Six Noteworthy Stories You Might Have Missed in Lebanon This Week (1/26)

1. Explosion Rips Through Dahiyeh in South Beirut

(Photo via Twitter)

An explosion ripped through Beirut’s southern suburb of Dahiyeh on Tuesday January 21 killing four people. The explosion is the second to occur in Dahyeh this month. On January 2, a car bomb killed seven people in the same area.

2. Waste Piles up in Beirut

(Photo via Al Akhbar)

On Friday January 17, protests started at the Naameh landfill over the excessive trash being dumped there. Activists and residents in the nearby areas forced Sukleen to stop its work which led to the piling up of rubbish on Beirut streets. An agreement was reached on Sunday, allowing the passage of garbage trucks and temporarily alleviating the problem. The road was closed again from Tuesday until Friday, when police cracked down on protesters, removed their tents from the landfill and opened the road to allow Sukleen trucks inside.

3. Rapper Arrested in Dahiyeh Due to “Suspicious Beard”

(Photo via Twitter)

Rapper Hussein Sharafeddine, also known as Double A the Preacherman, the lead vocalist for the Beirut-based Funk Band, The Banana Cognacs, was arrested on Wednesday January 22 in the neighborhood of Haret Hreik. Double A was interrogated and released at around 2:30 p.m on Thursday, after more than 24 hours in custody even though police cleared him of any wrongdoing.

Some news outlets suggested he was arrested because his “beard looked suspicious.”

4. Lebanese Woman Launches “I Am Alive” App

(Photo via news.com.au)

The “I am Alive,” app was launched by 26-year-old Sandra Hassan, a Lebanese masters student living in Paris on Tuesday following the latest bombing in Dahiyeh.

The app allows users to quickly tweet a standard message after an attack: “I am still alive!” with the hashtags #Lebanon and #LatestBombing.

5. Former Official in Jumblatt’s Party Found Dead

(Photo via Annahar)

According to the Daily Star newspaper, Sami Marroush, a former official in Walid Jumblatt’s Progressive Socialist Party, was found shot dead on January 23 in Aley.

The 50-year-old was found with two gunshot wounds to his body. The motives behind the killing are still unclear.

6. Accidents Down in Lebanon in 2013

(Photo via Blogbaladi)

According to a study published by The Lebanese Traffic Management Center, traffic accidents were down 30 percent in 2013.

But don’t get too excited just yet. The report mentions that while the number of accidents decreased, the number of people killed in these accidents was about the same as the previous year.