BEIRUT: A wife and her lover have been arrested in Lebanon after stashing drugs in the car of the woman’s husband in a bid to get him arrested.
The husband was driving his car in Tabarja, eastern Beirut, when a police team stopped him, searched his car and found 11 bags of narcotics.
Police seized nine bags of hashish and two bags of salvi a plant-based hallucinogen.
The Lebanese Internal Security Forces’ (ISF) anti-narcotics department apprehended the husband for possessing and dealing drugs and took him in for questioning.
“When questioned by interrogators, the husband denied the accusations, arguing that the seized narcotics didn’t belong to him and that he has never used or promoted drugs,” a senior officer close to the investigation told Arab News.
BEIRUT: Lebanese Caretaker Interior Minister Mohammed Fahmy told Arab News that he could not deny or confirm the involvement of Hezbollah in the smuggling of the Captagon shipment to Saudi Arabia, an operation thwarted by the Saudi authorities in April.
Fahmy stressed that “investigations are underway, and their contents cannot be disclosed until now, fearing for the integrity of the investigation. Upon completion of all data and the initial investigation, we will speak. We hope that we will get the results soon.”
The minister of interior inspected on Sunday the illegal crossing points on the borders with Syria, starting from the Al-Fawj border center in Shedra, Akkar district (the far north of Lebanon) to the town of Ras Baalbek (eastern Lebanon).
DUBAI: Dubai-based Havas PR Middle East, which launched in 2005, has rebranded to Red Havas Middle East. The changes mark the agency’s entry into what the firm calls its global micro-network of merged media agencies, which combine earned, social, and experiential media capabilities with content at the center. A micro agency is typically one with less than 25 employees.
RIYADH: Arabian Drilling Co., a Saudi oilfield-services company partly held by Schlumberger , is preparing an initial public offering (IPO) that could give it a valuation of around $2 billion, according to people familiar with the matter, Bloomberg reported.
Arabian Drilling, also owned by Saudi Arabia’s Industrialization & Energy Services Company (Taqa), has asked banks to pitch for a role on the potential share sale, the people said.
The firm may complete a deal on Saudi stock exchange (Tadawul) before the end of the year, but no decisions have been finalized so far and the owners may decide against an IPO, the people said.
RIYADH: The message on the advertising hording is clear: “Bigger Than Ever.”
And this year’s AFC Champions League is just that, the biggest tournament ever – with an extra eight teams added, taking the total competing in the group stage to 40.
This trend of expansion has been seen across various continental and global competitions over the last few years, with varying degrees of success.
The AFC Asian Cup and European Championships expanded from 16 teams to 24. The FIFA World Cup will see an increase from 32 teams to 48 for the 2026 tournament in the US, Canada, and Mexico, while the FIFA Women’s World Cup will expand from 24 teams to 32 for the 2023 edition in Australia and New Zealand.