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National grid to go offline as power plants operator suspends services

The operator of the Deir Amar and al-Zahrani power plants, Primesouth, will hand over the facilities to the state-run Electricite du Liban at 5pm Wednesday, which would lead to a shutdown of the national grid, al-Jadeed TV reported.

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Khoury asks prosecution to act against those mentioned in A&M report

Caretaker Justice Minister Henri Khoury on Wednesday asked the public prosecution to act against “all those mentioned in the forensic audit report submitted by the Alvarez & Marsal firm.”

“It turned out that there are major financial violations that require an instant investigation,” Khoury said.

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UNIFIL chief voices concern over recent Blue Line incidents

UNIFIL Head of Mission and Force Commander Major General Aroldo Lázaro on Wednesday chaired a Tripartite meeting with senior officers of the Lebanese Armed Forces (LAF) and the Israeli army at a U.N. position in Ras al-Naqoura.

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Bassil asks who allowed return of 109 Syrians from Cyprus to Lebanon

Free Patriotic Movement chief Jebran Bassil asked Wednesday who has agreed to return more than 100 Syrian nationals from Cyprus to Lebanon.

"While we are doing the impossible to repatriate the Syrian refugees and while we are fighting Europe and the whole world for it, some insolently dare to make a deal with a European country to return refugees to Lebanon," Bassil charged.

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LF says tried to contain Kahale incident, Kataeb denies seeking civil war

A Lebanese Forces lawmaker on Wednesday denied that his party is seeking a return to civil war.

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Opposition MPs call for decentralization, say dialogue with Hezbollah 'futile'

Thirty one opposition MPs said Wednesday, in a joint statement, that it has become clear that "any dialogue with Hezbollah would be futile", a day after Parliament received two questions from the French embassy regarding the required qualifications of the future president.

French special presidential envoy for Lebanon Jean-Yves Le Drian is scheduled to return to Lebanon in September after he had proposed on his last visit to Lebanon to invite all those taking part in the process of electing a president to a meeting in September to achieve a consensus on the challenges and on the priority projects the future president will have to carry out, and consequently the qualities necessary for tackling them.

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Drilling rig Transocean Barents arrives in Block 9 offshore Lebanon

The drilling rig Transocean Barents arrived Wednesday morning in Block 9 offshore Lebanon and will start operations in the coming weeks to search for gas, caretaker Minister of Public Works and Transport Ali Hamiyah said.

French firm TotalEnergies, in agreement with its partners Eni and QatarEnergy, had signed a contract to begin drilling and exploring for gas in late August in waters off crisis-hit Lebanon.

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Report: Paris asks MPs to give answers regarding presidential file

Parliament has received an envelope from the French embassy in Beirut, MTV reported on Tuesday.

The envelope contained requests that MPs “answer questions regarding their stances on the presidential file before the end of September,” the TV network said.

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Mansouri freezes assets of Salameh and close associates

Lebanon's interim central bank governor Wassim Mansouri on Monday froze the accounts of the bank's embattled former chief and close relatives and associates days after the United States, United Kingdom and Canada slapped sanctions on them.

Mansouri's decision was made public following a meeting of the central bank's Special Investigation Commission. The commission is in charge of fighting money laundering and terrorism financing. It named former Gov. Riad Salameh, his son Nady, brother Raja, close associate Marianne Hoayek and former partner Anna Kosakova.

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Libya asks Lebanon to release Gadhafi's detained son who is on hunger strike

Libya's judicial authorities have formally asked Lebanon to release one of the late dictator Moammar Gadhafi's sons, held without charges in Lebanon since 2015 because of his deteriorating health, officials said Monday.

The health of Hannibal Gadhafi has been deteriorating since he went on hunger strike on June 3, to protest his detention without trial. He was taken to hospital at least twice since then and has been only drinking small amounts of water.

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