Lebanese Protests Continue – though with Efforts to Clear Main Roads

Lebanese security personnel began removing demonstrators from the country’s main highways as anti-government protests went into their seventh straight day on Wednesday. Scuffles were reported in several areas, with numerous demonstrators being taken to hospitals. On Monday, Prime Minister Saad al-Hariri heralded a series of reforms aimed at cutting the nation’s staggering foreign debt without raising taxes. It was the announcement of yet another tax that had sent people into the streets last week, but Hariri’s pledge so far seems to have done little to mollify them. The protesters, it must be said, seem to be enjoying an air of national unity rarely seen in the highly sectarian country – they’ve been doing just as much singing and dancing as they’ve been shouting angry slogans. They even came together in Beirut on Wednesday morning to clean up the trash left from their protest the night before.