Army wounds n.Lebanon man accused of killing captive

BEIRUT: The Lebanese Army clashed with gunmen during an early morning raid Thursday on an apartment in north Lebanon, killing one and wounding another who is suspected of executing a soldier held captive by Islamist militants.

A security source identified the wounded man as Ahmad Salim Mikati, accused by authorities of beheading Lebanese soldier Ali Sayyed while being held by the extremist group ISIS.

The identity of the dead gunman was not immediately revealed.

The source said the apartment in the Dinnieh town of Asoun, north Lebanon, was inhabited by Lebanese and Syrian gunmen wanted by authorities.

Sayyed was the first of three Lebanese soldiers to be executed by Islamist militants holding at least 27 servicemen hostage since the jihadists briefly took over the northeastern border town of Arsal in August, engaging the military in five days of fierce battles.

As the militants withdrew they took at least three dozen Lebanese soldiers and policemen hostage in an attempt to swap them with Islamist inmates held at Roumieh Prison.

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Another Man Jumps White House Fence, But Is Stopped On The Lawn

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Secret Service respond on the North Lawn of the White House after a man jumped the White House fence Wednesday night. The Secret Service apprehended the man who jumped over the White House fence. This latest incident comes about a month after a previous White House fence jumper sprinted across the lawn, past armed uniformed agents, and entered the mansion. Jacquelyn Martin/AP hide caption

itoggle caption Jacquelyn Martin/AP

Secret Service respond on the North Lawn of the White House after a man jumped the White House fence Wednesday night. The Secret Service apprehended the man who jumped over the White House fence. This latest incident comes about a month after a previous White House fence jumper sprinted across the lawn, past armed uniformed agents, and entered the mansion.

Jacquelyn Martin/AP

A month after a man armed with a knife leapt the White House fence and got deep into the first floor of the building, another man made a run across the north lawn Wednesday night.

His unannounced visit ended much sooner. NPR's Tamara Keith reports via secret service spokesman Ed Donovan that security dogs — which weren't deployed Sept. 19 when Omar Gonzalez trespassed — brought him down while he was still on the lawn. The apprehended man is being transported to a hospital for evaluation, Donovan said in a release.

U.S.

How Can The Secret Service Recover Its Reputation?

The earlier intrusion resulted in the Oct. 1 resignation of Secret Service director Julia Pierson, who herself had only been on the job since 2013, when she replaced the retiring director following a scandal involving agents and prostitutes in Colombia.

Justice Ginsburg Revises Texas Voter ID Dissent, Then Announces It

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In her revised dissent, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg clarified that photo ID cards issued by the Veterans' Affairs are "an acceptable form of photo identification for voting in Texas." Cliff Owen/AP hide caption

itoggle caption Cliff Owen/AP

In her revised dissent, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg clarified that photo ID cards issued by the Veterans' Affairs are "an acceptable form of photo identification for voting in Texas."

Cliff Owen/AP

Once again the U.S. Supreme Court is correcting its own record, but Wednesday marks the first time that the court has called attention to its own mistake with a public announcement. And it was the erring justice herself, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, who asked the court's public information office to announce the error.

Last Friday Ginsburg pulled an all-nighter to write a dissent from the court's decision to allow the Texas voter ID law to go into effect while the case is on appeal. The dissent, released Saturday at 5 a.m., and joined by Justices Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan, listed a variety of photo ID forms not accepted for purposes of voting under the Texas law. Among those listed in the Ginsburg dissent as unacceptable was a U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs photo ID.

Three days after the opinion was released, professor Richard Hasen of the University of California, Irvine said on his election law blog that the state does in fact accept the Veterans Affairs IDs. Upon confirmation of that fact by the Texas secretary of state's office, Ginsburg amended her opinion.

Not surprising. What was surprising is that, according to Supreme Court spokeswoman Kathy Arberg, Justice Ginsburg instructed the press office to announce that the opinion had "contained an error" and that it was being corrected.

On Wednesday, the court announced the mistake and the correction.

Texas Can Enforce Voter ID Law For November Election Oct. 18, 2014

The Two-Way

Supreme Court Lets Texas Enforce Voter ID Law For Nov. Election

Errors of this sort are not exactly rare. In this case, it appears that Ginsburg may have gotten the Wisconsin and Texas voter ID provisions, both before the court, mixed up.

Until the era of the blogosphere, however, this sort of mistake was the stuff of academic gossip. Now it is the stuff of academic blogs, which sometimes get picked up in the popular press. A more embarrassing mistake by Justice Antonin Scalia was caught by Harvard Law professor Richard Lazarus last spring; the error was quickly fixed, but it was not announced. Nor was another error made and corrected by Justice Kagan.

Ginsburg is the first justice to call the public's attention to her own mistake.

Cypriot training plane crashes en route to Lebanon

Lebanon’s bartenders aim for Bacardi Prize

Four of Lebanon’s top bartenders made it to the country final of the Bacardi Legacy Cocktail Competition, beating...

Parliament extension expected next month

BEIRUT: Parliament is expected to meet early next month to extend its mandate, parliamentary sources Wednesday, as Speaker Nabih Berri vowed not to hold general elections in the absence of an elected president or in the event of boycott by any party.

“A session to extend Parliament’s term is expected to be held in the first week of next month,” said a lawmaker, one of the MPs who regularly meet Berri at Ain al-Tineh every Wednesday.

The lawmaker, who declined to be named, said the reason for pushing the date of the extension session to next month was because Prime Minister Tammam Salam was traveling to Germany Oct. 28 to attend an international conference on the Syrian refugee crisis and Berri has called for a parliamentary meeting to elect a president Oct. 29.

Earlier, parliamentary sources said lawmakers would meet in a crucial session next week to extend Parliament’s mandate for more than two years, in a move designed to prevent the country’s drift into deeper political chaos.

A number of MPs who met Berri at Ain al-Tineh quoted him as saying that parliamentary elections, scheduled for Nov. 16, should not take place in the absence of an elected president or if there was a boycott by any party.

He said the extension of Parliament’s mandate should be followed by parliamentary elections, provided a new president had been elected.

“If Parliament approves the extension [of its term] ... and if a president is elected and a new electoral law is approved, then parliamentary elections should be held immediately,” Berri was quoted as saying.

He reiterated his opposition to an extension of Parliament’s mandate, saying that elections should only be held if all the major blocs promised not to boycott them and after the election of a new president.

Lebanon has been left without a president for nearly five months, after Parliament failed due to the lack of a quorum to choose a successor to former President Michel Sleiman, whose six-year tenure ended on May 25.

Key political figures have openly said that an extension of Parliament’s term is a foregone conclusion.

When lawmakers meet next month, they are expected to endorse a draft proposal put forward by Zahle MP Nicolas Fattoush that calls for the extension of Parliament’s term for two years and seven months, to make it a full four-year mandate, after lawmakers, citing security concerns, extended the House’s term for 17 months in May 2013.

The Cabinet is scheduled to meet Thursday, with 48 items on its agenda, 32 of which were left from last week’s session.

The most important items left from the previous session were renewing the tenders for Sukleen and Lebanon’s two major mobile operators Touch and Afla and a proposal by Energy Minister Arthur Nazarian to renew contracts of a Kuwaiti and an Algerian company that sells oil derivatives to Lebanon.

As in previous sessions, the issue of Syrian refugees and Lebanese soldiers and policemen held hostage by ISIS and Nusra Front militants will figure high in the Cabinet’s discussions.

Meanwhile, Interior Minister Nouhad Machnouk said the time was ripe to speak to Hezbollah about ways to secure Lebanon’s borders.

“The political and security situation in the country is appropriate for a dialogue on Hezbollah’s participation in defending the border,” he said.

“I am responsible for the border as well as all of Lebanon,” Machnouk said in response to a question about Hezbollah’s role in manning the eastern and northeastern border areas. He added that a government security plan should be “rectified and completed” to cover all troubled areas.

Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea returned to Beirut Wednesday after talks with senior officials in Saudi Arabia, according to a statement by Geagea’s office. During his Saudi visit, Geagea also met with former Prime Minister Saad Hariri, with whom he discussed Lebanese and regional issues.

Separately, the United Kingdom has delivered military defense equipment to the Lebanese Army to deal with the jihadist threat on its eastern border with Syria, the British Embassy announced Wednesday.

The donation, worth $16 million, includes 164 Land Rovers, 1,500 sets of body armor, a radio communication network and border watchtowers.

The donation was announced one day after a meeting between U.K. Chief of the Defense Staff Gen. Sir Nicholas Houghton and Lebanese Army commander Gen. Jean Kahwagi.

“I am impressed by the work done by the Lebanese Armed Forces to safeguard Lebanon’s security and sovereignty and contain the overspill from Syria,” Houghton said after the meeting.

The Lebanese Army has been receiving increased military aid from different states in recent years to contain the spillover of violence caused by the Syrian war. Saudi Arabia pledged the two largest military donations, totaling $4 billion.

Accord still valid for Lebanon, alternative is civil war

BEIRUT: This month marked the 25th anniversary of the Taif Accord that ended Lebanon’s devastating 1975-90 Civil War amid clear signs that the new Constitution has failed to ensure political stability and equal power-sharing between Muslims and Christians in the turbulent country. However, despite its snags, analysts call on the Lebanese to uphold the Arab-mediated Accord, warning that the alternative is a renewal of sectarian strife.

The failure of the Taif Accord to achieve stability has manifested itself in a series of sharp political crises that has gripped Lebanon since the pact was signed by Muslim and Christian parliamentarians in the Saudi city of Taif on Oct. 22, 1989, following a Saudi-Syrian mediation backed by the United States and France.

The country has now been without a president for nearly five months after Parliament failed to elect a successor to former President Michel Sleiman over a lack of quorum as a result of political differences between the rival factions.

The presidential impasse has left Parliament legislation in paralysis, while threatening to cripple the government’s work. The presidential deadlock is one of loopholes that the Taif Accord failed to address.

A major hitch of the Taif Accord’s political system has been reflected in the failure to hold parliamentary elections on time last year as well as next month, and in resorting to the bitter choice of extending Parliament’s mandate for a full four-year term, an expected move viewed as a major setback to the country’s democratic system.

However, despite all its drawbacks and snags, the Taif Accord is seen as the only means to prevent the country from again sliding into chaos and civil war. The 1975-90 war killed more than 150,000 people and left the country’s infrastructure and economy in ruins with damage estimated at more than $5 billion.

While critics have demanded major amendments to the accord, its supporters acknowledged that there are gaps that need to be filled in order for the pact to function properly and confront the country’s political, security and economic challenges.

“The Taif Accord is today more valid and suitable for Lebanon than at any time before. There is no alternative to this ruling formula. The problem with those who criticized the accord is that they did not read it well and did not understand it or grasp it,” Samir Franjieh, a political writer and a former March 14 lawmaker, told The Daily Star.

“Tampering with this accord is a grave blunder. This accord should be applied in the Arab world to shield it from sliding into civil wars as is currently happening in some Arab countries,” he said, referring to Syria, Iraq, Yemen and Libya.

Franjieh warned that Lebanon was currently standing at “a critical juncture” that could make or break it as a result of the grave repercussions of the Syrian conflict on the volatile country.

“We either return to civil war or we go to peace,” he said.

“The road to reaching peace is easy: the implementation of the Taif Accord. This accord has placed sectarian coexistence as the basis of the state’s legitimacy.”

Franjieh said the Taif Accord was good for the Arab world. “This accord conforms between the concept of citizenship and the concept of plurality and sectarian diversity,” he said. “This Lebanese experiment should be applied in the Arab world. The Taif formula protects the Arab world from endless civil wars.”

The accord essentially curtailed the Maronite president’s powers and shifted them to the half-Muslim, half-Christian Cabinet, which is headed by a Sunni prime minister. The pact’s signing followed persistent demands by Muslim leaders for political reforms to achieve equal power sharing with Christians.

Among the main provisions that have not been implemented is the creation of a national committee to abolish “political sectarianism,” or the ruling sectarian system that allots key government posts along sectarian lines, the creation of a senate to serve alongside the current 128-member legislature, decentralization and the adoption of a new electoral law.

The accord also legitimized the Syrian military presence in Lebanon, allowing Damascus to have the final say over strategic policies and exploit the power struggle among the country’s major sects to its advantage.

Sami Nader, a professor of economics and international relations at Universite St. Joseph, concurred that there was no alternative to the Taif Accord as a power-sharing system between Muslims and Christians.

“I think the accord is still valid as a power-sharing formula between Muslims and Christians and to safeguard sectarian coexistence,” Nader told The Daily Star. “What is required is the implementation of the remaining provisions in the Taif Accord. The alternative to the Taif Accord is a renewal of sectarian violence.”

“Modus operandi can be revived to better serve the principle of checks and balances, which is the cornerstone of democracy,” said Nader, also the director of the Levant Institute for Strategic Affairs, a Beirut-based think tank.

Nader called for the full implementation of the Taif Accord’s remaining provisions, namely decentralization, a new electoral law to ensure a fair representation in Parliament, the creation of a senate and the abolition of “political confessionalism.”

“We must go back to the spirit of the Taif Accord and the proposed reforms with regard to decentralization, the creation of a senate and the adoption of a new fair electoral law,” he said, adding: “In my view, the best electoral law is one-man, one vote.”

Nader said the change in the balance of power in favor of Hezbollah and its March 8 allies has posed a challenge to the Taif Accord.

“The change of the balance of power has put the Taif Accord in danger. I am worried about the accord from Hezbollah’s behavior and the situation in the region as a result of the collapse of borders between states,” he said.

“A spillover of the Syrian conflict and Hezbollah’s involvement in Syria have challenged the state’s border and state authority,” he added.

Nader cited what he called “breaches” in the accord that need to be addressed in order to avert serious political crises in the future, like the ongoing presidential deadlock.

Recalling that it took Prime Minister Tammam Salam more than 10 months to form his Cabinet, Nader said the Taif Accord should have set “a timeframe” for a prime minister-designate to set up a government.

Similarly, the Taif Accord should have created a mechanism to avert a presidential vacuum when Parliament fails to elect a new head of state at the end of the incumbent president’s term, he said.

As a way to avoid a vacancy in the top Christian post, Maronite Patriarch Beshara Rai has demanded a constitutional amendment that would allow a president to serve in a caretaker capacity when his mandate ends until a successor is elected.

While Speaker Nabih Berri, former Prime Minister Saad Hariri and MP Walid Jumblatt are staunch supporters of the Taif Accord, Rai and Free Patriotic Movement leader MP Michel Aoun have called for the accord to be amended in order to boost the president’s powers. Before the end of his term, former President Michel Sleiman also called for a constitutional amendment to improve the president’s powers.

Rai said a solution to Lebanon’s recurring political crises required the amendment of the Taif Accord to enhance the president’s prerogatives. “Can the president solve problems if he is denied prerogatives?” Rai said. “The Taif Accord is not divine. We all approved it but there are gaps that need to be filled.”

Taif conference kicks off in Beirut’s Phoenicia Hotel

BEIRUT: The 1989 Taif Agreement will be under scrutiny during a conference marking the 25th anniversary of the deal, which ended 15 years of bloody civil war. Organized by the Civil Center for National Initiative and the Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung Foundation, “The Taif Agreement 25 Years Later,” conference was launched Wednesday at the Phoenicia Hotel in Beirut.

Lebanese politicians from across the political spectrum, along with Arab and foreign officials, will take part in discussion sessions scheduled for Thursday and Friday.

“Based on our bylaws, we in the Civil Center try to clarify the national position on hot topics, and the Document of National Accord, known as the ‘Taif Agreement,’ is a topic that is still on the table for implementation and evaluation,” said Talal Husseini, head of CCNI.

“It will be, as we hope, a frank heart-to-heart meeting because we all have a common fate,” Husseini added, in a speech he delivered during the launching of the conference.

According to organizers, the conference aims to explain the Lebanese national position on the key 1989 agreement from the perspective of the Lebanese state and its people.

Also among its goals is uncovering the position of the international community and countries that have influence in Lebanon.

Brokered by Saudi Arabia, the U.S. and Syria, the agreement finally brought peace to Lebanon after a civil war that left much of the country in tatters.

But many of its provisions have yet to be implemented, including the abolishment of political sectarianism, balanced development across Lebanon and the drafting of a parliamentary election law ensuring fair representation.

“It is my duty as a Lebanese and I am fulfilling it,” Husseini said in separate remarks to The Daily Star, commenting on the organizing of the conference.

Husseini said that all of the political parties had a desire to determine the national stance on the Taif Agreement, and that this explained their willingness to participate in these discussions.

“Eleven parties are participating, not including civil society groups,” Husseini explained. “We are committed to accepting all opinions, on the condition that talks will be frank.

“If this small step turns out to be on the right track, we will see how to move on to further steps.”

Taking part in the four discussion panels Thursday will be representatives of 11 Lebanese political groups, international officials, religious figures from Lebanon’s various sects and representatives of civil society organizations.

The relevance of the Taif Agreement and whether it could be applied in other regional contexts will be examined Friday.

An assessment of the Taif Agreement and details on how it was prepared and formulated will come next, followed by recommendations and a conclusion.

Among speakers Wednesday were former Speaker Hussein Husseini, known as the “father of the Taif Agreement,” U.N. Special Coordinator for Lebanon Derek Plumbly and Achim Vogt, FES’s resident director.

Plumbly highlighted the need for Lebanon to protect the achievements of the Taif Agreement amid regional turmoil.

“If the organizers succeed through this conference in prompting national discussion about what actions are urgently needed now to protect and sustain the resilience Lebanon has shown over the 25 years since Taif, and especially in the three-and-a-half years since the start of the Syrian conflict, they will have done a great service,” he said.

He went on to reiterate the international community’s firm support for Lebanon.

“We will help. We are keenly interested in the success of your efforts to sustain the institutions of state, to maintain stability. But after 25 years we look to you yourselves to come together and take – in a spirit of unity – the decisions necessary to continue to keep Lebanon safe and to set it on course for a still better future.”

Agreement largely seen as failure on Lebanese street

BEIRUT: In a corner shop in Al-Tariq al-Jadideh whose walls were lined with precariously balanced towers of pomegranates and oranges, Khaled Lababidi was talking history and politics. “It’s true that the Taif Accord ended the Lebanese Civil War,” the 49-year-old said, nodding slowly, “and the agreement is good in its content. But it hasn’t been applied completely and fairly.”

Exactly 25 years after the much-awaited peace deal to end Lebanon’s 15-year Civil War was signed in Saudia Arabia in 1989, ordinary Lebanese dismiss the Taif Accord as having had little practical effect on Lebanon’s fundamental flaws due to its uneven implementation.

Down the road from Lababidi, in a sparkling clean fast-food kitchen called Tabaq Lebanese Cuisine, the employees were all of one mind: Taif was a flop.

“Most of the Taif Accord was never applied. If it was, things would have been better now,” said Suhair, a 53-year-old woman from Ras al-Nabaa, as she straightened out her brightly colored apron.

She pointed in particular to the agreement’s failure to end the country’s entrenched political confessionalism, something it specifically mentions. “I would prefer for political sectarianism to be abolished but it’s very hard to do it,” she said, “mainly because it’s in the minds of people, not only in the texts.”

“Taif didn’t end political sectarianism,” agreed Tarek as he stuffed buns with various sandwich fillings. “In Lebanon there is no solution, and political sectarianism can’t and won’t be canceled.”

There is a whole section in Taif dedicated to the abolition of confessionalism, which the accord calls “a fundamental national objective.” No deadline or timetable was set for this goal. The document instead lays out two “interim” requirements: the removal of sect from ID cards, which has been done; and the ending of sectarian representation quotas in public institutions, from the Army to the judiciary, which still remains today.

“For example, not many Christians are applying for governmental or military positions, but the system requires a certain quota from every sect,” said the owner of a jewelry store, also located in the predominantly Sunni neighborhood of Al-Tariq al-Jadideh, who asked to remain anonymous.

“Now, if one Christian fails his entry test and there aren’t enough who succeeded, then he or she is accepted in order to maintain the quota policy,” he added angrily. “The person who failed is not competent and does not deserve their position, but he gets it anyway.”

This sense of frustration with the ongoing prioritization of sect over capability, more than two decades after such a system was supposed have been scrapped, was also evident in the Christian neighborhood of Ashrafieh.

Standing under the shade of a tree outside a residential building off Sassine Square, Walid Qmair said that Taif should have gone further, and voiced something never heard in political circles: he disagreed with the tradition of giving the presidency to a Maronite Christian.

“I don’t mind whether the president is Maronite, Shiite, Sunni, Druze or any other sect,” said the 54-year-old man from Tannourine. “What’s important is to have a responsible leader who is willing to work for the whole country.”

On another street nearby, a retired school secretary walking down the road agreed the principles of Taif were sound but had not been implemented, adding that religious background should not be important when it came to choosing political leaders: “Whoever is going to work for the benefit of the whole country deserves to lead it, regardless of sect or religion.”

In Bir Hasan, a largely Shiite part of southern Beirut, locals echoed exactly the same sentiments as heard elsewhere, whether about confessionalism or equal development opportunities for the country, another stipulation of Taif.

“This didn’t and won’t happen,” said a pharmacy salesman, referring to the second point. “Leaders don’t care about balanced regional development. Lebanon is centralized in the major cities.”

“In order to see what difference Taif has made, you have to compare between what was and what is now,” he continued as he stacked boxes. “Taif was able to end the Lebanese war, which is good. ... What has not been applied is separating sectarianism from the political system. And if that was already applied, we wouldn’t be in this bad situation.”

“Taif stopped the war, but it didn’t offer a permanent solution to the sectarian and political problems of the country,” added a 34-year-old male entrepreneur, who asked not to be named, in another shop in Bir Hasan. “As long as the political crew in Lebanon stays the same, the situation will never change.”

What now for militants in Lebanon?

BEIRUT: A reported clash Tuesday night near a Palestinian base in the mountains above the Bekaa Valley village of Qousaya appears to have been the latest probe by Syrian militants to look for weak points along Lebanon’s eastern border with Syria. The few thousand Syrian rebel militants holed up in the lofty barren mountains between Arsal and Tfeil are seeking alternative shelter ahead of the arrival of the winter snows.

But their options appear to be limited, as they are hemmed in from all sides by Syrian troops, Hezbollah fighters and the Lebanese Army.

The deployment of forces along the eastern border is beginning to harden as all sides prepare themselves in expectation of further fighting in the weeks and months ahead.

On the Syrian side of the border in Qalamoun, rebel groups hold a belt of hilly terrain west of Ras al-Maara, Jobbeh and Aasal al-Ward, according to information from regional diplomats and Syrian rebel sources.

They are also in control of a strip of territory to the south of the Tfeil peninsula, and the town of Zabadani and the surrounding area.

The Syrian regime retains control over the route linking Yabroud at the northern end of Qalamoun to Damascus, passing through Sarkha, Maaloula and Seidnaya.

The rest of Qalamoun remains contested territory.

On the Lebanese side, Syrian militants are holed up in the mountains and farmland to the northeast, east and southeast of Arsal.

Facing them inside Lebanon is the Army around Arsal, and Hezbollah in the hills further south.

The Army has significantly improved its defensive posture in the Arsal area since early August, when the town was briefly overrun by Syrian militants. New positions have been built and protected with Hesco blast barriers.

Additional support comes from a recently built outpost on a small hill east of Ras Baalbek, which is capable of holding a company-sized Army unit and is equipped with long-range surveillance cameras, according to diplomatic and military sources.

The construction of another similar-sized outpost is planned for somewhere closer to Arsal.

The Army’s reconnaissance capabilities are further enhanced by the recent acquisition of trailer-based mobile observation platforms, which can be towed to hilltops around Arsal for temporary observation missions.

The enhanced defensive measures around Arsal have effectively sealed off the town from the militants in the adjacent mountains.

Arsal had been a source of food and other provisions for the militants, who live in caves and abandoned farmsteads.

The Army has successfully fended off several attempts by militants to infiltrate the town in recent weeks.

The Army is not alone in preparing defenses along the western flank of the Anti-Lebanon mountain range. Hezbollah has divided the territory into numbered operational sectors and built a chain of fortified outposts on mountain tops to protect Shiite villages in the Bekaa Valley and to try and block the passage of Syrian militants between Arsal and rebel-held areas of Qalamoun.

Armaments in the outposts include mortars, heavy machine guns and anti-tank missiles, as well as 23mm and 57mm anti-aircraft guns, which are also effective weapons against ground vehicles driven by Syrian militants.

“With every hill we take from them [the Syrian rebels], we bring in the bulldozers and pour the concrete and bring in the 23mm and 57mm guns,” said Abu Khalil, a veteran Hezbollah fighter who has served multiple tours in Syria.

“We are cutting the mountains into quadrants and forcing them back inch by inch.”

Additionally, Hezbollah has laced the mountain tracks crossing the border with landmines and improvised explosive devices, according to sources close to the party, as well as diplomats in Beirut.

If the militants in the Arsal area wish to break out before the onset of winter, they would seem they have few viable options.

One possibility is to launch a second assault against Arsal in the hope that they can overcome the Army’s new defenses and occupy the town for at least as long as winter lasts. But they would probably have to mobilize a considerably larger force than the 500 to 700 militants who stormed Arsal in August.

Even if they could seize the town, could they hold it for several months against the Army’s counterattacks?

An alternative, perhaps, is to bypass Arsal altogether and punch through Army lines into the plain of the northern Bekaa. There are at least two deep valleys leading to Fakiha and Ras Baalbek, which could serve as routes into the Bekaa for a sudden and swift charge.

The Army would see them coming but it is doubtful that it could mobilize troops quickly enough to stop the militants bursting out into the Bekaa Valley. However, the question remains – what would the Syrian militants do then?

Two weeks ago, Army Commander Gen. Jean Kahwagi told France’s Le Figaro newspaper that the militants in Arsal sought to open up a route across north Lebanon to the coast. It is difficult to see how the militants could accomplish such a goal.

Even if they had the requisite support from Sunnis in in Akkar, how could the Syrian militants gain safe passage though Hermel where Hezbollah and powerful Shiite tribes like the Jaafars predominate?

Charging into the northern Bekaa would certainly cause panic among the mixed Shiite, Christian and Sunni population, but it would be a suicidal option for the Syrian militants.

A third potential option is for the militants to move east into areas under their control in Qalamoun, rather than deeper into Lebanon.

A year ago, the Syrian rebels held almost all of Qalamoun and spent winter in the relative comfort of towns and villages. This year, unless they can claw back some additional territory at lower altitudes in Qalamoun, they face a difficult winter.

But staying inside Lebanon could be a worse option.

Want Your Absentee Vote To Count? Don't Make These Mistakes

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Ballots from June 2014 marked "too late" in Sacramento County, Calif. Kim Alexander/Courtesy California Voter Foundation hide caption

itoggle caption Kim Alexander/Courtesy California Voter Foundation

Ballots from June 2014 marked "too late" in Sacramento County, Calif.

Kim Alexander/Courtesy California Voter Foundation

Millions of voters — about one in five — are expected to vote absentee, or by mail, in November's midterm elections. For many voters, it's more convenient than going to the polls.

But tens of thousands of these mail-in ballots will likely be rejected — and the voter might never know, or know why.

The U.S. Election Assistance Commission found that in 2012 more than a quarter of a million absentee ballots were rejected.

The number one reason? The ballot wasn't returned on time, which in most states is by Election Day. Sometimes it's the voters fault. Others blame the Post Office.

Kim Alexander, who runs the California Voter Foundation, says this past June almost 600 absentee ballots arrived at the Santa Cruz County election office the morning after the primary. Too late to count.

"And it's absolutely heartbreaking. Because the only thing worse than people not voting, is people trying to vote and having their ballots go uncounted," says Alexander. "And most of these people have no idea that their ballots are not getting counted. They could be making the same mistakes over and over again."

And those mistakes are often easy to avoid. Here are some:

• The voter forgets to sign the ballot, as required.


• The voter sends the envelope back, but forgets to include the ballot.


• The voter uses the wrong envelope.


• The voter already voted in person.


• The voter's signature on the ballot doesn't match the one on file.

This last mistake is a big problem, says Alexander. In California, all absentee ballot signatures are checked against the ones the election office has in its records. But many of those signatures come from the Department of Motor Vehicles, where people sign their names using a stylus on a pad, which can look a lot different than a signature written on paper.

"You also have the issue of younger people whose signatures change over time. You have older voters whose signature changes over time too," says Alexander. "And voters have no idea what image of their signature is on file."

She says it could be 10 or 15 years old. In 2012, thousands of California ballots were rejected because the signatures didn't match.

Absentee voters who are confused and vote twice is another concern.

Alysoun McLaughlin is deputy director of the Montgomery County, Md., board of elections. She calls these "just in case" voters. First, they send in their absentee ballot.

"They're concerned that maybe it won't get back to us in time. So then they also go to the polls and they vote," says McLaughlin.

That vote is a provisional one, but when election officials get that second ballot in the mail, both ballots are rejected. It's illegal to vote twice — even by mistake.

Paul Gronke, who runs the Early Voting Information Center at Reed College in Oregon, says he's concerned about all these lost votes.

"After the 2000 election, a lot of attention was paid in this country to voting machines to make sure that no one was denied the right to vote because of a machine that didn't function properly, or a chad that did not hang properly," Gronke says.

But absentee voting hasn't received that same attention, he says. And in a close election, those ballots could make a difference.

Gronke says it's also important to know which voters are affected the most. A study by the California Civic Engagement Project at UC Davis found that absentee ballots cast by young voters or those using non-English ballots were more likely to be rejected.

And Gronke says a study he did in Florida found lots of absentee ballots got tossed in precincts made up entirely of senior citizens.

"As many as a third of the ballots in some cases were rejected because of errors," he says.

Gronke doesn't know what those errors were, but thinks the findings do raise questions about whether instructions on how to vote absentee are clear enough.

Election officials are doing more to try to educate voters about the rules. Their big message is to get the absentee ballot in the mail as soon as possible.

Better yet, says Kim Alexander, they should notify voters when their ballots have been rejected and tell them why — so they don't make the same mistake twice.

President Obama Extends Warmest Wishes for Diwali

Today, President Obama wished a Happy Diwali to all those who celebrate the festival of lights.

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In 2009, President Obama became the first U.S. president to celebrate the festival of lights, a time of rejoicing for many in the Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) community and across the world.

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High school students in U.S., Lebanon discuss online

BEIRUT: Second-year high school students from Sagesse High School and the School Without Walls in Washington, D.C engaged Wednesday in an online discussion about ancient Mesopotamia.

Over twenty youth between the ages of 16 and 17 assembled in front of a smart board in one of Sagesse’s classrooms and listened, dressed in their navy blue and grey school uniforms, to a lecture broadcast online by a State Department expert on the history of ancient civilizations.

“Mesopotamia is said to be the cradle of civilization” Catherine Foster, an archaeologist specializing in the ancient Middle East, told students in both Lebanon and Washington. “Modern day cultures have a foundation in Mesopotamia, weather through its rudimentary court system or the way they derived time.”

Mesopotamia, the area between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, is otherwise known as modern day Iraq.

“This conversation is very timely with regard to everything happening in Iraq today,” Social Studies Department Head at Sagesse Dany Kfouri said, in reference to the country’s deteriorating security situation after years of internal conflict and the recent emergence of ISIS in the region. “It is a way of linking the present to the past.”

A gallery of images flashed on the screen showing archeological remains of the ancient civilization in Iraq. “The environment in Iraq is not suitable to the preservation of these structures” Foster said.

Wednesday’s session was the first of a series of online conversations about ancient civilizations with high school students from both Lebanon and the U.S. The initiative was organized by The U.S Department of State’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs alongside PBS Learning Media, an online educational resource library.

“While militants and fighters are tearing things down in Iraq, we are here trying to build something,” Public Affairs Officer at the U.S. Embassy in Beirut Robin Holzhauer said. “And by looking at Iraq’s past we know what things to preserve and what mistakes to avoid.”

One student, Sebastian al-Khoury, 16, seemed comfortable with the subject. He spent all of last year studying Mesopotamia, he said. The material covered central aspects of the ancient civilization such as the code of Hammurabi - a well-preserved Babylonian law text, which is one of the oldest deciphered writings of significant length in the world. “We know a lot about the topic, it would embarrassing if the students in Washington didn’t know how to answer questions as well as us,” he said with a smirk.

Proving the class’s strong grasp of the topic, Sagesse student Cibelle Ghoul, 16, approached the microphone and asked about the influence of the Hammurabi code on U.S. laws, which Foster lauded for its insight in to the legacy left by the ancient law.

Concern Over New-Voter Registration In Georgia Ahead Of Election

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A voter casts her ballot at a polling site for Georgia's 2014 primary election in Atlanta. David Goldman/AP hide caption

itoggle caption David Goldman/AP

A voter casts her ballot at a polling site for Georgia's 2014 primary election in Atlanta.

David Goldman/AP

This election season is proving to be tough for Democrats, but many believe they can turn the red state of Georgia blue with the help of new voters.

One voter registration campaign led by the New Georgia Project, a "nonpartisan effort" according to its website, has targeted black, Latino, and Asian-American residents.

The organization's parent group, Third Sector Development, is currently engaged in a legal battle with election officials over more than 40,000 voter registration applications that, the group claims, are missing from Georgia's voter logs. This month, that organization, along with the NAACP and other civil rights groups, filed a lawsuit against five counties and Georgia's Secretary of State Brian Kemp, who oversees elections in the state.

"These are voters who deserve to have their voices heard," says Stacey Abrams, founder of the New Georgia Project. "This is a critical election — an election that will not only speak to what happens in the state of Georgia this cycle, but it speaks to the future of the Georgia that we want to have."

The issue has been resolved in Georgia's DeKalb County, located outside of Atlanta. But four other counties, including Fulton, Chatham, Muscogee, and Clayton Counties, still face the lawsuit.

A Call For Transparency

Abrams, a Democrat who serves as Georgia's house minority leader, says it's unclear whether the 40,000 applications in question have been processed, based on the state's public lists of registered voters.

"The reality may be that the voters are in the process, and they will appear on the rolls. But we don't know," she says. "This is about information. It's about transparency."

The Georgia secretary of state's office did not respond to requests for comment by deadline, but during a press conference on Oct. 16, Kemp said the lawsuit is "totally without merit."

"The claim that there are over 40,000 unprocessed voter registration applications is absolutely false," he said. "The counties have processed all the voter registration applications that they have received for the general election."

In September, Kemp launched an investigation into the New Georgia Project's voter registration campaign after forged and other invalid applications were submitted to county offices. The New Georgia Project says they are legally required to submit all voter registration applications they collect — even invalid ones.

Resolution In DeKalb County

Earlier this week, DeKalb County was released from the lawsuit after confirming that the county had processed all of its applications. Maxine Daniels, director of voter registration and elections in DeKalb County, says she was upset by the lawsuit's allegations.

"We understand that what we do is the very basis for our democracy, and so we take it very seriously," she explains. "For someone to say that we're not doing it, it's just very disconcerting."

Daniels says the lawsuit may come down to failures in communication between the New Georgia Project and county election offices. She says she wishes the group reached out to her office about missing applications earlier in the process. But Daniels still supports outreach to new voters.

"Let's not throw out the baby with the bath water," she says. "We have to keep in mind that there still were some 7,000 voters that as a result of their project got registered [in DeKalb County]. And so we applaud that effort."

NPR contacted the four other counties named in the lawsuit. All asserted that they currently have no unprocessed applications. A hearing about the case is set to take place in Atlanta on Friday.

U.S. organization grants Hariri family 2014 Global Citizen Award

BEIRUT: The Hariri family was awarded the 2014 Global Citizen Award for their efforts to promote education, civil society and good governance.

The award was given by the International Student House of Washington, DC, to the Hariris “in recognition of their continuous support of international educational exchange opportunities and their work around the globe encouraging civil society, effective governance and sustainable human development,” according to a statement released by Hariri’s media office Wednesday.

Bahaa Hariri, the eldest son of former Prime Minsiter Rafik Hariri, received the award on behalf of his immediate family in Washington DC on Oct. 16, during the 6th annual International Student House Global Leadership Awards at the organization's historic facilities.

In attendence at the award ceremony were prominent members of the Hariri family such as Sidon MP Bahia Hariri, former Prime Minister Saad Hariri’s chief of staff, Nader Hariri, and the Future Movement’s Secretary General, Ahmed Hariri.

The ceremony was chaired by U.S. Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel and his wife Lilibet Hagel, while U.S Vice President Joe Biden and his wife Dr. Jill Biden were also at hand alongside a number of prominent political, diplomatic and social figures.

According to the ISH’s website, the International Student House is a “non-profit organization that provides an exceptional residential experience to a highly diverse international community of graduate students, interns, and visiting scholars.”

Last year, the ISH granted Ambassador William J. Burns, Deputy Secretary of State, with the Global Citizen Award.

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Cypriot training aircraft en route to Beirut went missing

BEIRUT: A Cessna plane used for training went missing en route to Beirut from Cyprus Wednesday evening, a source at the Rafik Hariri International Airport told The Daily Star.

The source said the Cypriot aircraft disappeared from radar at 26 miles away from the Lebanese coast. Two people were on board of the plane, the source said, a Cypriot and a Lebanese.

More to follow ...

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1 Wounded In Gunfire Near Canada's Parliament

Police in Canada say a gunman shot at least one person near the National War Memorial in Ottawa. Witnesses said there were other reports of shots fired on Parliament Hill.

The CBC reports that it's not immediately known if there were any other injuries. Reuters quotes Canadian television as saying that Prime Minister Stephen Harper is safe.

Canadian media reported that the victim may be a member of the Canadian Forces, but The Toronto Star quotes a witness as saying he was dressed in civilian clothes.

Canadian Press reports: "Emergency responders are still on the scene and paramedics took the wounded soldier away in an ambulance."

The National War Memorial is located in the heart of the Canadian capital near the Parliament buildings.

CBC says:

"Scott Walsh, who was working on Parliament Hill, said he saw a man running with double-barrelled shotgun, wearing a scarf and blue jeans.

"Walsh said the man hopped over the wall or fence that surrounds Parliament Hill, with his gun forcing someone out of their car. He then drove to the front doors of Parliament and fired at least two shot, Walsh said.

"Police said the man was not yet in custody."

The Associated Press says the gunman is still at large and that Parliament is on lockdown.

The incident comes after the country raised its terror threat level from low to medium.

UCC to protest Fattoush attack

BEIRUT: The Union Coordination Committee called Wednesday for its members to join a demonstration in solidarity with the Justice Palace office worker who was attacked Monday by MP Nicolas Fattoush.

The protest, organized by the League of Public Administration Employees, will take place at 9:30 a.m. Thursday, at the gate of Beirut’s Justice Palace.

The UCC denounces such attacks as “unprecedented insults towards public sector workers, be it a direct personal attack or an attack on their collective rights.”

Mainly led by teacher unionists, the powerful committee has become famous in Lebanon for its more than three years of large street demonstrations calling for wage hikes.

The Civil Movement for Accountability, a group of NGOs and activists who oppose the extension of the Parliament’s term, also called on its supporters to join the protest.

Manal Daou, an officer who processes legal compaints at the Justice Palace of Baabda, was attacked Monday by Fattoush, a lawmaker from Zahle and former minister who grew furious after Daou asked him to wait for a few minutes so she could finish working on her files.

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UK delivers weapons, armor to Lebanese Army

BEIRUT: The United Kingdom has delivered military defense equipment to the Lebanese Army to deal with the jihadist threat on its eastern border with Syria, the British embassy announced Wednesday.

The donation, worth $16 million, includes 164 Land Rovers, 1,500 sets of body armor, a secure radio communication network, border watchtowers, and HESCO bastions to protect Army positions along the frontier.

The donation was announced one day after a meeting between U.K. Chief of the Defense Staff Gen. Sir Nicholas Houghton and Lebanese Army commander Gen. Jean Kahwagi.

“I am impressed by the work done by the Lebanese Armed Forces (LAF) to safeguard Lebanon's security and sovereignty and contain the overspill from Syria,” Houghton said after the meeting, according to a statement issued Wednesday.

“As part of this commitment, the U.K. intends to expand its ongoing 'train and equip' program to strengthen the Land Border Regiments of the Lebanese Armed Forces,” he added

The regiments supported by the program will monitor 150 kilometers of Lebanon’s border with Syria.

The Lebanese Army has been receiving increased military aid from different states in recent years to contain the spillover of violence caused by the Syrian war.

Saudi Arabia pledged the two largest military donations totaling $4 billion.

The latest of the two, a $1 billion aid package that former Prime Minister Saad Hariri announced and claimed responsibility for facilitating, is expected to be delivered soon. Justice Minister Ashraf Rifi announced Wednesday that the contracts for the equipment worth one third of the aid had already been signed.

As for the earlier $3 billion aid announced by Saudi King Abdullah Bin Abdel-Aziz, it will come in the form of weapons, equipment and training to be provided by France.

This donation has not yet gone into effect with reports saying that the kingdom first wants to receive assurances that the weapons will not benefit Hezbollah.

North Lebanon prison guard finds drugs in boot

Hezbollah, Islamic Action Front urge Muslim unity

Hezbollah and the Islamic Action Front urge in a joint statement the need for Sunni-Shiite unity against Israel and...

EDL issues first electricity bills in 3 months

EDL contract workers protest over suspended salaries

Electricite du Liban’s Contract Workers hold a symbolic protest on the door of the service providing company...

Hezbollah, Islamic Action Front urge Muslim unity

BEIRUT: Hezbollah and the Islamic Action Front urged in a joint statement Wednesday the need for Sunni-Shiite unity against Israel and the spread of Islamist extremism in Lebanon and the region.

“Hezbollah and the Islamic Action Front affirmed the need for Muslim unity and the importance of unifying ranks and speeches to face the threats facing Lebanon and the region, especially the ongoing Zionist danger and the threat of takfiri terrorism that has emerged,” said a statement following a meeting between representatives of the two groups.

The statement, released by Hezbollah’s media office, said the meeting took place at the office of Hezbollah official Sheikh Ibrahim Amin Sayyed. It did not say when the meeting was held.

The meeting was attended by an IAF delegation headed by Sheikh Zuheir al-Jaeed. The IAF is close to Hezbollah.

Talks focused on developments in Lebanon and the region, the statement said.

It added that the “terrorist takfiri threat is similar to the Zionist threat that aims to create rifts and hatred and discord among Muslims.”

The officials called for confronting this takfiri trend “religiously, politically and in the media and even militarily” to prevent them from achieving their goal of re-dividing and re-fragmenting the region so that they could establish sectarian and ethnic entities to fight each other.

The statement said the takfiri scheme will allow Israel and the United States to spread more easily and take control of oil and water resources.

The conferees underlined the “need for the resistance to defend the land, honor and dignity” and stressed the importance of activating the tripartite defense strategy: “the Army, the people and the resistance.”

They also slammed Israel for continuing to violate Lebanese sovereignty while praising Hezbollah’s latest attack on an Israeli patrol in the occupied southern border area of the Shebaa Farms.

Relief committee to compensate north Lebanon flood victims

BEIRUT: The head of the Higher Relief Committee met Wednesday with mayors of Lebanon's northern Dinnieh region, pledging to speed up procedures to compensate those who suffered losses due to last week’s flooding.

“All we need is collaboration between us, and we will support you to repair the damages and give compensation for the damages according to the available resources," Maj. Gen. Mohammad Kheir told the mayors in a meeting held at the Bakhoun municipality office.

The remarks published in a statement carried by the state-run National News Agency.

Kheir said that Prime Minister Tammam Salam is following up on the matter and will seek the approval of his Cabinet Thursday to provide urgent relief worth 30 to 40 percent of the damages.

Kheir asked the area’s municipalities to cooperate, saying many international donors had pledged to fund the relief effort.

But the chief of Dinnieh’s League of Municipalities Mohammad Saadieh called for more drastic measures.

“We do not ask for compensation, because we have been adapting every year with the damages of disasters,” Saadieh said. “Giving compensation is not a successful policy. What we need is the existence of good infrastructure enabling us to confront any natural disaster."

The Dinnieh area, he explained, suffered horrible consequences as a result of last week’s floods, including the collapse of parts of the sanitation network causing sewers to spew into agricultural lands and potable water sources. The floods also destroyed many roads and houses, he added.

“One of the main reasons the recent disaster [had severe consequences] is the poor implementation of projects in our area,” Saadieh said, calling on the relief committee to address the Cabinet with an urgent call for infrastructural development projects in Dinnieh.

Saadieh’s deputy, Hussein Harmoush, accused the Ministry of Energy and Water, and the Ministry of Public Works and Transport of partial responsibility.

He said the two ministries failed to clean and prepare the canals and pipelines before the winter season, causing blockages.

Abu Faour: Lebanese hospitals prepared for Ebola

BEIRUT: The government-run Rafik Hariri Hospital is equipped to receive any potential Ebola-infected individual who enters Lebanon, and other big hospitals will be ready to do so in the next couple of weeks, Health Minister Wael Abu Faour said Wednesday.

“Within two weeks, 11 big hospitals equipped with more than 100 beds will be fully equipped to receive cases contaminated with the Ebola virus,” Abu Faour told reporters at Beirut's international airport.

He said incoming flights from infected countries will be quarantined on the tarmac and VIP service on those flights suspended, as all passengers would be thoroughly screened for any symptoms of the disease.

Abu Faour pointed out that six more nurses will be working at the airport to carry out checks inside the airplanes, before the passengers disembark.

“People with symptoms will be further examined upon arrival, and those who have the full set of symptoms will be transferred in a special ambulance to Rafik Hariri Hospital which has been equipped with quarantine facility for Ebola carriers,” Abu Faour said.

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Hezbollah capable of fighting on two fronts: MP

BEIRUT: Hezbollah is capable of repelling attacks by Israel in the south, and jihadists in the east, Hezbollah MP Nawar Sahili said Wednesday.

“The resistance [Hezbollah] is still fully ready to defeat any Israeli attack; and today it is much stronger than the enemy thinks,” Sahili said at an event in the southern Lebanese border town of Bint Jbeil.

“At the same time,” Sahili added,” the resistance is fighting a takfiri terrorist scheme” along Lebanon’s eastern border with Syria.

The comments were sent in a statement released by Hezbollah's media office Wednesday.

Sahili said fighting the takfiris was a “national duty” to defend Lebanon and the Lebanese. “And we are doing our duty without asking favors of others.”

His remarks came a week after Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hasan Nasrallah vowed to defeat Islamist militants while warning Israel that the resistance party stood ready for any confrontation despite the battle against extremists.

In a rare visit to the Bekaa Valley, apparently to boost morale, Nasrallah said that “victory will be the ally of the mujahedeen in their fight against takfiri and terrorist groups the same way it was their ally in the confrontation against the Israeli enemy.”

Hezbollah forces have been fighting alongside Syrian government troops for nearly two years against rebels determined to overthrow the regime of President Bashar Assad.

In a rare attack since the end of the 2006 Israel-Hezbollah war in south Lebanon, Hezbollah detonated a bomb against an Israeli patrol in the border area of Shebaa Farms, wounding two soldiers.

The party said the Oct. 7 bombing was carried out in retaliation for the death of a Hezbollah member who was killed while trying to disable a spy device planted on Hezbollah's telecommunications network. Israeli jets reportedly detonated the device remotely.

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Tripoli will not become Islamic emirate: Rifi

BEIRUT: Tripoli will not be declared an Islamic emirate, Justice Minister Ashraf Rifi said Wednesday, insisting that the northern port city remains safe.

“There will be no province or Islamic emirate in Tripoli, and any such assumptions are only to intimidate,” Rifi said in a statement. “Tripoli will remain the second Lebanese capital... [and] the city of science and creativity.”

Rifi, the former head of the Internal Security Forces, criticized rhetoric he said is being used to frighten the public.

“There will be no governmental or security collapse,” he said “and despite the consequences of the Syrian volcano that resulted in some limited, dispersed incidents, there is no need to frighten the people.”

Rifi expressed his confidence that Lebanon is able to “put out the fires caused by this volcano,” stressing that none of the local political factions benefit from the city's chaos.

However, the minister said the situation in the country cannot become “normal” as long as there is an “unofficial army,” referring to Hezbollah.

“We will not accept a mini-state inside the state,” he said, reiterating his call on Hezbollah to withdraw its forces from Syria.

“I do not consider Hezbollah’s dead as martyrs,” Rifi said in reference to the party’s fighters who have fallen in the Syrian war. “One is only a martyr when he dies in the confrontation with the Israeli enemy.”

“Only in that case would I bow before him and salute him.”

After Hezbollah withdraws from Syria, Rifi said, the Army and UNIFIL peacekeepers could be deployed to the eastern and northern borders, he proposed.