The Lebanese government announced its resignation an hour ago. What does this mean, and what implications will it have for the nation (and the rest of the world)?
Might be a dumb question, but what about the Lebanon citizens residing out of their country. Are they still citizens? And are they allowed back in? (The Terminal type situation?) 
Keep in mind that they mean the “government” resigned in a Parliamentary sense - in other words, the PM has stepped down, probably to avoid a vote of no confidence. It doesn’t mean that the “government” in the sense of bureaucratic machinery has ceased to function. From the third paragraph of the CNN article:
Uses of the terms “form a government” or “government has collapsed” sound more dire to those of us used to the US Federal system than they really are. It’s a major shakeup, but the system is intact.
It means there will be an election. Technically, every parliamentary government has, as its final act, writs dissolving parliament and calling an election.
Although often the case (particularly in Britain and other two-party parliamentary systems), the resignation of a government does not necessarily mean there will be an election. If a new coalition among the current parliamentary factions can agree to form a governing majority, the President or Crown may ask them to do so.
And in the case of parliamentary systems with elections at fixed intervals, the President/Crown must find a coalition or minority party to do so. Norway is one such system; we have elections every four years, never more often. During the last election cycle the coalition government took a gamble, lost, and had to resign; the King had to look at the sitting Parliament, and we ended up with a minority government until the next election.
True enough, but an election has already been called for Lebanon this May.
Henry David Thoreau : “That government is best which governs least.”