Facing protests, Lebanon PM blames government for crisis NEWS BRIEFING Staff and news services Trump taps Perry deputy to replace him at Energy Dept. Tropical Storm Nestor forms, threatening US Gulf Coast Woman pleads to homicide in botched buttocks injection US says it recently paid cash-strapped UN $180M Heartburn drug Zantac is pulled in US and Canada

BEIRUT - Lebanon's prime minister gave his partners in government a 72-hour ultimatum to come up with "convincing" solutions for a rapidly worsening economic crisis, as nationwide protests against the country's entire ruling political class escalated.

The blaze of protests was unleashed a day earlier when the government announced a slate of new proposed taxes, including a $6 monthly fee for using Whatsapp voice calls. The measures set a spark to long smoldering anger against top leaders from the president and prime minister to the numerous factional figures many blame for decades of corruption and mismanagement.

Hundreds of rowdy protesters were massed outside Prime Minister Saad Hariri's office as he delivered an address to the nation Friday evening, blaming politicians in his national unity government for blocking his reform agenda at every turn.

The government is dominated by his rivals, the Iran-backed Hezbollah group and its allies.

Hariri said he understood the people's "pain" and anger at his government's performance and said "we are running out of time."

He said he was giving 72 hours for the government to come up with "clear, decisive and final" decisions regarding his proposed structural reforms to fix the ailing economy.

Shortly after his speech, security forces fired tear gas and water cannons to disperse the protesters outside his office, leading to confrontations between police and young men. Groups of rioters broke away from the protesters, setting cars ablaze and smashing store windows.

Trump taps Perry deputy to replace him at Energy Dept.

WASHINGTON - President Donald Trump on Friday selected Dan Brouillette, deputy to departing Energy Secretary Rick Perry, to lead the Energy Department, calling him a "total professional" with unparalleled experience.

Trump acted quickly, just a day after Perry told the president that he would leave by year's end.

Perry said his decision was not related to his role in administration actions on Ukraine that are now the focus of a House impeachment inquiry.

Brouillette says he backs an "all of the above" policy that promotes nuclear and renewable solar and wind energy as well as coal, natural gas and oil.

Environmental groups, many lawmakers and others fault the administration for trying to spur the country's oil and gas production boom rather than rein in the climate-damaging fossil fuels.

Tropical Storm Nestor forms, threatening US Gulf Coast

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. - Newly formed Tropical Storm Nestor bore down on the northern Gulf Coast with high winds, surging seas and heavy rains Friday, threatening to hit an area of the Florida Panhandle devastated one year ago by Hurricane Michael.

Nestor was forecast to hit the coast around Mexico Beach on Saturday morning without strengthening into a hurricane. Blasted by Michael in October 2018, the area is still trying to recover.

The National Hurricane Center said high winds, heavy rain and dangerous storm surge were likely along parts of the northern Gulf Coast.

Forecasters expect blustery winds and heavy rain in parts of Alabama, Georgia and northern Florida, reaching the Carolinas and Virginia by Sunday.

Woman pleads to homicide in botched buttocks injection

NEW YORK - A woman who fled from New York to London rather than face charges in a botched silicone injection that killed a Maryland woman pleaded guilty Friday to criminally negligent homicide, prosecutors said.

Donna Francis, 39, pleaded guilty to administering the buttocks injections that killed 34-year-old Kelly Mayhew on May 30, 2015, in a basement in Queens.

Mayhew traveled with her mother from Suitland, Maryland, and paid Francis $1,600 for a buttocks augmentation procedure, prosecutors said.

Francis, who had no medical license, injected Mayhew with silicone gel bought on eBay in a home in the Far Rockaway neighborhood that served as an illegal plastic surgery clinic, the district attorney said.

US says it recently paid cash-strapped UN $180M

UNITED NATIONS - The United States said Friday it has paid the United Nations $180 million toward its annual dues and expects to make another payment of $96 million within the next few weeks, which should help ease the U.N.'s worst cash crisis in nearly a decade.

U.S. deputy Ambassador Cherith Norman Chalet, who is in charge of management and reform issues, made the announcement Friday to the General Assembly's budget and finance committee.

Last week, Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said the U.N. was facing a major cash crisis because 64 of its 193 member nations hadn't paid their annual dues - including the U.S., its largest contributor.

U.N. management chief Catherine Pollard has said said $1.386 billion was owed for this year by 65 countries - including more than $1 billion by the U.S.

Heartburn drug Zantac is pulled in US and Canada

Drugmaker Sanofi is recalling its over-the-counter heartburn drug Zantac in the U.S. and Canada because of possible contamination.

The French company Friday joined other drugmakers that have recently recalled their versions of the popular heartburn and ulcer drug.

In September, the Food and Drug Administration said a potentially cancer-causing chemical had been detected at low levels in prescription and over-the-counter versions of Zantac.

The federal agency said consumers could consider taking another heartburn medicine or contact their doctor.

U.S. and European Union health officials are investigating levels of the probable carcinogen NDMA in Zantac and its generic equivalent sold by numerous other companies.

In New Orleans: Plans have been pushed back a day to bring down two giant, unstable construction cranes in a series of controlled explosions before they can topple onto historic New Orleans buildings, the city's fire chief said Friday, noting the risky work involved in placing explosive on the towers.

Light, intermittent rain and winds were complicating efforts Friday as workers in buckets suspended from another crane worked to prepare the site.

Three people died when a Hard Rock Hotel building under construction at partially collapsed Oct. 12. One body was recovered but the bodies of two construction workers remain in the unstable wreckage.

Caption: A demonstrator lifts a sign reading "You are burning our future" during a protest against dire economic conditions in Zouk Mikael, north of the Lebanese capital, Beirut, on Friday.

Hariri

JOSEPH EID/Getty-AFP