BEIRUT: Three prisoners died and 16 others were injured in Zahle prison in eastern Lebanon on Friday when inmates set fire to their cells in anger after an apparent escape attempt was uncovered.
Police said the blaze started in several cells on the second floor in the main prison after prison guards discovered a hole dug in a wall as part of a planned tunnel.
Following the discovery prisoners attempted to take several security staff hostage before setting fire to mattresses and blankets in their cells.

BEIRUT: The Lebanese army rescued more than 100 migrants Friday after their boat developed technical problems in the Mediterranean off the coast of the northern city of Tripoli, state-run National News Agency reported. No one was hurt in the incident.
The agency said the boat that was carrying 125 people, all of them Syrians except for one Lebanese, called for help after they faced problems while near the Palm Islands in Lebanese territorial waters. The boat was towed to port in Tripoli where some of the migrants received first aid, the agency added.

LONDON: The 11th meeting of the UAE-India High Level Joint Task Force on Investments was held in Abu Dhabi on Thursday, the Emirates News Agency reported.

The task force was set up in 2013 to promote trade, investment and economic ties between the two countries.

Officials from the two sides discussed the UAE-India Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement, which went into effect in May last year and aims to boost cultural, political and economic ties.

ANKARA: Turkiye’s threat to strike Kurdish militant sites across its border is a “shot across the bow” to the US and other actors in the Syrian conflict, analysts have told Arab News.

The warning on Wednesday — that all PKK and YPG sites are “legitimate military targets” — is viewed as a precursor to a high-level cross-border Turkish operation.

BEIRUT: “Funds allocated for purchasing medications for cancer, (other) chronic diseases and kidney dialysis are nearly depleted,” Bilal Abdullah, the head of Lebanon’s Parliamentary Health Committee said on Thursday as he warned that the health situation in the country “is catastrophic.”
His comments came as concerns grow about the rates of non-communicable chronic diseases in a country mired in a long-running financial crisis and political paralysis.