Aurora Ellis Organizations: Reuters, Internal Security Forces, United Nations, UNICEF, Thomson Locations: BEIRUT, Lebanon, Beirut

☆ Battling cholera, Lebanon gets first vaccines, and sharp words, from France
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-31 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

BEIRUT, Oct 31 (Reuters) - Lebanon took delivery on Monday of its first vaccines to combat a worsening cholera outbreak - together with sharply worded criticism of the crisis-hit country's crumbling public health infrastructure from donor nation France. Lebanon had been cholera-free since 1993, but its public services are suffering under a brutal economic crisis now in its fourth year, while infighting among the country's faction-riven elite has paralysed its political institutions. The vaccines would play "an essential role" in limiting the disease's spread, Health Minister Firass Abiad told reporters in the capital as he announced the first batch. "The origins of this epidemic, in which public health is at stake, must also be treated," Anne Grillo told reporters. The outbreak was "a new and worrying illustration of the critical decline in public provision of access to water and sanitary services in Lebanon."

☆ Cholera outbreak hits Syrian refugees sheltering in camps in Lebanon
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-21 | by ( Maya Gebeily | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

Syrian refugee children stand near water way at an informal camp in Qab Elias, in Lebanon's Bekaa Valley October 18, 2022. REUTERS/Mohamed AzakirQUB ELIAS, Lebanon, Oct 21 (Reuters) - Syrian refugees in displacement camps are falling victim to a cholera outbreak in Lebanon, already suffering from an economic meltdown that has slashed access to clean water and strained hospitals. Lebanon recorded its first cholera case in early October -- signalling the return of the bacteria for the first time in 30 years. WHO country director Abdinasir Abubakar told Reuters cholera posed a "very high risk" for Lebanon – and that transmission to other countries was likely. "Now it's affecting more Syrian refugees, but sooner or later we will see more cases for Lebanese,” Abubakar said.

On Wednesday, OPEC+, the oil cartel led by Saudi Arabia and Russia, agreed to slash production by 2 million barrels per day, twice as much as analysts had predicted, in the biggest cut since the Covid-19 pandemic. “Saudi Arabia is looking to head off a repeat of 2008 when the market crash sent the global economy into a recession and oil prices suddenly plummeted, requiring emergency action by OPEC,” said Wald. Analysts also say Saudi Arabia cannot afford to let oil prices go below a certain level for budgetary reasons. For its budget to break even, global oil prices must be at around $79 a barrel, according to the International Monetary Fund. That was a warning sign for Saudi Arabia and other oil exporters, who depend on oil for a majority of their revenue.

Search resuls for: "Abiad"

8 mentions found