Lebanese clear tar pollution from turtle beach

TYRE, Lebanon: Leb-anese on Saturday raked balls of tar away from a turtle beach in the south of the country, as a massive slick washed ashore after hitting neighbouring Israel.

A storm more than a week ago threw tonnes of the sticky, black substance onto the beaches of the Jewish state, apparently after leaking from a ship.

Within days the spill had spread to southern Lebanon, where clumps of tar contaminated beaches stretching from the border town of Naqura to the southern city of Tyre.

The swathe of coastline, which includes some of the country’s best preserved beaches, is a nesting site for turtles which usually appear later in the year.