The Tunisian coast guard recovered 901 bodies of drowned migrants off its coast from Jan. 1 to July 20 this year, the country's interior minister, Kamel Feki, said on Wednesday, marking an unprecedented number of victims off the country's coasts. The country is facing a record wave of migration this year and frequent catastrophes of the sinking of boats of migrants from sub-Saharan Africa heading to Italian coasts.
When Elias Hrawi was elected president of the Lebanese Republic in November 1989, following the assassination of President Rene Mouawad, he found before him a wrecked state. Hrawi, along with Foreign Minister Fares Boueiz, was aware that the international community was tired of Lebanon and had delegated to Syria the handling of its affairs.