NewsTracker Answers for week of Aug. 10, 2020

Q: Angry demonstrators are blaming Lebanon’s ruling elite for the massive explosion last week that left more than 150 dead, thousands injured, about 300,000 homeless and much of capital city in ruins. Where is the small nation of Lebanon on the eastern shore of Mediterranean Sea?

Circle the area on this map


Q: Lebanon’s government was broke and its economy in ruins before the explosion of a huge stash of highly volatile ammonium nitrate that had been left unattended for six years in a port warehouse in the capital . . .

A. Amman

B. Beirut

C. Cairo

D. Damascus


B. Beirut is the capital and largest city in Lebanon. It was once a popular tourist, business and cultural center called the “Paris of the Middle East.” But, starting with a civil war in 1975 the city was torn apart by years of sectarian violence as Lebanon suffered military occupations by both of its neighbors, Syria and Israel.


Q: Protesters erected mock gallows in Beirut over the weekend and called on the crippled nation’s political leaders to resign or be hanged. Demonstrators said they are angry with all officials, including the leaders of Hezbollah, the militia and political party supported by which Mideast nation?

A. Iran

B. Israel

C. Saudi Arabia

D. Turkey


A. Iran funded the founding of Hezbollah to organize Shia Muslims to fight the Israeli occupation of southern Lebanon in 1982. High-ranking offices in Lebanon’s government are reserved for members of the nation’s main religious groups – the president must be a Maronite Christian, prime minister a Sunni Muslim, speaker of parliament a Shia Muslim and deputy speaker an Eastern Orthodox.


Q: Hezbollah reportedly runs the port where more than 2,700 tons of highly volatile ammonium nitrate was stored in the warehouse after it was seized from a Russian ship during a stop on its way to an explosives company in Mozambique. Where is Mozambique?

A. Southwest Asia

B. South America

C. Southeast Africa

D. Southern Europe


C. The Russian ship was carrying the load to the nation of the southeast coast of Africa when the ship’s owner ordered it to stop in Beirut to also pick up a cargo of heavy equipment. After trouble with loading the equipment and a dispute over port fees the ship was impounded and eventually abandoned. It later sunk at a dock in the Beirut port. An impounded shipment of fireworks also was stored in the warehouse with the ammonium nitrate.


Q: Besides explosives, what is ammonium nitrate used for?

A. Air conditioning

B. Fertilizer

C. Fireworks

D. Plastics


B. The chemical is predominantly used in agriculture as a high-nitrogen fertilizer. But, it also is a component in explosives used in mining, quarrying, and civil construction. Right-wing terrorists used ammonium nitrate mixed with fuel oil in 1995 to blow up a federal building in Oklahoma City, killing at least 168 people, including many children. More than 680 were injured in that blast.