Protests Engulf Lebanon: CNN

Thousands have turned out throughout Lebanon to protest an economy in decline. About 30 percent of the population lives below the poverty line, and 30 percent of the people are also refugees. Public debt is high and young adults are abandoning the stagnant economy. The government has passed austerity measures, and fury erupted after a tax was proposed on voice over internet protocol calls on mobile phones. “People in Lebanon, buckling under the strains of a rapidly declining economy, are taking aim at crony capitalism,” reports Tamara Qiblawi for CNN. “Decades of corruption and government mismanagement by the country's sectarian leaders have come at too hefty a price, Lebanese protesters say. And after decades of being pitted against one another, people across Lebanon's confessional divide appear to have now banded together to rise up against sectarian overlords.” The article goes on to explain how the anger targets “a broad multi-sectarian political class” in place since 1990, and protesters have called for Prime Minister Saad Hariri’s resignation. The government quickly enacted some reforms including a 50 percent cut in officials’ salaries, taxes on bank profits and efforts to stem financial losses. Hariri expresses hope for an end to a divided political system with quotas based on religious sects. – YaleGlobal