| | | Date: Feb 1, 2019 | | Source: The Daily Star |  |  |  |
| | Al-Mustaqbal publishes final issue, to go online Feb. 14 | BEIRUT: Daily newspaper Al-Mustaqbal published its final issue Thursday after almost 20 years of printing.
Al-Mustaqbal, which was founded by late Prime Minister Rafik Hariri and is aligned with the Future Movement, released its first issue on June 14, 1999. It is set to transition to publishing exclusively online starting Feb. 14, the anniversary of Hariri’s 2005 assassination.
The 32-page final issue - no. 6,585 - pays homage to the paper’s coverage of major worldwide and local events since the paper’s founding. On the first page are editorials reflecting on the paper’s legacy; readers who flip through will find facsimiles of front pages pertaining to significant events that took place over the years.
The events include the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks; the beginning of the 2003 Iraq War; Hariri’s 2005 assassination; the end of former President Michel Sleiman’s term and the beginning of the presidential vacuum, in 2014; the May 7, 2008, clashes; the 2009 launch of the Special Tribunal for Lebanon to investigate Hariri’s killing; the parliamentary elections in 2018, the first in nine years; the 2018 CEDRE conference; and Prime Minister-designate Saad Hariri’s testimony at the closing hearings of the STL, also in 2018. |
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