Kareem Chehayeb

LGBTQ activists in Lebanon shout slogans as they march calling on the government for more rights in the country gripped by economic and financial crisis during ongoing protests in Beirut, Lebanon on June 27, 2020. (AP Photo/Hassan Ammar, File)

February 22, 2023, 12:56 am

Mideast governments targeting LGBTQ people online, rights group says

Report documents dozens of cases of security agencies in Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Iraq and Tunisia extorting members of LGBTQ community based on their social media activities

By Kareem Chehayeb

Rescue teams search through the wreckage of collapsed buildings after a devastating earthquake rocked Syria and Turkey, in Aleppo, Syria, February 7, 2023. (AP Photo/Omar Sanadiki, File)

February 9, 2023, 7:11 pm

Earthquake stuns Syria’s Aleppo, even after destruction of civil war

With historic city still largely ruined from years of battle, residents express shock at scale of quake’s devastation; ‘It was the first time in my life I got scared,’ one says

By Bassem Mroue and Kareem Chehayeb

Rescue teams search through the wreckage of collapsed buildings in Aleppo, Syria, Tuesday, Feb. 7, 2023. (AP/Omar Sanadiki)

February 8, 2023, 4:53 am

Aid to quake-hit Syria slowed by sanctions, war divisions

US and European countries reluctant to route aid directly through Assad government, a pariah in much of the international community

By ABBY SEWELL and Kareem Chehayeb

People stand in front of damaged buildings in the town of Douma, the site of a suspected chemical weapon attack, near Damascus, Syria, on April 16, 2018. (Hassan Ammar/AP)

February 2, 2023, 2:53 pm

Syria blasts chemical watchdog report on 2018 attack as pandering to Western nations

Damascus regime’s representative in Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons says group’s findings based on ‘serious irregularities and defects’

By SAMAR KASSABALLI and Kareem Chehayeb

Anti-government protesters scuffle with riot police outside the Ministry of Justice, in Beirut, Lebanon on January 26, 2023. (AP Photo/Hassan Ammar)

January 26, 2023, 6:56 pm

Anger soars in Beirut after prosecutor orders release of all suspects in port blast

Several demonstrators wounded as police pushed crowds back from judiciary after officials moved to cripple probe into explosion that wreaked havoc on Lebanon’s capital

By FADI TAWIL and Kareem Chehayeb

Lebanese Army Commander Gen. Joseph Aoun, right, in Ras Baalbek, northeast Lebanon, on August 23, 2017. (Lebanese Army Website via AP)

January 25, 2023, 6:38 pm

US reroutes $72 million in aid to Lebanon to pay wages for army, police

Move marks first time Washington has paid salaries of Lebanese security personnel as economic crisis causes crash in pay

By Kareem Chehayeb

The coffin of UNIFIL Pvt. Seán Rooney at his memorial procession at the Lebanese army airbase, at Beirut airport, December 18, 2022. (AP Photo/Hussein Malla)

December 18, 2022, 9:28 pm

Lebanon, UN peacekeepers hold memorial for Irish UNIFIL soldier killed by gunfire

24-year-old Pvt. Seán Rooney killed last week in attack on convoy, which passed through town not under force’s mandate; Hezbollah terror group has not commented on incident

By Kareem Chehayeb

A Syrian child walks in a stream of open sewage in the Salaheddine camp in northwestern Syria on September 28, 2022.(AP Photo/Ghaith Alsayed)

November 5, 2022, 5:38 pm

Conflict and economic crisis fuel cholera surge across Middle East

Lebanon alone reports over 2,000 cases, 18 deaths since last month, as bacterial infection sweeps region

By Kareem Chehayeb

A picture taken on March 26, 2019 from the Syrian town Ain al-Tineh on the Syrian Golan Heights shows a United Nations outpost. (Louai Beshara/AFP)

October 26, 2022, 11:49 am

Syrians sanctioned for rights abuses got $68m in UN contracts — report

Almost half of UN contracts in 2019-2020 are with suppliers blacklisted by West, including group that killed blindfolded prisoners in 2013 and buried them in mass grave

By Kareem Chehayeb

A man, left, uses an ATM to withdraw money, as security stand guard outside A Bank Audi branch, in Beirut, Lebanon, Monday, September 26, 2022. (AP/Bilal Hussein)

October 4, 2022, 4:02 pm

At least 3 banks held up across Lebanon in one day, as rage mounts over cash limits

Raids reflect public anger at failure to reform economy; worst crisis in 100 years has plunged three-quarters of population into poverty

By Kareem Chehayeb

Lebanese Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri opens the session to elect a president at the parliament building in downtown Beirut, Lebanon, September 29, 2022. (AP Photo/Bilal Hussein)

September 29, 2022, 1:58 pm

Lebanon’s parliament fails to elect president as political paralysis continues

Beirut has not had a functioning government since May, and currently operates in a limited caretaker capacity under Prime Minister Najib Mikati

By Kareem Chehayeb

Jihad Michlawi, right, takes a selfie on board an overcrowded migrant boat carrying about 150 Lebanese, Syrians, and Palestinians in the Mediterranean Sea, Lebanon, September 21, 2022. (Courtesy of Jihad Michlawi via AP)

September 28, 2022, 6:53 am

‘Don’t leave me’: Palestinian survivor recounts Lebanon boat sinking that killed 94

Economic catastrophe in Lebanon compels many to seek work in Europe, including chef Jihad Michlawi, who swam to Syrian coast after smuggler ship capsized

By Kareem Chehayeb

Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri heads the first session of the newly elected parliament, in Beirut, Lebanon, May 31, 2022. (AP Photo/Hussein Malla)

September 27, 2022, 3:12 pm

Lebanese lawmakers to elect country’s next president despite lack of consensus

Aoun’s successor is to be chosen at a time when Lebanon is going through an economic meltdown and the government struggling to implement necessary structural reforms

By Kareem Chehayeb

In this photo released by the Lebanese Army official Twitter page, shows the boat that sank carrying about 80 Lebanese, Syrians, and Palestinians trying to migrate by sea to Italy, following a confrontation with the Lebanese navy, which found by Pisces VI submarine on some 459 meters (about 1,505 feet), in Tripoli, north Lebanon, August 25, 2022. (Lebanese Army Website via AP)

August 26, 2022, 11:05 pm

Lebanese submarine finds at least 10 bodies on sunken migrant ship

Head of team operating underwater craft says 4 more bodies identified inside wreckage of boat, which sank in disputed incident

By Kareem Chehayeb

Survivors with family members of a sunken migrant ship watch from a navy boat as Lebanese naval forces and technical personnel prepare to dispatch a submarine into the Mediterranean Sea to attempt to recover an estimated 30 bodies some 450 meters below the surface, Aug. 22, 2022. (AP/Bilal Hussein)

August 23, 2022, 5:21 pm

Lebanon tries to recover bodies months after migrant ship sank in disputed incident

Navy attempts but fails to launch submarine to find the 30 bodies trapped underwater since April tragedy; survivors accuse navy of deliberately ramming the fleeing refugees

By Kareem Chehayeb