Christian parties mull Parliament boycott

BEIRUT: With no solution in sight to the presidential election stalemate, Christian parties and lawmakers are considering boycotting Parliament sessions in response to a vacuum in the presidency.

Lawmakers from the March 14 coalition said they would boycott any legislative Parliament session should the country’s top Christian post become vacant on May 25, when President Michel Sleiman’s six-year tenure expires.

“Legislation should stop in the absence of a Christian president,” Lebanese Forces MP Antoine Zahra said during a Parliament session.

“To preserve the legitimacy of Parliament’s activity, lawmakers should not meet in the event of a presidential vacuum.”

Zahra said that MPs from other parties would join the LF lawmakers in their boycott of Parliament if MPs fail to elect a new president before May 25.

He spoke during a Parliament session intended to debate and approve a controversial wage hike bill for civil servants and public school teachers.

Kataeb Party MP Sami Gemayel voiced a similar view, saying Speaker Nabih Berri should pre-empt a possible impasse by passing a new electoral law if a new president was not elected by the May 25 deadline.

“We will not attend Parliament sessions in the event of a presidential vacuum,” Gemayel said in Parliament. “That’s why Speaker Berri should be aware of a possible impasse that could obstruct the possibility of reaching a new electoral law and act before May 25.”

“After the presidential election ... we will have to find a new electoral law for the parliamentary polls due later this year,” he added.

The remarks by Zahra and Gemayel come as the threat of a power vacuum looms large over Lebanon, as Parliament has failed four times in less than one month to elect Sleiman’s successor.

Parliament is scheduled to meet again Thursday in a fifth attempt, but there are signs that this session too is doomed to fail in the absence of a local and regional accord on a compromise candidate acceptable to the rival factions.

Meanwhile, the Foreign Ministry witnessed a flurry of diplomatic activity focusing on the presidential polls.

U.S. Ambassador to Lebanon David Hale held talks with Foreign Minister Gebran Bassil.

Hale, who handed Bassil a letter from U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, did not speak to reporters after the meeting, the National News Agency reported, without giving details of Kerry’s letter.

Hale met Bassil in the afternoon after a morning meeting between the two was postponed for security reasons, the NNA said.

The U.S. envoy also met former Prime Minister Fouad Siniora at the latter’s office on Bliss Street to discuss the situation in Lebanon.

Bassil also met with French Ambassador Patrice Paoli.

The meetings come a day after Bassil was reported to have discussed the presidential election in Riyadh with Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Saud al-Faisal.

The Saudi Ambassador to Lebanon Ali Awad Asiri called on Lebanese lawmakers to elect “a consensual president,” saying the presidential vote was a Lebanese issue alone.

“Our role is not to interfere. The Lebanese are more aware of their affairs [than us]. We have sensed from them keenness on holding the presidential election,” Asiri said in a TV interview.

Separately, Saudi Arabia lifted the travel advisory against its citizens visiting Lebanon, in a move that could boost the struggling tourism industry. The revocation of the nearly two-year policy will go into effect at the end of the month, with other Gulf states expected to follow suit.

The decision was made earlier this month, days after Asiri returned to Lebanon, a source at the Saudi Embassy told The Daily Star.

Following a meeting Wednesday with Asiri and Interior Minister Nouhad Machnouk, Tourism Minister Michel Pharaon confirmed the move, saying the security situation in Lebanon, which has significantly improved in recent weeks due to a new security plan, allowed for tourists to return.

Lebanon’s security deteriorated quickly following a series of suicide car bombings linked to the war in Syria, prompting several states – primarily in the Gulf – to warn against traveling to the country.

“The travel ban was lifted a few days after Asiri returned to Lebanon in early May and we are optimistic about the summer season in Lebanon,” the source said.

“Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates are expected to do the same if they have not done it already, because there was coordination over the Saudi kingdom’s decision with these two countries.

“As for Qatar and Kuwait, we do not know.”

British executive accused in China drug bribery

BEIJING -- Chinese police Wednesday accused a British executive of GlaxoSmithKline of leading a sprawling scheme to bribe doctors and hospitals to use its drugs.

The announcement was the first time a foreign employee in China of British-based GSK was accused in the investigation announced last July. It highlighted the widespread use of payments to doctors and hospitals by sellers of drugs and medical equipment in a poorly funded health system that Chinese leaders have promised to improve.

The executive, Mark Reilly, is accused of operating a "massive bribery network," said a police official, Gao Feng, at a news conference. He said the case had been handed over to prosecutors for formal indictment.

Beginning in January 2009, Reilly is accused of ordering his sales team to pay doctors, hospital officials and health institutions to use GSK's products, said Gao, deputy director of the Ministry of Public Security's economic crimes unit. He said that resulted in "illegal revenue" of billions of yuan (hundreds of millions of dollars).

"GSK's bribery activities ran through its entire operations in China," Gao said.

Gao said Reilly is in China but gave no other details of his status. He said dozens of other people also were implicated but gave no names or other details.

The British Embassy in Beijing said diplomats were in regular contact with Reilly and were providing "consular assistance." The embassy declined to comment further while the case was under way.

Reilly was GSK's senior vice president of pharmaceuticals for China and Hong Kong and former general manager for China.

"We take the allegations that have been raised very seriously. They are deeply concerning to us and contrary to the values of GSK," the company said in a statement. "We want to reach a resolution that will enable the company to continue to make an important contribution to the health and welfare of China and its citizens."

Police previously identified four Chinese employees of GSK who they said confessed to bribery.

A second foreign drugmaker, AstraZeneca, said in July that police in Shanghai were investigating one of its salespeople. The company has given no information since then.

Chinese state media have publicized the bribery investigations of GSK and AstraZeneca. But economists who study Chinese health care say such payments are more widely used by China's domestic drug manufacturers.

Doctors and hospitals routinely accept informal payments from patients and suppliers of medical goods to top up low salaries and cover gaps in budgets.

Hospitals also raise money by adding surcharges to drug prices and assigning employees sales quotas. That can also distort treatment by encouraging overuse of expensive drugs or procedures.

Gao said Reilly used bribery to meet sales targets set by GSK's head office.

The company charged prices up to seven times the level charged in other countries, Gao said. He said that before a patent on one of its drugs was due to expire in 2012, GSK paid bribes to discourage hospitals from switching to cheaper generic versions.

"The more it bribed, the more drugs it could sell," he said.

GSK employees obstructed previous inquiries by bribing investigators and other government officials, Gao said.

In a separate statement, police in the central city of Changsha, where the investigation began, said Reilly and two Chinese executives also are accused of bribing government officials in Beijing and Shanghai.

On Wednesday, Chinese employees of GSK were shown on state television accusing Reilly of organizing bribery.

"Mark Reilly wanted to maximize the company's profits," said one of the employees, Cheng Hongbo. "A lot of money was invested in influencing doctors that have power to prescribe for patients."

Another employee, Zhang Guowei, said the drug maker "mobilized our connections and bribed officials" to influence the latest investigation. He said Reilly told subordinates to "go ahead" when he was told bribes were needed.

"Mark Reilly proposed to hide or destroy evidence of commercial bribery," said Zhao.

Police in Changsha said last July that employees appeared to be trying to evade GSK's internal anti-bribery controls by making payments totaling as much as 3 billion yuan ($490 million) to a travel agency that gave back at least part of that money.

GSK gave its "full assistance and cooperation" to the investigation, Gao said.

AP Writer Gillian Wong in Beijing contributed.

Jury debates ex-UGA football coach's fraud case

ATHENS, Ga. -- Defense attorneys said former University of Georgia football coach Jim Donnan was duped into a fraudulent investment scheme and invited his friends to join it because he thought it was a great opportunity.

Defense attorneys made the statements Wednesday in their closing arguments in Donnan's trial on charges including wire fraud, mail fraud and money laundering.

Prosecutors say the 69-year-old and another man ran a fraudulent investment scheme from September 2007 to December 2010 through GLC Limited, a West Virginia-based company dealing in wholesale and closeout merchandise. Prosecutors say the pair promised high rates of return but paid investors with other investor money.

Prosecutors have said Donnan used his extensive personal and professional network to lure investors.

If convicted, Donnan could face a potentially lengthy prison sentence.

Cable TV startup TV Layer3 moving to Denver

DENVER -- A startup that bills itself as a "next generation cable company" will open its headquarters in Denver after winning $2.9 million in tax credits from Colorado.

The co-founder of Layer3 TV, Jeff Binder, and Denver Mayor Michael Hancock announced the move Wednesday.

The company was founded in Boston last year by Binder and other cable industry veterans. It plans to open its new headquarters in Denver this summer and eventually employ about 300 people, paying an average salary of $92,000.

The Denver Post (http://bit.ly/1v5iPRZ ) reports that the company was attracted to Colorado because of its deep roots in the television business, including satellite TV provider Dish Network and cable provider Liberty Media.

Layer3 says it will combine live television with social, digital and the Internet.

Business Highlights

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British executive accused in China drug bribery

BEIJING (AP) — Chinese police Wednesday accused a British executive of GlaxoSmithKline of leading a sprawling scheme to bribe doctors and hospitals to use its drugs.

The announcement was the first time a foreign employee in China of British-based GSK was accused in the investigation announced last July.

The executive, Mark Reilly, is accused of operating a massive bribery network, according to police. Reilly is accused of ordering his sales team to pay doctors, hospital officials and health institutions to use GSK's products that resulted in illegal revenue of billions of yuan (hundreds of millions of dollars).

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Domino's CEO on chain's image, Italy prospects

NEW YORK (AP) — Italy may not seem like the ideal place for a Domino's Pizza shop, but the man who heads the American chain remains optimistic about the possibility.

CEO Patrick Doyle says that the chain's delivery model may give it an advantage in Italy, where he says there is a lot of pizza but not a lot of delivered pizza.

Domino's, which is based in Ann Arbor, Michigan, has been enjoying strong sales growth overseas and boasts nearly 6,000 international locations. Back at home, where it has 5,000 locations, Domino's has been trying to improve the image of its pizza, which has long been plagued by a reputation for tasting generic and manufactured.

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Europe's recovery gains speed, faces obstacles

FRANKFURT, Germany (AP) — Official figures are expected to confirm that Europe's recovery from recession gathered pace in the first three months of the year. But the road to recovery is filled with worries, so much so that the European Central Bank is poised to deliver recession-appropriate stimulus measures.

Figures on Thursday are expected to show that the economy of the 18 countries that use the euro expanded by 0.4 percent in the first quarter from the previous three-month period. That's double the rate recorded in the previous quarter and would mark the third straight quarterly expansion.

Growth, even if shaky or uneven, is key to moving past those troubles.

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Sears considering selling its Canadian operations

NEW YORK (AP) — Sears is considering selling its Canadian operations as the retailer looks for ways to prop up its sagging business.

The retailer, which operates its namesake stores and Kmart locations, said that it's looking at strategic options for its 51 percent interest in Sears Canada. The Hoffman Estates, Illinois-based company said this includes the possible sale of its stake or possibly the entire Sears Canada operation.

Sears Canada's board and management plan to cooperate with Sears Holdings as it explores strategic alternatives.

The news comes as Sears Holdings Corp.'s chairman, the billionaire hedge fund manager Eddie Lampert, has been under intense pressure to turn around its business. He took over as CEO in February 2013.

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Jury: Hyundai owes $240M in punitive damages

POLSON, Mont. (AP) — A Montana jury has ordered Hyundai to pay $240 million in punitive damages after finding that a manufacturing defect in a Hyundai vehicle caused a crash that killed two Missoula cousins in 2011.

The award handed down late Tuesday was on top of $8.6 million in actual damages and lost earnings the jury awarded to the families of 19-year-old Trevor Olson and 14-year-old Tanner Olson. The cousins died when their 2005 Hyundai Tiburon slammed head-on into another car.

It's unclear if the punitive damages will stand because of a $10 million state cap on such damages, which is being challenged.

Hyundai Motor America released a statement Wednesday saying it believes the jury's verdict is mistaken and plans an immediate appeal.

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April sales surge bolsters Macy's optimism

NEW YORK (AP) — After a slow, cold winter, Macy's Inc.' s business improved in April as the spring thaw heated up shoppers' demand for shorts and T-shirts, the department store chain said Wednesday.

But Mother Nature's aid came too late to boost the department store chain's first-quarter sales, which missed expectations despite a 3.2 percent increase in profit.

Macy's stuck by its full-year earnings outlook, indicating it thinks the April sales surge will continue.

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Samsung apologizes to sickened chip workers

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — Samsung Electronics Co. apologized and promised compensation to chip factory workers who suffered cancers linked to chemical exposure, a rare win for families and activists seven years after the death of a 23-year-old employee from leukemia galvanized a movement to hold the company to account.

Samsung said the apology does not mean it concedes a link between the chemicals used in its chip factories and cancer and other diseases. Still, the company's statement Wednesday that it should have sought a solution sooner is an abrupt shift in Samsung's stance and a form of vindication for workers and their families.

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Abramson replaced as NYT executive editor

NEW YORK (AP) — The New York Times on Wednesday announced that executive editor Jill Abramson is being replaced by managing editor Dean Baquet after two and a half years on the job.

The company didn't give a reason for the change. Abramson and Baquet had both been in their current positions since September 2011.

Baquet, 57, who would be the first African-American to hold the newspaper's highest editorial position, received a Pulitzer Prize for investigative reporting in 1988.

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Yahoo snaps up the mobile messaging app Blink

NEW YORK (AP) — Yahoo is buying the mobile messaging app Blink.

Terms of the deal, which was announced Wednesday on Blink's website, are not being disclosed.

Messages sent through the Blink app self-destruct after a certain amount of time. The app allows users to send texts, sketches, record audio, make videos and take photos. Its main rival is Snapchat, which Facebook reportedly tried to buy for $3 billion.

Blink said it will shut down both the iOS and Android versions of the app in the coming weeks before the switchover.

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Google resumes Glass sales in the US

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Google is once again selling its Internet-connected eyewear to anyone in the U.S. as the company fine-tunes a device that has sparked intrigue and disdain for its potential to change the way people interact with technology.

The latest release of Google Glass comes a month after a one-day sale gave U.S. residents their first chance to buy the hottest accessory in geek fashion.

Google Inc. isn't setting a time limit for people to buy Glass this time, although the company is emphasizing that the product remains in its test, or "Explorer," phase.

As has been the case since Google began selling Glass to a select group in 2012, the device costs $1,500. It's only available on Google's website for now.

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By The Associated Press=

The Dow Jones industrial average fell 101.47 points, or 0.6 percent, to close at 16,613.97. The Standard & Poor's 500 index fell 8.92 points, or 0.5 percent, to close at 1,888.53. The Nasdaq fell 29.54 points, or 0.7 percent, to 4,100.63.

Benchmark U.S. crude for June delivery added 67 cents to $102.37 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Wholesale gasoline gained 4 cents to $2.97 a gallon. Natural gas added 1 cent to $4.37 per 1,000 cubic feet. Heating oil rose 2 cents to $2.96 a gallon. Brent crude, an international benchmark, gained 77 cents to $109.31 a barrel on the ICE Futures exchange in London.

Munson Healthcare to buy CHE Trinity hospitals

TRAVERSE CITY, Mich. -- Munson Healthcare in Traverse City is acquiring two northern Michigan hospitals.

Munson said Wednesday it will become owner of Mercy Hospital Cadillac and Mercy Hospital in Grayling. Both belong to CHE Trinity Health, based in Livonia.

The deal also includes purchase of the Mercy Manor long-term care facility in Grayling and Mercy Home Care and Hospice services in Cadillac, Grayling and Houghton Lake.

Munson has managed the Cadillac and Grayling hospitals for 11 years. Chief executive Ed Ness says the deal will improve patient care and bring more collaboration and coordination of services across the Munson system.

Feds to spend $38 million on N. Idaho cleanup

COEUR D'ALENE, Idaho -- Federal officials plan to spend $38 million in northern Idaho's Coeur d'Alene River Basin this summer cleaning up toxic pollution left from a century worth of mining in the region.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency tells the Coeur d'Alene Press (http://bit.ly/1g5ufAD) in a story on Wednesday that up to 125 residential and commercial properties will be cleaned up.

Ed Moreen, remedial project manager with the EPA's Coeur d'Alene office, said that more than 17 miles of paved roads in eight upper basin communities will be repaired or replaced.

Work will also include water treatment projects and the construction of multiple mine-waste repositories.

"It's going to be well spread out throughout the Coeur d'Alene Basin in terms of geography," said Moreen. "We'll continue to control contamination sources and also protect existing remedies."

The Coeur d'Alene River Basin is one of the nation's largest Superfund sites, with heavy metals poisoning land, streams, wildlife and humans. The wastes washed into waterways and moved downstream, some extending into Washington state.

Most of the money for work this year is being paid for with settlement dollars from Asarco and Hecla Mining Co.

Work on one of the new waste repositories, Moreen said, will start this fall on the Lower Burke Canyon Repository in Wallace near Woodland Park. The repository is designed to store 800,000 cubic yards of material and should be ready by the spring of 2015.

Meanwhile, the existing Big Creek Repository is getting full, so two new properties are being acquired to expand its current capacity of 600,000 cubic yards.

Bruce Schuld, the Idaho Department of Environmental Quality project manager in Kellogg, said about 150 workers will be hired for road work and property cleanup.

"We have kind of a focus of doing residential and commercial properties up there so that we can kind of complete and close out those communities," said Schuld, noting some other properties are also being cleaned in the lower basin from Cataldo downstream to Lake Coeur d'Alene.

Construction is planned on a mine waste consolidation area on a remote 20-acre site near East Fork of Ninemile Creek, said Dan Meyer, senior program manager for the Coeur d'Alene Trust. That area will receive waste from the Interstate-Callahan Mine.

"There's about a total of 200,000 (cubic) yards there," Meyer said. "It's going to take us two years" to move it to the waste area.

Another project is a remediation pilot project at the Kahnderosa RV park planned to start this fall. Officials say stabilizing the eroding riverbank will reduce human and wildlife contact with harmful pollutants.

Feinstein Wants CIA To Speed 'Torture Report' Release

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hide captionSenate Intelligence Committee Chairwoman Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., speaks to reporters after a closed-door meeting on Capitol Hill in April 2014.

Molly Riley/AP

Senate Intelligence Committee Chairwoman Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., speaks to reporters after a closed-door meeting on Capitol Hill in April 2014.

Molly Riley/AP

It's been well over a month since the Senate Intelligence Committee voted 11-3 to declassify and make public the executive summary and findings of its so-called "Torture Report."

But it's not likely that will actually happen anytime soon.

The reason? The CIA — the very agency skewered in the 6,200 page report for its interrogation and detention of more than 100 terrorism suspects from 2001 through 2008 — has been given the job of deciding what to leave in and what to take out of the summary and findings.

And the CIA seems to be in no great rush to finish that job.

"I was told by the White House chief of staff [Denis McDonough] that it's probably not until July," said Intelligence Committee chairwoman Dianne Feinstein when I asked her on May 14 when the CIA's vetting of the documents would be complete.

"I'm in discussion with Director [of National Intelligence James] Clapper to see if we can't move that up," the California Democrat added, "and that he can't exercise his authority to this done a bit more quickly."

And is she comfortable with the CIA doing the vetting? "Not particularly, no," Feinstein said, "but I'm comfortable with Director Clapper's oversight."

Feinstein earlier this year clashed publicly with CIA Director John Brennan, accusing his agency of removing documents being used in her committee's investigation leading up to the report and improperly searching her staff's computers. The CIA, for its part, contends that Feinstein's staffers removed classified documents from a secure CIA facility.

Arizona Republican Sen. and Vietcong torture survivor John McCain has also long criticized the CIA's post 9-11 interrogation methods, which included waterboarding.

Still, he said the CIA ought to screen the summary and findings before their release. "I also think that the vetting ought to be done in a way that doesn't conceal facts from Congress and the American people," he added, "and it should not take too long."

McCain said he did not know of a process in place to make sure facts are not concealed by the CIA, though he expressed confidence it would be plain if that's what is attempted.

"It's like child pornography," he said. "We will know when we see it."

Sears considering selling its Canadian operations

NEW YORK -- Sears is considering selling its Canadian operations as the retailer looks for ways to prop up its sagging business.

The retailer, which operates its namesake stores and Kmart locations, said that it's looking at strategic options for its 51 percent interest in Sears Canada. The Hoffman Estates, Illinois-based company said this includes the possible sale of its stake or possibly the entire Sears Canada operation.

Sears Canada's board and management plan to cooperate with Sears Holdings as it explores strategic alternatives.

The news comes as Sears Holdings Corp.'s chairman, the billionaire hedge fund manager Eddie Lampert, has been under intense pressure to turn around its business. He took over as CEO in February 2013.

Sears has had trouble adapting as bigger, nimbler rivals such as Wal-Mart and Home Depot have attracted its customers over the years.

Sears is trying to transform itself to into a member-focused business rather than a company that simply runs a store network. Loyal shoppers now receive incentives to buy. But its results have been hurt as it continues traditional promotions while investing in its membership program dubbed Shop Your Way.

Sears previously sold some store leases in Canada. It recently spun off clothing business Lands' End as a separate public company after not having much success with it.

The possible sale of its business north of the border also comes as several U.S. retailers, particularly Target Corp., are having difficulties cracking the Canadian market, about one tenth the size of the U.S. market.

The two countries are neighbors and they are culturally similar. But Canadian stores are grappling with a web of costly regulations and a slower Canadian economy and increasing competition are making the retail landscape look a lot like the U.S. economy.

Sears expanded into Canada through a joint venture in the early 1950s, but it has seen heightened competition from rivals Home Depot and Wal-Mart that entered Canada in the 1990s. The momentum picked up during the Great Recession. Target, based in Minneapolis, expanded into the Canadian market last year with more than 100 stores, marking its first foray a market outside the U.S.

But Target's merchandising mistakes and poor locations have resulted in a $724 million loss on lower than-expected sales for the year ended Feb. 1.

The botched up expansion was one of the key factors behind last week's abrupt departure of Target's CEO Gregg Steinhafel who also faced intense scrutiny in the wake of its massive data breach.

In an interview with The Associated Press last week, John Mulligan, Target's chief financial officer, who is serving as Target's interim CEO until a permanent replacement is named, vowed that it would not scale back on its expansion plans in Canada. Target's longer-term plans call for reaching $6 billion in revenue in that country. But Mulligan noted it was making several leadership changes to help fix the problems.

Analysts say that Sears is a much different story.

"(Sears) resembles the atrocity of the U.S. business," said Brian Sozzi, CEO and chief equities strategist at Belus Capital Advisors. "It's almost a shell outfit."

In 2012, Sears announced plans to restore profitability by cutting costs, reducing inventory, selling off some assets and spinning off others. Those moves helped the company reduce net debt by $400 million and generated $1.8 billion in cash from the asset sales.

Sears has spun off other businesses over the past three years, including its Hometown and Sears Outlet stores and its Orchard Supply Hardware Stores, to raise cash.

The company's shares fell 95 cents, or 2.2 percent, to $42.28 in afternoon trading after rising as high as $45 earlier in the session. Its shares have fallen more than 6 percent over the past year.

BC-Noon Oil

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Condoleezza Rice endorses Kashkari for governor

SACRAMENTO, Calif. -- Former U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice is endorsing investment banker Neel Kashkari's bid for California governor amid growing concern within the party about his GOP rival.

In an endorsement note sent Wednesday, Rice says Kashkari is focused on "uniting Californians around fiscally conservative economic principles."

She says the GOP must support policies that "make opportunity and the American dream more accessible for all."

It's a subtle reference to the battle playing out between Kashkari, a moderate former U.S. Treasury official in the Bush administration, and Assemblyman Tim Donnelly, a tea party favorite who is leading in polls for the June 3 election.

Rice is a professor at Stanford University and among the most popular figures in the GOP. Many California Republicans had hoped she would run for governor herself.

Scolari is target of Portuguese investigation

LISBON, Portugal -- Brazil coach Luiz Felipe Scolari is the subject of a criminal investigation in Portugal, authorities said Wednesday.

Officials wouldn't say what the investigation is about. In Portugal, ongoing investigations fall under the country's judicial secrecy law.

The Portuguese attorney general's office said in an email to The Associated Press that the Department for Criminal Investigation and Prosecution has opened an inquiry into Scolari, but it provided no further details.

Unconfirmed reports in Brazil and the Netherlands say Scolari is suspected of tax evasion, but he has denied any wrongdoing.

"I have correctly filed all my tax returns. In all the countries where I've worked, I've always declared my income," Scolari said in a statement sent to the AP in Sao Paulo late Tuesday. "If anything is wrong, it's not my fault. I hope justice gets to the bottom of the facts."

If the Portuguese authorities decide to file charges based on what they find, Scolari would have to answer in a Portuguese court.

Tax evasion concerning large amounts of money carries a prison sentence in Portugal.

Scolari, who is Brazilian, led his country's national soccer team to the World Cup title in 2002. He then coached Portugal's national team from 2003-08, and will again coach the Brazilian team at this year's World Cup.

AP Sports Writer Tales Azzoni in Sao Paulo contributed to this report.

Fact sheet: 2014 Cadillac CTS

2014 Cadillac CTS Sedan 3.6L Twin Turbo VSport Premium

BASE PRICE: $45,100 for 2.0L Turbo; $53,700 for 3.6L; $59,070 for 3.6L Twin Turbo VSport; $69,070 for 3.6L Twin Turbo VSport Premium.

PRICE AS TESTED: $70,990.

TYPE: Front-engine, rear-wheel drive, five-passenger, luxury, mid-size sedan.

ENGINE: 3.6-liter, double overhead cam, twin-turbocharged, direct injection V-6 with VVT.

MILEAGE: 16 mpg (city), 24 mpg (highway).

TOP SPEED: NA.

LENGTH: 195.5 inches.

WHEELBASE: 114.6 inches.

CURB WEIGHT: 3,959 pounds.

BUILT AT: Lansing, Mich.

OPTIONS: Black Diamond Tricoat exterior paint $995.

DESTINATION CHARGE: $925.

Retailers launch cybercrime info sharing center

NEW YORK -- Some of the nation's largest retailers are banding together in hopes of protecting consumers' personal and financial information from hackers and thieves.

The Retail Industry Leaders Association, along with several top retailers ranging from Gap Inc. to Walgreen Co., on Wednesday launched an intelligence sharing center focused on the prevention of cybercrimes against retailers.

According to RILA, the center will allow retailers to share information about data breaches and potential threats and also inform members of law enforcement and industry analysts.

Sandy Kennedy, RILA's president, said crimes stemming from data breaches are one of the biggest challenges facing retailers.

"It's really in everyone's interest, every retailer's interest, to protect information against cybercrime," Kennedy said in an interview ahead of the group's announcement. "Criminals are getting more and more sophisticated. We're looking at how we can deal with this long term."

Other participating retailers include Nike Inc., Lowes Cos. and Target Corp., which was hit with a massive data breach at the height of last year's holiday shopping season. The breach exposed flaws in Target's security system and was a big factor in the abrupt departure of CEO Gregg Steinhafel last week.

The incident at Target resulted in the theft of 40 million debit and credit card numbers, as well as the personal information of up to 70 million shoppers, and shined a spotlight on the growing problem of cybercrime.

While work on the cyber intelligence sharing center began in the wake of the Target breach, and smaller breaches at Neiman Marcus and Michaels Stores Inc., Kennedy said data crime was a big concern for the industry well before those incidents occurred late last year.

"All of our members have been focused on this for a long time," Kennedy said. "Our goal is to make sure the data is protected and that if criminals do get into data, it's in a form that they can't use."

Paul Morrissey, U.S. Secret Service assistant director for investigations, said in a statement, "The Secret Service actively supports information sharing initiatives such as the Retail Cyber Intelligence Sharing Center, announced today by RILA."

The Secret Service also says it continues its commitment to promote public and private partnerships through its 33 nationwide Electric Crimes Task Forces and two international crime task groups, which bring together over 6,100 private-sector partners, members of academia and local, state and federal law enforcement.

Past And Future Collide In Silicon Valley Congressional Race

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hide captionRep. Mike Honda, D-Calif., dances to the music of Los Tigres del Norte during an immigration rally on the National Mall in Washington in October 2013.

Jose Luis Magana/AP

Rep. Mike Honda, D-Calif., dances to the music of Los Tigres del Norte during an immigration rally on the National Mall in Washington in October 2013.

Jose Luis Magana/AP

The race between Rep. Mike Honda and Ro Khanna, two California Democrats vying to represent a Silicon Valley-based congressional district, is a classic example of a generational contest — a youthful challenger claiming to represent the future taking on a popular longtime incumbent.

Taking place as it does in the nation's high-tech mecca — a place that puts a premium on youth — the contest pitting the 72-year-old Honda against Khanna, a 37-year-old intellectual property lawyer, is naturally framed as a contest between the past and the future.

On the big issues like same-sex marriage, abortion, the Affordable Care Act and Social Security, there's not much difference between Honda and Khanna. Style is where they differ.

Honda, in his seventh term, is the unabashed progressive. Shaped like a fire hydrant and soft-spoken for a politician, he's a former school principal and local pol who describes himself, among other things, as a "voice for the voiceless."

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hide captionIn his campaign announcement video, Democrat Ro Khanna says he's running for Congress because Silicon Valley's "innovation and energy can cut through old-style Washington politics."

Ro Khanna campaign

In his campaign announcement video, Democrat Ro Khanna says he's running for Congress because Silicon Valley's "innovation and energy can cut through old-style Washington politics."

Ro Khanna campaign

Khanna, meanwhile, looks and speaks like someone giving a TED talk. Indeed, the business-savvy young technocrat and lawyer has given one. That alone would make him an appealing candidate for many in Silicon Valley.

As a Commerce Department official during President Obama's first term, he organized clean-technology trade missions and was an evangelist for U.S. manufacturing. He wrote a book about the revival of U.S. manufacturing and works for one of Silicon Valley's top law firms while teaching economics at Stanford University.

The race is shaping up to be the congressman's toughest in his 14 years in Congress. That's partly because, as NPR's Hansi Lo Wang recently reported for Morning Edition, it has fractured the district's sizable Asian-American community. Honda is a Japanese-American who spent time after Pearl Harbor in a U.S. internment camp. Khanna, born in Philadelphia, is of Indian descent.

Khanna has also raised a lot of money for a challenger. For the 2014 election cycle, he has raised about $2.5 million, according to OpenSecrets.org. Honda, by contrast, raised nearly $1.9 million for the same period, though he outraised Khanna during 2014's first quarter.

There are two Republicans in the race, but it's a lopsidedly Democratic district: In 2012, Obama won the 17th district with 72 percent of the vote.

That makes it possible that Honda and Khanna will meet again in November. Under California's top-two primary system, the top two finishers regardless of party affiliation go on to a general election.

Obama and the Democratic establishment generally have backed Honda. But Khanna has his high-powered supporters, too. Some of Silicon Valley's biggest names have lined up behind him. He's got Marissa Mayer of Yahoo, Eric Schmidt of Google and John Doerr of venture-capital firm Kleiner, Perkins, Caufield and Byers.

Khanna has also received some notable news media endorsements, including one that hinted at the generation gap between the top candidates.

The San Jose Mercury News editorial board endorsed Khanna, saying the "time has come." After praising Honda for being a "solid vote for civil rights, the environment and equal opportunity," it subtly suggested he may be slipping.

Khanna, "like any first-term congressman, [will] have a lot to learn. But he's a quick study who intelligently discusses complex legislation and economic theory," the Merc said. "This contrasts with Honda, who, in describing a bill he has proposed, alluded several times to 'Senator Connelly.' We eventually realized he meant Mitch McConnell."

Realizing some might suspect ageism on its part, the paper added: "None of this has to do with Khanna's relative youth compared to Honda's 72 years." Other local Democrats like Anna Eshoo and Zoe Lofgren, who are both older than 65, are "invaluable voices in Washington" from whom the editorial board always learns something when it meets with them. That's not true with Honda, the paper said.

We can only presume the two congresswomen have never gotten McConnell's name wrong either.

NYC Council: Revoke arena's tax exemption

NEW YORK -- The New York City Council is advocating that Madison Square Garden be stripped of its tax exemption.

The Manhattan arena is home to the New York Knicks and New York Rangers.

It is spared $17.3 million annually in property taxes.

That's thanks to an exemption approved in 1982. In total, the exemption has saved the arena's owners more than $300 million.

The arena just underwent a self-funded $1 billion renovation. Council members believe it can afford to pay more in taxes.

The council adopted a resolution Wednesday asking the state Legislature to revoke the arena's exemption.

The arena's owners have argued that the tax exemption is similar to subsidies offered to other sports facilities, like the homes of the New York Yankees and Mets.

Sleiman expected to grant citizenship to 700 people

BEIRUT: Less than two weeks before the expiry of his six-year tenure, President Michel Sleiman plans to issue a decree granting Lebanese citizenship to about 700 people of various nationalities, including unregistered Lebanese, political sources said Wednesday.

The decree must still be signed by Prime Minister Tammam Salam and Interior Minister Nouhad Machnouk.

Among those to be granted Lebanese citizenship are about 145 Syrians and 82 Palestinians, in addition to 46 stateless people and 16 others whose nationality cases are still being considered, a political source told The Daily Star.

The decree also includes 100 Americans, 54 French citizens, 30 Canadians, 20 Jordanians, 22 Britons, 48 Iraqis and 16 Egyptian families, and will also benefit five Saudis, 12 Brazilians, Mexican families and people from Tunisia, India, Russia, the United Arab Emirates, Austria, Ukraine and the Philippines, the source said.

The Saudis to be granted Lebanese citizenship are the Pharaon and Abu Khadra families.

Sleiman has already issued at least two decrees granting Lebanese citizenship to people of various nationalities. However, questions were raised about the identities of some of the individuals who were included.

Parliament is still debating a new citizenship draft law, in addition to another bill to grant citizenship to Lebanese expatriates.

Lebanese law forbids granting citizenship to stateless people and those whose nationality cases are being studied.

Granting Lebanese citizenship to Palestinians runs contrary to the Lebanese Constitution, which forbids naturalization and resettlement of Palestinians in Lebanon. Lebanon hosts more than 500,000 Palestinian refugees who do not have Lebanese citizenship.

Sleiman’s decision to sign the citizenship decree comes a day after a lack of quorum prevented the Joint Parliamentary Committees from examining a draft law that would allow the paternal grandchildren of Lebanese to apply for citizenship.

MP Neamatallah Abi Nasr from MP Michel Aoun’s parliamentary bloc said a consensus had not yet been reached over the bill.

“There is still a lengthy debate over the law, and it seems there is no political decision yet to grant expatriates their right to the Lebanese nationality,” Abi Nasr told The Daily Star.

Lawmakers from various blocs held two-hour talks over the bill, but lost the quorum after many of them left the meeting.

Under the current law, expatriates of Lebanese descent can only receive citizenship from their father. Foreign Minister Gebran Bassil said earlier this month that he had received assurances from both Speaker Nabih Berri and the Future Movement that they would back the draft law.

In 2011, former Prime Minister Najib Mikati’s Cabinet approved a draft law allowing people of Lebanese descent who were born abroad and only have the citizenship of the country of their birth to apply for Lebanese citizenship as well.

The law sparked criticism from women’s rights activists. The current Lebanese law does not allow women to pass on citizenship to their spouse or children.

Women’s rights organization KAFA issued a statement Monday saying they were against the law and that the priority should be given to a bill allowing Lebanese women to pass their nationality to their children.

Hezbollah cutting costs as Iranian aid dries up

Sources close to the central command at Hezbollah told The Daily Star that the party has begun to take budget-cutting measures due to the shortage of Iranian aid caused by the Islamic Republic’s tough economic situation.

Although Iran’s economy is expected to improve in the coming months if it reaches an agreement with the West over its nuclear program by a July 20 deadline, the Islamic Republic is also helping the Syrian government cover its fiscal deficit, a strain that is less likely to end soon.

The U.S. and European countries have been keen on monitoring Hezbollah’s funding sources in Latin America, Africa and other Asian countries, with a special focus on religious organizations connected to the party. These organizations and the businessmen involved with them are said to be the main source of donations in these countries. Recently, for example, Germany banned a charitable foundation after it discovered its connections to one of Hezbollah’s organizations.

Most of the money sent to Hezbollah comes from the African continent and is under the supervision of one of the party’s top officials, the sources said.

The sources also pointed to the huge financial impact of Hezbollah’s involvement in Syria.

Tehran, which uses Hezbollah as a tool to implement its regional agenda, wants to deepen its power and control in Syria, and the sources believe that it also plans to increase its strategic influence in south Lebanon. The claim is backed up by a recent statement by an aide to Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Yahya Rahim Safavi, who controversially described south Lebanon as Iran’s first line of defense.

These difficult times have forced Hezbollah’s military wing – also known as the “Jihad Council” – to ask non-functional cells and the party’s external security apparatus to find new sources of funding. The instruction to these cells – which are spread around Russia, Romania, Germany, France and some parts of America – to find new sources of money seems especially urgent now that European security services are closely monitoring individuals suspected of being connected to Hezbollah.

According to sources in the party, Hezbollah has also fired many employees working within the party’s social, health, media and service institutions to cut costs.

In addition to this, the party has reduced its aid for Sunni civil and scholarly organizations that are close to Hezbollah.

The same sources were informed of discussions within the party about a possible withdrawal from Syria. This comes at a time when the party believes it has almost succeeded in returning control over most of Syria to the government’s army.

A decision on the matter is expected to be made if the party is able to totally curb the activities of fundamentalist groups and put an end to car bombings targeting areas in Lebanon.

There will be no withdrawal until Iran gives Hezbollah Secretary-General Sayyed Hasan Nasrallah the green light.

Although there are several factors at play, Iran’s decision is also based on its negotiations with the U.S, the sources said.

General Security denies discrimination at border

MASNAA, Lebanon: A high-ranking General Security official denied Wednesday that the institution was imposing discriminatory entry and residency policies for Palestinians, insisting that it was merely reactivating precrisis regulations in light of improving conditions in Syria.

“Due to the Syria crisis, taking into account humanitarian considerations, General Security allowed Palestinians from Syria to enter Lebanon and extend their visas periodically for three months at a time,” the source explained.

Prior to the crisis, Palestinians from Syria were given a pre-authorized visa for seven days, often to visit relatives residing in camps scattered across Lebanon, according to the source.

“This was the regular policy,” the source emphasized, “it required permission prior to travel.”

After 2011, with the onset of the uprising in Syria, Palestinians from Syria were permitted to request a three-month residency permit with the ability to renew for up to a year for free. After the one-year mark, Palestinians from Syria were obliged to pay $200 to extend their residencies for another year, with renewals due every three months.

“For three years, Palestinians from Syria were allowed to enter Lebanon without previous authorization, in this way we facilitated their stay,” the source said.

In response to the arrest of some 49 Syrians and Palestinians previously living in Syria at Beirut airport last week on suspicion of possessing forged documents, the Interior Ministry set new regulations for Palestinian refugees from Syria.

While in a statement Interior Minister Nouhad Machnouk said no decision had been taken to prevent Palestinians refugees in Syria from entering or transiting through Lebanon, “certain measures” had been put in place.

The measures permit entry for those who have preauthorization, hold a residency permit or are in transit, in which case the visa expires after 24 hours, according to the statement.

The government informed UNRWA that the measures would be “temporary.” The agency is in the midst of monitoring, and reported about 25 cases of Palestinians from Syria who attempted to enter Lebanon between Sunday and Thursday last week. Those who were successful were crossing for transit purposes.

“We have reached capacity,” the security source said, referring to the 1 million registered refugees from Syria who fled to Lebanon in the last three years, of which around 50,000 are Palestinian. “As the situation in Syria is improving, especially in Yarmouk, the exceptional circumstances cited as their reason for entry are no longer relevant,” he added. “The red alert has been switched to green.”

At the Masnaa border crossing with Syria, Palestinian refugees were incensed by what they felt to be the indiscriminate nature of the new regulations. Sisters Manar and Feryal were in tears a few meters away from the arrival gate, after their mother, 45, was denied entry to Lebanon. In line with the new regulations, the mother, who has been trapped under siege in Yarmouk for the past two years, was not allowed to enter.

Allowed to leave Yarmouk due to a critical medical condition, Feryal said her mother was sent back by Lebanese authorities.

“They told her you can’t come in,” she said. The sisters had come from Sidon to collect their mother at the border. “She’s been under siege in the camp and her medical condition worsened because of the lack of food ... she was coming to Lebanon to be treated, she is ill.”

Feryal tried to convince General Security to let her mother pass, but with no luck.

“They allowed us to sit together for a bit, but then told us to go our separate ways,” she said.

The plethora of taxi drivers at the crossing, who have managed to maintain their business of shuttling passengers to and from Damascus, concurred that few among their Palestinian passengers were permitted to cross. One driver, Majid, said he no longer takes Palestinians.

“There’s no point burdening them if they can’t go in,” he said, recounting one occasion when he was driving a Syrian woman who’s husband was Palestinian. “She wanted to go to the Swiss Embassy in Lebanon, they didn’t allow her to come in because she didn’t have residency,” he said.

For its part, General Security argued authorities have faced problems with a number of Palestinians from Syria who traveled under the false pretense of visiting relatives or in transit back home to Syria, “most ended up visiting and staying in Lebanon,” he said, further exacerbating the refugee crisis.

While the source stressed the borders were not closed, he said they were not open to Palestinians in the same way they have been in the past three years: “They need to meet a certain criteria now.”

Aid workers expressed concern about new regulations governing residency renewal for Palestinians from Syria already in Lebanon, as Machnouk’s circular stated automatic visas previously renewed cannot be extended.

In the Palestinian refugee camp of Shatila, the Najdeh organization told The Daily Star that five families had attempted to renew their residencies the previous day with General Security.

“Their applications were rejected and they were told they had 24 hours to leave the country,” said Hoda Abbas, an aid worker in the camp. The families have since “run away” fearing arrest, she added without providing further details.

News that residencies were being denied spread across the camp, with many families opting not to approach General Security, even if their legal stay permits expire, prompting criticism from aid workers that they were being forced into an illegal and potentially exploitative condition.

However, General Security maintains that their entry policies are still contingent upon the shifting dynamics in Syria and the criteria employed to approve visas for Palestinians from Syria was not “fixed” but varies according to the applicant. As of now, General Security receives 300-350 entry visa requests from Palestinians in Syria, the source was not willing to disclose how many are accepted on average.

“We are making exceptions, maybe 40 out of 100, but we have to keep an eye on them and control their stay ... because we’ve reached capacity,” he said.

For instance, a Palestinian applicant with an immediate Lebanese relative is allowed entry, as are certain humanitarian and medical cases. At any rate, the source was unwilling to provide generalized examples, saying this would undercut the complexity of individual cases. “There are many elements within each case,” he said.

Arsal resident kidnapped for ransom in Baalbek

HERMEL, Lebanon: A Lebanese hailing from the Bekaa Valley town of Arsal was kidnapped Wednesday evening, and the abductors demanded $100,000 for his release, a security source told The Daily Star.

Mohammad Hujeiri was driving his pickup to the cattle market in the Bekaa Valley city of Baalbek when he was snatched along with his vehicle in the area, the source said, requesting to remain anonymous.

Later, abductors telephoned Hujieri’s family saying they would only release him if they were paid a ransom of $100,000.

Wednesday’s kidnapping was the first in several weeks, after kidnap-for-ransom operations – which had reached unprecedented levels in the Bekaa Valley in previous months – significantly dropped as authorities began implementing a security plan in the area in April.

In a statement last week, the Internal Security Forces said car theft and kidnap-for-ransom incidents had significantly declined in the Bekaa Valley and north Lebanon in March and April compared to the same months of last year. The statement credited the security plan carried out by the ISF and the Lebanese Army.

The plan was endorsed by the national unity government of Tammam Salam, which approved similar measures in Tripoli. The northern coastal city has seen several rounds of violence between supporters and opponents of Syrian President Bashar Assad since the start of Syria’s uprising in March 2011.

Doctors warn bacteria getting stronger

BEIRUT: Lebanese doctors are warning about the consequences of an alarming increase in bacteria that is resistant to the strongest antibiotics, with a report by the World Health Organization highlighting startling rates of resistance in Lebanon and worldwide.

The misuse and abuse of antibiotics must be strongly cut back, or else patients risk being defenseless against increasingly powerful microbes, doctors say.

“The situation is quite threatening and alarming,” said George Araj, the director of clinical microbiology at the American University of Beirut whose research findings were cited in the WHO report. “Against certain bacteria we are losing the battle.”

In a massive report released in late April, the WHO found “very high rates of resistance” in bacteria that is responsible for common infections like pneumonia and urinary tract infections worldwide.

The WHO report also highlights “significant gaps” in surveillance or collection of data on resistance to antibiotics around the world.

Bacteria can adapt and become resistant to antibiotics if the medication is abused. This antimicrobial resistance is dangerous because it threatens to render obsolete most common forms of treatment of illnesses like pneumonia that can be lethal if untreated.

The report showed high rates of resistance for a variety of microbes, including those responsible for tuberculosis, HIV, malaria, pneumonia and influenza.

In Lebanon, over half of E. coli bacteria were found to be resistant to fluoroquinolones, an important type of antibiotic, while up to a third of bacteria in a 3,800 sample study between 2010 and 2011 were found to be resistant to a type of third-generation antibiotic.

About a quarter of a type of bacteria responsible for pneumonia that was collected from a hospital in Lebanon were found to be resistant to third-generation antibiotics.

In addition, over a fifth of Staphylococcus aureus bacteria, which cause skin and other infections, were found to be resistant to methicillin, a derivative of penicillin.

Araj said there were also rising numbers of cases of tuberculosis that are resistant to treatment.

The WHO findings come just a few months after a major report by the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which warned that humanity may enter a “post-antibiotic era” if current resistance trends continue.

Most of the Lebanon-related figures in the report came from independent studies by Araj and others, because of a paucity of national data.

Araj said that there are no national figures on antibiotic resistance, but he is collaborating with Rola Husni-Samaha, the President of the Lebanese Society for Infectious Diseases and Clinical Microbiology, on a project to collect data from hospitals around the country.

The project will help fill the gaps in the data that was initially supposed to be gathered by a ministerial committee on AMR that has not seen much progress.

AUBMC itself has been distributing brochures intended for physicians and health care professionals on antibiotic resistance since the early ’90s, profiling bacteria that were beginning to exhibit signs of resistance to medication.

But despite awareness efforts, Araj said, bacteria are growing increasingly resistant to antibiotics.

In a landmark paper published in the Lebanese Medical Journal in 2012, which was cited in the WHO report, Araj and his team set out to examine AMR in bacteria infecting patients of all categories, ages and regions in a major Lebanese hospital over several years in order to study and monitor its evolution.

The results, which were reproduced in the WHO report, found a rise in resistance to antibiotics among various types of bacteria, including E. coli and microbes responsible for infecting patients with pneumonia.

Some of the bacteria had developed genes resistant even to carbapanems, a powerful and expensive form of medication that is not readily available and which Araj described as the “heaviest guns” of treatment.

Araj said that several factors are contributing to the rise in resistance. Patients from other countries in the region with fewer controls on the use of antibiotics have introduced more resistant strains into Lebanon over the past decade.

But “misuse and abuse” of antibiotics in Lebanon is also benefiting microbes, allowing them to adapt to antibiotics and develop resistance.

“The bacteria are very intelligent,” he said.

Both doctors and patients are guilty of poor practices. Physicians overprescribe antibiotics to patients, even when they suffer from viral infections that are not remedied by antibiotics, such as most respiratory illnesses.

Such educational efforts should be extended to all medical staff, including pharmacists, clinicians, nurses and administrators at hospitals, he said, as part of a national strategy to fight antibiotic resistance.

Patients, on the other hand, often pressure doctors into prescribing antibiotics or they decide to take them without consulting physicians. Not completing a course of medication prescribed by a doctor, even if a patient feels cured, can also contribute to increasing resistance.

In addition, antibiotics should no longer be available over the counter at pharmacies, Araj said, and hospitals need to develop complete infection control programs.

If reforms are not implemented, Lebanon, along with the rest of the region, will likely face dire consequences. “Genuine effort should be dedicated or we will lose the battle and our patients will be suffocated,” Araj said.

He added that the most vulnerable patients to this rising class of powerful, resistant bacteria will be individuals with weak immune systems – among them children and the elderly, cancer patients, and transplant patients.

Power plant under fire as water pollution mars beach hotspot

JIYYEH, Lebanon: The sea surrounding a coastal power plant in Lebanon is being polluted, according to a statement issued by the Professional Divers Union.

The statement, released by union head Mohammad Sarji Tuesday, said a recent surge in pollution had come from the Jiyyeh power plant, south of Beirut, and accused those behind it of being “careless and irresponsible” about cleaning the plant’s machinery and smoke pipes and allowing the runoff to enter the sea.

Locals said large sections of the sea had been covered in an unidentified black substance, initially thought to be an oil spill, last Sunday.

“The sea and the shore were all covered in black,” said Malaz al-Ali, 30, an employee at a local cement factory, while he stood on the litter-strewn Jiyyeh beach. He added that the waves had washed the sea and shore clean since Sunday.

Locals interviewed near the power plant Wednesday said they first noticed the pollution Sunday, likening it to oil spills that once frequently plagued the coast in the area.

“It was the first time since the July 2006 War,” said Mohammad Eido, an employee at the Mina Beach resort located next to the Jiyyeh plant.

Israeli strikes on the Jiyyeh power plant during the summer war against Lebanon resulted in an oil spill along parts of the Lebanese coast, damaging the seafront for swimmers, fishermen and aquatic wildlife.

Sarji said the electricity company regularly uses high-pressure water hoses “to flush all residues from pipes and machinery” but that the amount of pollution in the sea Sunday was the largest to date.

“It was catastrophic,” Sarji told The Daily Star. “The river of pollution spread from Jiyyeh to Sidon.”

Local media also reported similar accounts near a power plant in Zouk, north of the capital.

Neither the Environment Ministry nor Energy Ministry responded to requests for comment.

Sarji called for an investigation to be started immediately in order to ensure those guilty of pollution are held to account.

“They are careless and irresponsible,” he said.

“This is not acceptable at all. We consider this to be a criminal act.”

Jiyyeh’s beaches are widely regarded as some of the most pristine swimming spots in Lebanon, despite the close proximity to the polluting power plant. The public beach, however, is littered with broken glass, pieces of plastic, plastic bags and other garbage, tarnishing the view of the coast.

Four teenage boys, still drying themselves off from a swim in the sea, pointed at rubbish floating in the water they had just emerged from Wednesday.

“Look at the water,” said one of them, pointing at a pile of floating waste. “It’s not clean.”

The boys said much of the sea had been blackened just days earlier but that the small cove they frequented remained free of the pollution.

But just because the youngsters were unable to see the pollution, it does not mean that it is not there.

“It mixes with seawater,” said Sarji, adding that it also “enters fish, and when we eat polluted fish it enters our body.”

UAE telecom Etisalat completes $5.7B Morocco deal

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates -- United Arab Emirates telecommunications firm Etisalat said Wednesday it has completed a deal to buy French entertainment company Vivendi's majority stake in Morocco's Maroc Telecom.

Etisalat said it paid 4.14 billion euros ($5.68 billion) for the 53 percent stake, completing a deal announced in November.

The Abu Dhabi-based company made the purchase through a subsidiary known as Etisalat International North Africa. That company is 91.3 percent owned by Etisalat, and 8.7 percent by the Abu Dhabi Fund for Development.

Etisalat last week announced plans to sell off its operations in six West African countries to Maroc Telecom for $650 million.

Vivendi, which owns record producer Universal Music, is selling off the business as part of a broader effort to refocus its business around media and content only.

Qatar considers changes to migrant labor policies

DOHA, Qatar -- The government of Qatar, the Gulf nation that will host the 2022 World Cup, said Wednesday it is introducing a draft law that could eventually end a controversial employee sponsorship system that ties expatriate workers to a single employer.

The move comes amid increased scrutiny over labor rights in the OPEC nation. Human rights advocates have urged Qatar to scrap the sponsorship system, saying it leaves workers open to exploitation and abuse.

Qatari officials announced the proposed change at a press conference in the capital, Doha, called to outline plans for a wider labor reform plan.

Expatriates make up the bulk of the workforce in Qatar. Their employment and legal residency in the country is typically dependent on sponsorship by a particular employer, who must also consent to employees' desire to leave the country or to change jobs.

Similar sponsorship systems are in place across the oil-rich Gulf Arab states, which rely heavily on Asian and other migrant workers. Not all require expatriates to get exit clearance before leaving as Qatar does, but allegations of employers illegally withholding low-wage workers' passports are common throughout the region.

Under the new proposal, workers in Qatar would automatically receive exit permission from the Interior Ministry 72 hours before their scheduled departure. The current system requiring workers to get their company's consent before changing employers would be replaced by employment contracts, though there would still be limits on how soon they could leave, according to a document outlining the proposed changes.

The new measures, which have the backing of the Cabinet, must still be approved by the Shura council, a consultative body, and other entities.

Amnesty International called some of the proposed reforms positive but said they fall short of "fundamental changes needed to address systemic abuses" of migrant workers.

"The proposals appear to be a missed opportunity. The government claims it is abolishing the sponsorship system, but this sounds like a change of name rather than substantive reform," said James Lynch, the group's researcher on migrant rights in the Gulf.

He noted that proposed changes to the exit permit system remain unclear and leave open the possibility that employers will still be able to object to workers leaving the country.

"Rather than re-jigging and renaming the sponsorship system, the government should commit now to genuine deep-rooted reform," he said in a statement.

Officials gave no timeframe for when the new policies might be implemented.

Brig. Mohammed Ahmed al-Atiq, the assistant director of the Interior Ministry's directorate of border, passport and expatriate affairs, said all foreign workers would be covered by the new measures, including domestic servants and government employees.

Associated Press writer Adam Schreck contributed reporting from Dubai, United Arab Emirates.