Lebanese paper prints blank issue to protest gridlock

Lebanon's leading newspaper has printed a blank issue to protest long-running political gridlock and the failure to form a government five months after elections.

Nayla Tueni, editor-in-chief of An-Nahar daily, says "we are ringing the alarm bells" with Thursday's edition of the paper, which consists of eight blank pages.

She told a press conference at the paper's Beirut headquarters that the move was an expression of exasperation.

She called out politicians' inability to form a government or address issues like pollution and economic stagnation, saying: "This is not just the media crying out, this is the cry of a country."

The sectarian power-sharing system established after Lebanon's 1975-1990 civil war has entrenched long-ruling elites and makes it difficult to form a government or agree on major policies.