The scenic region of Mount Lebanon has long produced pine seed, a regional delicacy, but harvests have collapsed amid an exotic insect infestation experts say is accelerated by climate change.

Lebanon, wedged between the mountains and the Mediterranean Sea, is best known for the iconic cedar tree depicted on its national flag -- but it also has pine trees that make up nearly 10 percent of total forest cover.

U.S. equities opened sharply lower on Thursday despite data confirming the economic rebound, as investors await the key government jobs report for May.

President Michel Aoun was on Thursday meeting with Central Bank Governor Riad Salameh and State Shura Council head Judge Fadi Elias after the Central Bank froze a circular allowing depositors to make use of their USD accounts at the LBP 3,900 rate.

Al-Jadeed TV reported that Aoun had made contacts overnight that led to the reversal of the bank’s decision and that the outcome would be announced after Thursday’s meeting in Baabda.

The French government summoned the head of the telecom operator Orange on Thursday over a network outage that left people unable to reach emergency services for hours, possibly causing three deaths.

The OPEC group of oil-producing countries and its allies agreed Tuesday to maintain planned production increases, as pandemic-hit demand for crude recovers.

Israeli military exports reached $8.3 billion in 2020, buoyed by a 15 percent spike in the number of agreements signed compared with the previous year, the government announced Tuesday.

Lebanon's severe economic and financial crisis is likely to rank as one of the worst the world has seen in more than 150 years, the World Bank said in a report released Tuesday.

The World Bank said that since late 2019, Lebanon has been facing compounded challenges, including its largest peace-time economic and financial crisis, the spread of coronavirus and a massive blast at Beirut's port last year that is considered as one of the largest non-nuclear explosions in history.

Iran should almost triple its crude output as a "priority" to boost its political clout, its oil minister said Monday, ahead of a meeting of major producing nations.

French investigators interrogated former Renault-Nissan boss Carlos Ghosn Monday in Lebanon, where he has sought refuge since a dramatic escape from Japan, a court source said.

Ghosn, his defense team, a Lebanese prosecutor sitting in on the hearing and the visiting French judges met at 10:00 am (0700 GMT) in the Court of Cassation where the interrogation over alleged fraudulent activities went underway, the source said.

Rasheeda Jaleel lives in fear that she may not be able to feed her seven children as millions of Indian families are forced into poverty by a devastating new coronavirus wave.