Just in case you’ve been busy this week, we’ve got you covered. Check out some of the highlights from the week below.
-- President Obama, November 5, 2014
America’s security and prosperity are increasingly and inextricably linked to the Asia Pacific. Tomorrow, President Obama will head to Asia for the second time this year and his sixth time as President.
Deeply committed to our rebalancing strategy in Asia, the President will be meeting with leaders in China, Burma, and Australia to ensure that we are fostering an open, transparent security and economic order amid what is an increasing and already high demand for U.S. leadership in the region.
Our economic growth and creation of American jobs are also critically tied to our trade and investment ties to Asia. The President’s leadership in global fora, like the G20, has resulted in a more stable and resilient global financial system and collective agreement among the world’s largest economies to take meaningful actions to promote growth and quality jobs.
From talks with President Xi Jinping of China to the G20 Summit in Brisbane, Australia, here’s a look at what the President will be doing as he travels across the Asia Pacific next week:
BEIRUT: The Lebanese Army Friday barred 11 wounded Syrian rebels from entering Lebanese territory through the southern Mount Hermon border region, demanding first the release of some servicemen held hostage by Islamist militants, security sources said.
The rebels were wounded during heavy clashes that erupted Thursday and continued until early Friday between Syrian government troops and opposition groups in the Mount Hermon area where the borders of Syria, Lebanon and Israel meet.
The wounded attempted to enter Lebanese territory after at least 40 people were killed in clashes between government forces and rebels, including the Nusra Front, according to the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. The Observatory said the fighting in Beit Tima, a majority-Druze region, left 26 pro-government forces and 14 rebels and jihadi fighters dead.
“The Lebanese Army has demanded the release of some of the soldiers and policemen held by militants in return for letting the wounded Syrians receive treatment in Lebanese territory,” a security source told The Daily Star.
A senior military official refused to comment on the border incident. He also declined to confirm if the Army had demanded the release of a number of hostages in exchange for letting the wounded rebels into Lebanese territory.
ISIS and Nusra Front militants are holding 27 soldiers and policemen captured during the five-day fierce clashes with the Lebanese Army in the northeastern town of Arsal in early August. The militants are demanding the release of a number of Islamist detainees held in Roumieh Prison as well as several Syrian female prisoners held in Syria for freeing the hostages.
However, Lebanese Red Cross teams were allowed to give the wounded first aid at the border, medical sources told The Daily Star.
The wounded, including seven members of the rebel Free Syrian Army, were stopped at 700 meters from the Army checkpoint on the Rashaya crossing between the Syrian town of Beit Jin and Lebanon’s Arqoub in the Shebaa region.
The Army allowed three Red Cross ambulances to reach the wounded and provide them with first aid, but they were prevented from transporting them to hospitals, the sources said.
At least four of the wounded were in critical condition and were able to get assistance by the Red Cross teams backed by a medical doctor, the sources said, adding that the wounded were later returned to Syria.
Sheikh Mohammad Jarrar, who heads Al-Jamaa al-Islamiya in Shebaa, said that many FSA members were seriously wounded in battles with the Syrian army near the towns of Kfar Hawar and Beit Tima in the Mount Hermon area. In recent weeks, the area has seen recurrent battles between regime forces and the opposition.
Jarrar said that two of the wounded died en route, and seven arrived at the Lebanese border, one of them in a critical condition.
An FSA source confirmed that the wounded men were not affiliated with the Nusra Front, but were in fact fighting with the FSA.
Security sources said earlier that the Syrian rebels have been stranded at the border since Friday morning after being barred by the Army from crossing into Lebanon.
There has been fighting between regime and rebel forces in the region for more than a year, but Thursday’s toll is the highest in a single day since violence began there.
Syrian refugees and both civilians and rebels wounded in fighting have regularly slipped across the porous border between the two countries.
Lebanese authorities have been cracking down on Syrians attempting to enter the country illegally, with the government voting last month to stop accepting new refugees.Meanwhile, MPs Walid Jumblatt and Talal Arslan condemned the deadly fighting in the predominantly Druze area of Syria’s Mount Hermon. However, the two Druze leaders’ condemnations exposed their conflicting stances on the Syrian war. Jumblatt supports the anti-regime revolt, while Arslan is an ally of President Bashar Assad.
Jumblatt, head of the Progressive Socialist Party, warned against dragging the Druze into the Syrian conflict, while Arslan, Lebanese Democratic Party chief, said the Druze were paying the price for supporting a unified Syria.
“Beware of using the Druze to face the Syrian revolution,” Jumblatt wrote on his Twitter account.
In what appeared to be a message addressed to anti-rebel Syrian Druze, Jumblatt said: “I have already warned of the dangers of involvement with the Syrian regime. It’s time for reconciliation with the surroundings and to stand neutral,” he added. “Sooner or later the Syrian people will win.”
But Arslan said Syria’s Druze were “paying the price for standing alongside a united Syria ... and for the sake of maintaining their dignity and honor and their existence.”
He said Druze villages in the eastern part of Mount Hermon were the target of a war waged by “terrorist supporters and those carrying the scheme to fragment the region.”
Separately, the Lebanese Army rounded up four Lebanese suspects believed to have been involved in attacks against troops in Tripoli and other areas in north Lebanon, a military statement said. – Additional reporting by Elise Knutsen
BEIRUT: The different religious groups of the Middle East must remain united in the face of “takfiri” attempts to divide them, Prime Minister Tammam Salam said Friday, during a conference that brought together top religious and political officials.
“The longtime coexistence between the followers of different religions in this region of the world ... has been subjected to two attacks, one old and one recent,” Salam said.
The first attack, Salam said, was with the rise of the Zionist project and the creation of a “religious and racist” state on Palestinian land, undermining the coexistence of Muslims, Christians and Jews.
“The new model, that is not less wicked than the Zionist one, is this evil and dark takfiri wave that is holding the banner of Islam, while Islam disowns it,” Salam said, adding that this rise of takfiri groups could only be fought through unity.
Salam called on the Muslims of Lebanon and the Arab world to reject extremism and defend “moderate and open-minded Islam” in order to protect Christians’ right to remain in the region.
“I also call upon the Christian Lebanese and Arabs to fully engage in shaping the destiny of their societies and nations in this historical, difficult phase that these nations are experiencing,” Salam said.
Salam’s comments came during a conference titled “The Family and the Challenges of the Era in the Middle East,” which was hosted at the International Center for Civilization Dialogue and sponsored by Gregory III Laham, the Melkite Greek Catholic Patriarch of Antioch and All the East, Alexandria and Jerusalem. The event took place at the center’s headquarters in Rabweh, Metn.
Grand Mufti Sheikh Abdel-Latif Derian, Shiite Mufti Sheikh Ahmad Qabalan, Druze Spiritual leader Sheikh Naim Hasan, Culture Minister Raymond Areiji, Justice Minister Ashraf Rifi, Foreign Minister Gebran Bassil and former minister Nicolas Sehnaoui also delivered speeches at the conference.
Former President Michel Sleiman and Free Patriotic Movement leader Michel Aoun were present.
The officials’ speeches stressed Christian-Muslim unity, as well as denouncing fundamentalism.
“Christians are not foreign expatriates in this east. They are its people and an essential part of the light shining from its front,” Salam said. “They should not be treated as if their presence is an event, and they should not act as if their presence is temporary.”
Salam’s call was echoed by Derian, who urged Christians to hold onto their land and said an attack on Christians was an attack on all.
“We are facing a destructive phenomenon that is not targeting the Christians alone, but the Muslims and Christians together,” Derian said, referring to attacks by Islamist groups against the Christians of Iraq and Syria. “The culture of Muslim-Christian coexistence is a fundamental pillar of our religious doctrine.”
The mufti added that extremists were carrying out crimes against humanity in the name of Islam.
BEIRUT: MP Michel Aoun’s Free Patriotic Movement is preparing to challenge before the Constitutional Council a Parliament-endorsed law that extended the mandate of the legislative body until 2017.
“Preparations are underway in this respect and the [challenge] is being studied seriously within the legal 15-day deadline from the day the law is published in the Official Gazette,” MP Ibrahim Kanaan, a member of Aoun’s Change and Reform bloc, said Friday.
He said the challenge would concentrate on the absence of a “force majeure” preventing the holding of parliamentary elections. He pointed out that Lebanon is not witnessing a devastating war, but specific security operations that are being dealt with.
“If Syria, Iraq, Egypt and Yemen were able to hold elections despite the events they ... are still witnessing, how come we are not able [to hold elections],” Kanaan said.
He said that Article 74 of the Constitution clearly stated that in the event of a presidential vacancy or dissolution of Parliament, the government must immediately call for elections.
“There are no constitutional excuses that prevent ... parliamentary elections,” Kanaan added.
The MP, however, acknowledged that his party was likely to face significant barriers in confronting the extension law.
Kanaan’s remarks came two days after lawmakers from both sides of the political divide extended Parliament’s mandate for two years and seven months to make it a full four-year mandate, after MPs, citing security concerns, previously extended the House’s term for 17 months in May 2013.
The vote was boycotted by MPs from Aoun’s bloc and the Kataeb Party, both of which are Christian groups, but the Lebanese Forces – also Christian – voted for the law.
The law will be published in the Official Gazette next Tuesday, after which it goes into effect.
During the Cabinet meeting Thursday, eight Christian ministers and a Muslim minister rejected the extension law, in a symbolic gesture that will not impede the controversial move.
It is unclear whether Aoun’s bloc’s planned challenge will affect the extension bill. In 2013, the bloc challenged the first extension of Parliament’s mandate, but the Constitutional Council could not meet and look into it for lack of a quorum, caused by the absence of members close to Speaker Nabih Berri and MP Walid Jumblatt, who backed the extension. Both back the second extension as well.
Meanwhile, Maronite Patriarch Beshara Rai lashed out at lawmakers who met this week to extend their mandate, even though they have failed since April meet to elect a new president. He urged lawmakers who opposed the extension of Parliament’s term to resign.
“We felt a great pain when Lebanese MPs were able to consecrate a vacuum in the presidency post over eight months since last March. But when they reached the verge of a vacuum in Parliament, they, like good students, acted quickly with a number beyond expectations [95 MPs] to protect their parliamentary seats and extended their mandate by themselves, in violation of the people’s will and the Constitution once again to protect their interests,” Rai told a news conference in Sydney at the end of a visit to Australia.
He lamented that while Shiites were represented in the speakership and the Sunnis in the premiership, the Christians have been deprived of their representation.
Referring to MPs who opposed the extension of Parliament’s term, Rai said: “If there are among the MPs those who were not satisfied with this path [extension], let them show this by resigning from this Parliament, which will be condemned by the court of history and conscience.”
BEIRUT: MP Walid Jumblatt said Friday that only a “political solution” can end the crisis in Syria, during a Moscow tour where he met Russia’s foreign minister.
“There is no solution to the Syrian crisis other than a political solution,” the Progressive Socialist Party chief said in an interview with Russia Today TV. “This cold war should end so that we reach a peaceful solution.”
Jumblatt’s comments came during a Russian tour in which he was accompanied by his son Timur and Health Minister Wael Abu Faour.
The PSP leader met Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and his deputy for Middle Eastern affairs Mikhail Bogdanov. In a statement, the PSP media office denied rumors that Jumblatt was expected also to meet with President Vladimir Putin.
Jumblatt backs the removal of Syrian President Bashar Assad, but Russia has been one of the few voices of support for the Syrian leader in the international community.
Jumblatt said that Russia had “historic” relations with Lebanon and sought stability in the country. The PSP enjoyed strong relations with the USSR, which was among its backers during the Lebanese Civil War.
Jumblatt also spoke out against Israel during his Russia Today interview, describing it as the real source of “terrorism” in the Middle East.
He also said the Future Movement of former Prime Minister Saad Hariri was against extremism, and said that Wednesday’s extension of Parliament’s mandate was “unpopular.”
Jumblatt met Thursday with Alexey Pushkov, the head of the foreign affairs committee in the Duma, the Russian legislature.
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BEIRUT: The different religious groups of the Middle East must remain united in the face of “takfiri” attempts to divide them, Prime Minister Tammam Salam said Friday, during a conference that brought together top religious and political officials.
“The longtime coexistence between the followers of different religions in this region of the world ... has been subjected to two attacks, one old and one recent,” Salam said.
The first attack, Salam said, was with the rise of the Zionist project and the creation of a “religious and racist” state on Palestinian land, undermining the coexistence of Muslims, Christians and Jews.
“The new model, that is not less wicked than the Zionist one, is this evil and dark takfiri wave that is holding the banner of Islam, while Islam disowns it,” Salam said, adding that this rise of takfiri groups could only be fought through unity.
Salam called on the Muslims of Lebanon and the Arab world to reject extremism and defend “moderate and open-minded Islam” in order to protect Christians’ right to remain in the region.
“I also call upon the Christian Lebanese and Arabs to fully engage in shaping the destiny of their societies and nations in this historical, difficult phase that these nations are experiencing,” Salam said.
Salam’s comments came during a conference titled “The Family and the Challenges of the Era in the Middle East,” which was hosted at the International Center for Civilization Dialogue and sponsored by Gregory III Laham, the Melkite Greek Catholic Patriarch of Antioch and All the East, Alexandria and Jerusalem. The event took place at the center’s headquarters in Rabweh, Metn.
Grand Mufti Sheikh Abdel-Latif Derian, Shiite Mufti Sheikh Ahmad Qabalan, Druze Spiritual leader Sheikh Naim Hasan, Culture Minister Raymond Areiji, Justice Minister Ashraf Rifi, Foreign Minister Gebran Bassil and former minister Nicolas Sehnaoui also delivered speeches at the conference.
Former President Michel Sleiman and Free Patriotic Movement leader Michel Aoun were present.
The officials’ speeches stressed Christian-Muslim unity, as well as denouncing fundamentalism.
“Christians are not foreign expatriates in this east. They are its people and an essential part of the light shining from its front,” Salam said. “They should not be treated as if their presence is an event, and they should not act as if their presence is temporary.”
Salam’s call was echoed by Derian, who urged Christians to hold onto their land and said an attack on Christians was an attack on all.
“We are facing a destructive phenomenon that is not targeting the Christians alone, but the Muslims and Christians together,” Derian said, referring to attacks by Islamist groups against the Christians of Iraq and Syria. “The culture of Muslim-Christian coexistence is a fundamental pillar of our religious doctrine.”
The mufti added that extremists were carrying out crimes against humanity in the name of Islam.
Analysts in Washington believe that the Republicans’ victory this week in the midterm elections for the House and the Senate will have a knock-on effect on President Barack Obama’s foreign policy, particularly regarding the Middle East.
Sources familiar with the issue said that shortly before the voting results emerged, a delegation from the U.S. Congress visited Jordan, Lebanon and Palestine to evaluate the situation in the countries.
During the visit, the U.S. officials conveyed their concern over what was happening in Iraq and Syria and the possible impact it could have on the demographic structure of the Middle East.
Members of the delegation posed a basic question to officials they met in the three countries: How can conflicting parties in the region find common ground?
Diplomatic sources who were familiar with the visit said the question indicated that the U.S. considers the regional situation to be dangerous and also reflected the confusion the anti-ISIS international coalition was suffering from in Syria.
In Lebanon, the delegation asked a number of other questions as well.
The first was about the significance of the election of a president for the country.
The Lebanese officials answered that as the president would be a Maronite and the only Christian to fill such a high post in the whole region, such an election was very important and would help in the war against terrorism by bringing together Lebanon’s Sunnis and Shiites. This in turn would thwart strife, which extremist groups feed on.
The second question that the delegates asked was whether Lebanon had become a fertile ground for terrorism due to recent developments, and if so, how the phenomenon could be confronted.
The Lebanese officials replied by denying that the country provided a favorable environment for terrorism, adding that less than 1 percent of the population actually supported radical groups such as ISIS and Nusra Front.
The public is well aware of the dangers resulting from sectarian strife and is against all acts that could push the country into this trap, the Lebanese officials said.
They went on to say that confronting terrorism required the fulfillment of three conditions in order to be effective: the swift election of a president; moral and material support for the Army; and dialogue between rivals Hezbollah and the Future Movement with the aim of reducing sectarian tensions.
The final question asked by the U.S. officials was whether Hezbollah’s military involvement in Syria alongside President Bashar Assad had boosted its popularity in Lebanon.
The answers they received were contradictory, reflecting the clear political division in Lebanon.
The sources familiar with the issue said that after its meetings in Lebanon, the delegation concluded that preventing strife from breaking out and reviving state institutions both required a Saudi-Iranian rapprochement first, something which would lead to dialogue and communication between Hezbollah and the Future Movement.
The sources said Hezbollah’s Secretary-General Sayyed Hasan Nasrallah’s stance earlier this week, in which he announced his group’s readiness to engage in dialogue with the Future Movement, was brought about by regional developments and advice from Progressive Socialist Party leader Walid Jumblatt.
Separately, meetings will take place Sunday and Monday in Oman between U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, during which they are supposed to decide on their final stance with regard to an agreement over the Islamic Republic’s controversial nuclear program.
The meeting comes amid expectations that after meeting Kerry, Zarif may visit Saudi Arabia in response to an invitation from the Gulf country.
This week, the President urged Congress to support his policies to help women and working families succeed, awarded the Medal of Honor to a heroic Civil War veteran, invited military families to a concert on the South Lawn, and, of course, greeted trick-or-treaters on Halloween. That's October 31st to November 6th.
It’s been almost two years since President Obama first called for an increase in the national minimum wage.
He believes more strongly than ever that no one who works full-time should have to raise a family in poverty. He believes that the current rate of $7.25 per hour undermines our basic bargain, failing to reward hard work with a fair wage.
But Congress hasn’t exactly seen it that way. Republicans have said "no" to even allowing a Senate vote on a bill that would raise the minimum wage to $10.10 -- without adding any new taxes, spending, or bureaucracy -- and meanwhile, public support only continues to grow. Bottom line: They’re not keeping up with the views of people around the country. In Tuesday’s election, a higher minimum wage went five-for-five. By convincing margins, voters in Alaska (69 percent), Arkansas (65 percent), Nebraska (59 percent), South Dakota (53 percent), and Illinois (67 percent) said loud and clear that they want to give hardworking people a raise.
Foreign Minister Gebran Bassil met Friday the new Egyptian ambassador to Lebanon, who highlighted the role of the two...
BEIRUT: The different religious groups of the Middle East must remain united in the face of "takfiri" attempts to divide them, Prime Minister Tammam Salam said Friday.
“The longtime coexistence between the followers of different religions in this region of the world... has been subjected to two attacks, one old and one recent,” Salam said during a conference that brought together top religious and political officials.
The first attack, Salam said, was with the rise of the Zionist project and the creation of a “religious and racist” state on the Palestinian land, undermining the coexistence between Muslims, Christians and Jews.
“The new model, that is not less wicked than the Zionist one, is this evil and murky takfiri wave that is holding the banner of Islam, while Islam disowns it,” Salam said, adding that this rise of fundamentalist can only be fought through unity.
Salam called on the Muslims of Lebanon and the Arab world to reject extremism and defend the “moderate and open-minded Islam” in order to protect Christians’ right to remain in the region.
“I also call the Christian Lebanese and Arabs, to fully engage in drawing the destiny of their societies and nations in this historical, difficult phase that these nations are experiencing,” Salam said.
Salam’s comments came during a conference titles "The Family and the Challenges of the Era in the Middle East,” which was hosted at the International Center for Civilization Dialogue and sponsored by Gregory III Laham, the Melkite Greek Catholic Patriarch of Antioch and All the East, and Alexandria and Jerusalem.
Justice Minister Ashraf Rifi, Foreign Minister Gebran Bassil, Grand Mufti Sheikh Abdel-Latif Derian, former Minister Nicolas Sehnaoui and Culture Minister Raymond Areiji all spoken at the conference.
Former president Michel Sleiman and Free Patriotic Movement leader Michel Sleiman were also present at the conference, but did not speak.
Stressing on the Christian-Muslim unity was at the heart of all the officials’ speeches, as well as denouncing fundamentalism.
“Christians are not foreign expatriates in this east. They are their people and an essential part of the light shining from its front,” Salam said.
“They should not be treated as if their presence is an event, and they should not act as if their presence is temporary.”
Earlier this year, we launched WhiteHouse.gov/tools -- a new section of our site highlighting tools from across government that can make your life easier. Today, we’re updating our collection to highlight tools that can help you make smart personal finance decisions and protect your hard-earned income.
Whether you’re trying to find a college that’s the right fit for you or your child, or if you’re just trying to figure out how much money you’ll need to save for retirement, there are resources from across the government that can help you out. Check out just a few of the tools that can help you understand your personal finances:
Lebanon settled a months-old debate Wednesday when Parliament extended its term for more than two years, paving the...
BEIRUT: Human Rights Watch Friday accused Lebanon of forcibly returning a Syrian who was recently released from prison to his home country where his relatives said the man was at risk of torture and execution.
In a statement, the group said Mahmoud Abdul Rahman was returned on Sept. 28 to Syria and was currently in the custody of the Syrian Army in a base close to the border with Lebanon.
“There is no justification for sending anyone into the hands of a government that is likely to torture them,” said Nadim Houry, deputy Middle East and North Africa director at Human Rights Watch. “Lebanon’s efforts to promote security and stability must respect basic human rights. Deporting someone at risk of torture shows a total disregard for their rights and safety.”
HRW said Hamdan's relatives told the group that he entered Lebanon illegally 18 months go after fleeing Syria because he is wanted for allegedly participating in anti-regime protests in Zabadani, a Damascus suburb.
Lebanese Military Intelligence arrested Hamdan on March 7, 2014, and he was subsequently convicted in a court and sentenced to six months in prison for “transporting weapons,” the relatives said.
After his release on Sept. 8, Hamdan was transferred from Roumieh Prison to a General Security post on the Masnaa border.
The report said General Security allowed one of Hamdan's relatives to briefly visit him at the post where "Hamdan expressed fear that he would be tortured and killed if he was forcibly returned to Syria."
General Security officials reportedly refused to tell the relatives why Hamdan was being deported and later told relatives “he was not in their custody and that they did not know his whereabouts.”
The group said that it contacted General Security twice inquiring about Hamdan's case but that the state agency had no comment on the matter.
Relatives told HRW that a former detainee called them alleging to have seen Hamdan in the custody of the Syrian Army’s 18th Brigade in Jdaydet Yabous in Syria, close to the Lebanese border.
HRW accused Lebanon of violating article three of the Convention against Torture, saying Lebanon cannot send anyone including a convicted criminal, to a country where the person would face a real risk of torture.
Foreign Minister Gebran Bassil met Friday the new Egyptian ambassador to Lebanon, who highlighted the role of the two...
Sistani says that corruption in the armed forces enabled ISIS to seize much of northern Iraq, criticism that will...
With today’s report, the unemployment rate is falling as fast as at any point in the last thirty years, and the economy is on pace for its best year of job growth since the late 1990s. The economy has come a long way since the crisis six years ago, but more must be done to create jobs for those still searching for work and ensure that those who are working see the strengthening economy translate into rising wages. The President will continue to work with Congress and do everything he can to support job creation and boost wages.
FIVE KEY POINTS IN TODAY’S REPORT FROM THE BUREAU OF LABOR STATISTICS
1. The private sector has added 10.6 million jobs over 56 straight months of job growth, extending the longest streak on record. Today we learned that total nonfarm payroll employment rose by 214,000 in October, mainly reflecting a 209,000 increase in private employment. Private-sector job growth was revised up for August and September by a combined 33,000, so that over the past twelve months, private employment has increased by 2.6 million. Private employment has risen by at least 200,000 for nine consecutive months, the first time that has happened since the 1990s.
2. Job growth has averaged 229,000 per month so far in 2014, up from 194,000 per month last year, and on pace for the best calendar year since the late 1990s. This pickup in job growth from 2013 to 2014 has been broad-based, with the average monthly pace of job gains this year increasing relative to last year in most major sectors, including construction, transportation and warehousing, health care and social assistance, manufacturing, and state and local governments. On a percentage basis, the economy is adding jobs at a rate of about 2 percent per year, on pace for the largest percentage increase in any calendar year since the late 1990s.
3. A range of indicators from the household survey show a consistent picture of a labor market that has strengthened considerably in 2014. The unemployment rate has fallen 1.4 percentage point over the last twelve months, tying the drop from June 2013 to June 2014 as the largest decline in any twelve-month period over the last 30 years. The broader measures of labor underutilization published by the Bureau of Labor Statistics -- including some people who have withdrawn from the labor force or who are working part-time for economic reasons -- are falling as fast or faster than the official unemployment rate. Over the last year, declining long-term unemployment has accounted for more than half of the decline in the overall unemployment rate, a disproportionate share given that about one-third of the jobless are long-term unemployed. These positive developments have come amid a stabilization in the labor force participation rate, following several years of declines that have been driven by a combination of cyclical and structural factors. Falling unemployment and a stable participation rate mean that the employment-to-population ratio has risen by a full percentage point since its recent low last October.
4. Unemployment rates are coming down for veterans, but post-9/11 veterans face particular challenges. The overall unemployment rate for veterans is typically lower than for non-veterans, but this fact masks a large degree of variation depending on the period of service, with the unemployment rate for post-9/11 veterans substantially higher than the unemployment rates for veterans of earlier periods and for non-veterans. Directly comparing the employment situation of veterans from different service periods and non-veterans can be difficult because these groups differ substantially on characteristics like gender, age, and education, which are correlated with unemployment rates in the general population. Nevertheless, even after controlling for these differences, it is clear that post-9/11 veterans face additional challenges when they return home.
While more must still be done to help these veterans find work, progress has been made. The unemployment rate for post-9/11 veterans has been cut by more than 4 percentage points from its peak (based on the twelve-month moving average). The President proposed expanded tax credits for veterans hiring in 2011 and subsequently signed them into law, and through the Joining Forces campaign led by First Lady Michelle Obama and Dr. Jill Biden, companies have already hired over half a million veterans and military spouses. Further progress will be made by helping veterans find jobs in key industries like construction and solar energy.
5. The pattern of job growth across industries in October was generally in line with recent trends. Industries that had above-average performances this past month include leisure and hospitality (+52,000), private educational services (+14,000), and state and local governments (+8,000). Manufacturing added 15,000 jobs, similar to the average over the past 56 months, a period during which the sector has added 728,000 jobs, its strongest job growth since the 1990s. Across the 17 industries shown below, the correlation between the most recent one-month percent change and the average percent change over the last twelve months was 0.75, suggesting that the pattern of job growth across industries in October was broadly in line with recent trends.
As the Administration stresses every month, the monthly employment and unemployment figures can be volatile, and payroll employment estimates can be subject to substantial revision. Therefore, it is important not to read too much into any one monthly report and it is informative to consider each report in the context of other data that are becoming available.
Russia has confirmed it will not attend the 2016 Nuclear Security Summit, a gathering championed by Obama, accusing...
BEIRUT: MPs Walid Jumblatt and Talal Arslan both condemned Thursday's deadly fighting in the predominantly Druze area of Syria's Mount Hermon Friday, but Lebanon's top two Druze leaders' condemnations exposed the wide gulf between their stances on the Syrian civil war.
Jumblatt, head of the Progressive Socialist Party, warned against dragging Druze into the Syrian conflict, while Arslan, Lebanese Democratic Party chied, said the Druze were paying the price for supporting a unified Syria.
“Beware of using the Druze to face the revolution,” Jumblatt, who generally support the opposition, wrote in a tweet.
In what appeared to be a message addressed to anti-rebel Syrian Druze, Jumblatt said: “I have already warned of the dangers of involvement with the Syrian regime.”
“It’s time for reconciliation with the surrounding and to stand neutral,” he added. "Sooner or later the Syrian people will win.”
But Arslan, who has different views on the conflict next-door, said Syria’s Druze were “paying the price for standing alongside a united Syria ... and for the sake of maintaining their dignity and honor and their existence.”
He said Druze villages in the eastern part of Mount Hermon were the target Thursday of a war waged by “terrorist supporters and those carrying the scheme to fragment the region.”
“What is happening today in Mount Hermon increases our commitment to our principles and [increases] our insistence to adopt the resistance project altogether,” Arsal said in a statement.
“We will not retract our faith that victory shall be ours at the end.”
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said at least 40 people have been killed in clashes between pro-Syria regime forces and opposition fighters, including the Nusra Front.
BEIRUT: EDL contract workers Friday warned electricity subscribers, particularly large businesses, against paying their bills without verifying their authenticity, after the state-run company started printing them outside the headquarters.
"We ask citizens and especially the owners of large touristic, industrial and commercial companies to refer to [Electricte du Liban] before paying any bill that might be issued by EDL," the Follow-up Committee for Contract Workers and Bill Collectors said in a statement after a meeting.
"This is because the printing has not been performed inside the headquarters, which makes the bills subject to counterfeiting."
The workers condemned the "reckless decisions" of EDL to open new facilities outside the Beirut headquarters and issue bills amid a part-time workers' strike.
They also announced that they would end all maintenance work across Lebanon construction, including at power stations.
"The committee announces that it does not abide by the orders of anyone or any side, and that it is mature enough to make its appropriate, wise decisions concerning its workers," the statement said.
EDL’s contract workers have been on strike and camping out at the company’s headquarters for three months to demand full-time employment. They have been employed by three private service providers since 2012, and the companies’ contracts will end in 2016.
The strike started after EDL announced it would only employ 897 of the nearly 2,000 contract workers.
“The committee announces that next week, it will be making shocking and bold decisions that will surprise everyone, including the administration, the unions and the political parties,” Friday’s statement added.
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BEIRUT: A judge requested the death penalty Friday for two alleged would-be suicide bombers, a French and a Saudi man, along with three Lebanese suspects accused of being part a 10-member, ISIS-affiliated group behind suicide-bomb plots in Beirut.
In his indictment, Judge Riad Abu Ghayda requested the death penalty for Fayez Boushran, a French national originally from the Commodores Island, Saudi Abdel-Rahman Naser al-Shenefi, and three other Lebanese identified as Alaa Kanaan, Ayman Kanaan and Mahmoud Khaled.
The judge also sought a sentence of 15 years in prison with hard labor for two other Lebanese suspects and three months in prison with hard labor for Ahmad Hussein, Jamal Hussein, and Mohammad Harmoush.
The men comprised a 10-member group, known as “the hotels cell,” and belonged to ISIS with the aim of carrying out suicide attacks in Beirut and its southern suburbs in revenge for “Hezbollah’s alleged killing of Sunnis in Syria,” a judicial source told The Daily Star.
The plot was broken up in a series of raids last June.
In the indictment, Abu Ghayda said the cell had three separate tasks: the first was assigned to the French man who joined ISIS’s ranks to carry out jihad against Shiites “to teach them a lesson for fighting in Syria.”
The French man was chosen to carry out a suicide attack in Beirut. Upon his arrival to Lebanon, Boushran met with Munzer al-Hasan, who recruited suicide bombers and was killed during an Army raid to arrest him earlier this year.
Hasan transported Boushran to Napoleon Hotel in the Beirut neighborhood of Hamra and gave him pocket money. Boushran was instructed to remain at the hotel until someone contacted him about the target of the attack in Beirut’s southern suburbs, a Shiite-dominated area.
Boushran was arrested at the hotel on June 20 during a raid by the Internal Security Forces’ Information Branch.
The second task was assigned to two Saudi men including Shenefi, who was wounded when his partner, Ali al-Thuwayne, blew himself up on June 25 during a General Security raid on Duroy Hotel, where they were staying at in the Beirut neighborhood of Rouache.
Shenefi and Thuwayne planned to blow themselves up at the Al-Saha restaurant in the capital’s suburbs. One of the men was supposed to carry out the first suicide attack during a World Cup match while hundreds were gather to watch. Seconds later, the other was to blow himself up as people rushed to help the wounded, to kill as many victims as possible.
The Saudi men also met Hasan upon their arrival to Lebanon, and the recruiter showed them the location of the restaurant on their way from the airport to their hotel.
The third mission was assigned to Hasan’s group, which prepared explosive belts and bombs for the would-be suicide bombers.
The men were transferred to the Military Tribunal for trial.
President Obama and congressional leaders have lunch on Friday, a first step toward bridging differences after an election that saw power shift to the Republicans. Oh, to be a fly on the wall!
President Obama is meeting with congressional leaders at the White House on Friday. The general overseeing the campaign against militants from the Islamic State, also known as ISIS, will brief them.
The Lebanese Army detained nine Syrians in east Lebanon who had entered the country illegally, a security source told...
On the evening of May 31, 1987, Rashid Karami went to visit the cemetery where his family members were buried.
BEIRUT: MP Michel Aoun’s Free Patriotic Movement is preparing to challenge a law that approved the extension of Parliament’s mandate till 2017, according to one of the bloc's MPs.
“The FPM is seriously mulling the issue [challenge] within the legal 15-day deadline from the day the law is published in the Official Gazette,” MP Ibrahim Kanaan told El-Nashra website.
He said the appeal would be based on the absence of the concept of "force majeure," which prevents the holding of parliamentary elections, pointing out that Lebanon is not witnessing a devastating war, but specific security operations that are being dealt with.
"If Syria, Iraq, Egypt and Yemen were able to hold elections despite the [unrest] they have witnessed and are still witnessing, how come we are not able [to hold elections],” Kanaan argued.
He said that Article 74 of the Constitution clearly stated that in the event of a presidential vacancy or dissolution of Parliament, the government must immediately call for elections.
“Therefore, there are no constitutional excuses to prevent holding parliamentary elections,” Kanaan added.
Kanaan said the FPM was considering other options to address the extension issue, including “union” and “popular” actions.
The MP, however, acknowledged that his party was likely to face “significant barriers” in confronting the extension.
BEIRUT: The Army’s arrest of an alleged ISIS commander foiled a master plan by militants to paralyze the military across the country and overrun north Lebanon, according to a report about the detainee’s confessions.
As-Safir daily quoted a high-ranking security source about the confessions of Ahmad Mikati, who is believed to be a senior figure in ISIS and was arrested by the Army in late October during a raid on a two-story house in the Dinnieh town of Asoun.
The apartment was being used by a terror ring that was plotting to invade north Lebanon and establish an Islamic emirate there.
Mikati told investigators that the Army’s move in Asoun saved the country from a major terrorist operation comprised of two phases: The first would have seen a series of attacks against the Army in the northern region of Akkar, Beirut and the southern coastal city of Sidon, the newspaper said.
The second phase stipulated that gunmen would then move to tighten the noose on Army centers in the north Lebanon towns of Tripoli, Asoun and Bakhoun, the report said.
Days after the arrest of Mikati, the Army engaged in four-day clashes with militants in Tripoli that killed 11 soldiers and at least 23 gunmen. During the fighting, soldiers came under fire in other northern towns, prompting the Army to pursue gunmen and later launch a crackdown on the militants.
The armed group led by Shadi Mawlawi and Osama Mansour was part of the second phase of the master plan, which would have coincided with calls to Sunni soldiers to defect from the Army and join the ranks of militant groups.
According to As-Safir, Mikati confessed to being on contact with Ahmad Assir, a fugitive Islamist sheikh, who the detainee said remained in Ain al-Hilweh along with Fadl Shaker, the singer-turned-militant.
Shaker, according to Mikati, sought mediations to hand himself over to the Army on the basis that he was not part of the clashes against the Army in June of last year.
Assir’s gunmen engaged in fierce clashes with the Army in 2013.
Speaking to the local daily, the source said Mikati quickly spoke to investigators and quoted the detainee as saying: "Don't hit me, I will tell you everything."
BEIRUT: The Future Movement has voiced doubts over Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hasan Nasrallah’s call for dialogue, the Saudi newspaper Al-Watan reported Friday.
“The Future Movement has a lot of reservations about Hezbollah’s call for dialogue between the two sides,” Al-Watan said, quoting sources.
It said the significance of dialogue was to reach results “especially that the devil is in the detail.”
But the problem was not just the “detail,” Al-Watan said. The problem lies with Hezbollah’s outlook and position on fundamental issues regarding state sovereignty and legitimate authority.
Hezbollah’s behavior over the past years proves that the group has gone too far in violating state institutions and striking at coexistence, the daily said.
It said Hezbollah had also showed that it put Iran’s interests before Lebanon’s, had threatened the country's security with its illegitimate weapons and sought to torpedo the fundamentals of the Lebanese entity.
“This is why it is not easy to reach an agreement with Hezbollah,” Al-Watan argued.
Nevertheless, the newspaper stressed the need for Hezbollah and the Future Movement to maintain contact with one another.
“Communication is necessary, but dialogue must be based on clear foundation – acknowledging the fundamentals that, without them, the Lebanese state wouldn’t have been established and the nation would have ceased to exist,” Al-Watan wrote.
“Will Hezbollah accept to discuss disarmament or its withdrawal from Syria? This is the important question and this is where dialogue starts,” the daily concluded.
