Series of Flooding in Lebanon Continue due to Rain: Citizens Trapped for Hours in Tunnels and Car Accidents Occur

It is not the first time that citizens get trapped inside their cars on the streets due to the floods caused by the rain. On Saturday, they were trapped for hours inside the tunnels of Beirut that witnessed traffic jams and several accidents.

Minister of Justice Ashraf Rifi on Saturday called for “the release of those who did not fight the army” in the clashes in Tripoli and the north last month, rejecting “the arbitrary arrest of any religious or bearded man.”

The Council of Catholic Patriarchs and Bishops stressed on Saturday the need to end the presidential vacuum in Lebanon, calling on lawmakers to assume their responsibilities to that end.

It said: “All presidential candidates must abandon their personal interests in favor of national ones.”

A Canadian academic was charged on Saturday over the deadly 1980 bombing of a Paris synagogue after losing his six-year legal battle against extradition over the notorious attack.

Hassan Diab, a Canadian of Lebanese descent, appeared before an anti-terror judge just hours after arriving in Paris from Montreal.

Clashes erupted at dawn on Saturday between the army and a number of gunmen in the eastern Bekaa city of Baalbek as the army cracked down on wanted suspects, reported the National News Agency.

It said that one person was killed, while two others were wounded in the unrest that broke out in the Dar al-Wasaa area in western Baalbek.

MP Marwan Hamadeh is scheduled on Monday to make his political testimony before the Special Tribunal for Lebanon, reported the daily An Nahar on Saturday.

His testimony will pave the way to tackling the political motivations linked to the assassination of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri in 2005, added the daily.

The United States has reportedly questioned Mustaqbal Movement leader MP Saad Hariri's decision to “diversify” the number of countries from which to obtain weapons as part of the Saudi military grant to the army, said As Safir newspaper on Saturday.

Widely informed sources told daily that the U.S. filed an official complaint to the Lebanese government, the army command in particular, for attempting to strike a deal with Russia on supplying the army with used T-72 tanks.

The Islamist captors of the servicemen abducted in August from the northeastern border town of Arsal have recently agreed to allow their loved ones to visit them, reported As Safir newspaper on Saturday.

Political sources revealed that the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant and the al-Qaida-affiliated al-Nusra Front have agreed to allow the relatives to meet with the abductees through a mediator from Arsal.

International powers are seeking to pressure local authorities to stage the presidential elections, highlighting the dangers of vacuum given the developments in the region, reported the daily An Nahar on Saturday.

This was emphasized by the visits of ambassadors of countries of permanent membership at the United Nations Security Council to Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi at Bkirki earlier this week.

Several people were arrested Friday during raids by the army and the Internal Security Forces in the North district and the Bekaa region.

“The ISF Intelligence Bureau arrested Sheikh Osama Antar, aka Abu Ibrahim, during a raid in the al-Hawooz Street in Abi Samra” in the northern city of Tripoli, state-run National News Agency reported.