Source: Agence France Presse
Security & Justice
Southern Lebanon Endures Massive Damage: 40,000 Homes Leveled Across 37 Towns
Israeli forces have systematically destroyed entire neighborhoods in southern Lebanon, leveling more than 37 towns and wiping out over 40,000 residential units, according to Lebanon's National News Agency.
Tuesday, November 5, 2024
Gaps in Coastal Radar Enabled Israeli Raid in Batroun, Army Commander Says
Lebanon’s army chief, General Joseph Aoun, detailed to Caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati how Israeli forces likely exploited gaps in the country's coastal radar system during the recent raid carried out in Batroun. The briefing comes as Lebanese officials seek answers on how Israel’s elite Shayetet 13 unit carried out the landing undetected.
Monday, November 4, 2024
Opinion
The Emptying of Baalbek Is a Moment to Take Stock
“Large numbers of people continue to flee their homes every day, as Israel’s military operations in Lebanon have been going on unabated.” These disturbing words could be from almost any news report about Israel’s invasion of its northern neighbour over the past month. However, they can be found in a report by the Norwegian Refugee Council’s Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre issued on July 27, 2006.
Saturday, November 2, 2024
A Future Without Hezbollah
At the end of September, when Israel’s campaign to destroy Hezbollah was reaching its height, I met one of the group’s supporters in a seaside café in western Beirut. He was a middle-aged man with a thin white beard and the spent look of someone who had not slept for days. He was an academic of sorts, not a fighter, but his ties to Hezbollah were deep and long-standing.
Thursday, October 31, 2024
Sports
Tottenham Forward Son Heung-min Crowned Asia’s International Player of the Year
Tottenham forward Son Heung-min was crowned as Asia’s International Player of the Year for the fourth time by the Asian Football Confederation at its annual awards ceremony Tuesday.
Wednesday, October 30, 2024
Real Madrid Launch Investigation into Racist Insults After El Clasico Defeat
Real Madrid has launched an investigation into racist insults directed at players during Saturday’s 4-0 home loss to Barcelona in LaLiga, it said on Sunday.
Monday, October 28, 2024
Saturday 17 August 2024 12:12:21
More than 18,700 Mpox Cases Detected in Africa Since January: Health Agency
A total of 18,737 suspected or confirmed cases of mpox were reported in Africa since the beginning of the year, including 1,200 cases in one week alone, the African Union health agency said Saturday.
The figure reflects cases of all strains of the virus, not specifically the new more deadly and more transmissible Clade 1b which prompted the World Health Organization (WHO) on Wednesday to declare an international health emergency - the agency’s highest alert.
To date, 3,101 confirmed and 15,636 suspected cases have been reported from 12 African Union member states, resulting in 541 deaths - a fatality rate of 2.89 percent, the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said in a statement.
The hardest hit country, the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) where the new Clade 1b strain was first detected in September 2023, has reported 1,005 cases (222 confirmed, 783 suspected) and 24 deaths in one week.
All 26 provinces in the DRC, home to some 100 million people, have reported cases.
Neighboring Burundi reported 173 cases - 39 confirmed and 134 suspected - which marks a rise of 75 percent in one week.
More cases have been reported since the beginning of the year than all of 2023, which saw a total of 14,383 cases, according to the Africa CDC.
The first cases of the mpox outside of Africa were recorded this week, in Sweden and Pakistan.
The WHO will soon publish its first recommendations by its emergency committee and, along with NGOs, has also called for the ramping up of vaccine production.
Mpox is a viral disease that can spread from animals to humans, but also human-to-human through sexual or close physical contact. Symptoms include fever, muscular aches and large boil-like skin lesions.
The Clade 1b causes skin eruptions all over the body, whereas previous variants caused localized lesions around the mouth, face or genitals.
The disease, formerly known as monkeypox, was first detected in humans in the DRC in 1970.
The deadlier Clade 1 has been endemic in the Congo Basin in central Africa for decades.
