Lebanon on edge after deadly protests

Beirut — A day of mourning has been declared in Lebanon after at least 7 people were killed and dozens injured in protests in the capital Beirut on Thursday. The country, once called the "playground of the Middle East," is already in the midst of a devastating economic crisis, with nearly three quarters of its population living in poverty.

During Thursday's deadly clashes, gunmen used rocket-propelled grenades and automatic weapons on the streets of the capital, echoing the carnage of the country's deadly civil war three decades earlier. Mariam Farhat, a 45-year-old mother of five, was among those killed, the Associated Press reported.

"We started screaming, she was taken on a stretcher but did not reach the hospital," Farhat's mother-in-law told the Associated Press. She said her youngest daughter did not know her mother had been killed. "She is five years old. How is she going to understand?"