A financial meltdown that started in 2019 has weakened the currency by more than 90%, paralysed the financial system and frozen depositors out of their savings.

Minister Mohammad Mortada says the film was found to 'promote homosexuality and sexual transformation' and 'contradicts values of faith and morality' by diminishing the importance of the family unit.

At least 11 people have been kllled and 40 wounded in the clashes that broke out in Ain el-Hilweh camp, near the southern coastal city of Sidon, over the weekend.

Footage on social media had shown a woman striking toddlers on the head and face as she fed them, and repeatedly forcing food into their mouths even as they cried.

The local pound has lost more than 98% of its value and diplomats have been expressing concern for months that the increasingly cash-based economy could hide growing illicit flows of money.

The strikes came in response to rocket attacks from Lebanon towards northern Israeli areas, which Israeli officials blamed on Hamas.

Christian organisations have turned their clocks forward while Muslim institutions and parties appear set to remain in winter time.

Outgoing President Michel Aoun's term ends on Oct 31 and divisions remain among political blocs over the makeup of a new cabinet.

Branded a terrorist group by Washington and a sworn enemy of Israel, the Iran-backed Hezbollah was certainly nowhere near the negotiating room during US shuttle diplomacy which clinched the landmark deal.

The agreement could unlock significant offshore gas production.

The election is seen as a test of whether the heavily armed, Iran-backed Hezbollah and its allies can keep their assembly majority amid soaring poverty and anger at parties in power.

With Lebanon in the grip of an economic and financial crisis – seen by the World Bank as one of the world's worst since the 1850s – the diplomatic row becomes all the more damaging.