Disputes within ISF block spending: report
Disputes at the leadership level of the Internal Security Forces have prevented the security agency from spending a...
Friday, 12 December 2014
Deputy UN chief to visit Lebanon Sunday
Deputy UN chief to visit Lebanon Sunday
Jan Eliasson, the deputy secretary-general of the United Nations, will arrive to Beirut Sunday where he is expected to...
Hollande orders speedy arms delivery
PARIS: French President Francois Hollande has ordered that the delivery of French arms to the Lebanese Army paid for by a $3 billion Saudi grant be accelerated, Prime Minister Tammam Salam said Friday, adding that the needed weapons would soon be transferred.
Salam, speaking after holding talks in Paris with Hollande, also said France was ready to help Lebanon end the political deadlock that has left the country without a president for more than six months.
“Among the most important matters we discussed with France was the security file linked to the generous Saudi gift to supply the Lebanese Army with the arms it needs,” Salam said at a news conference held at his temporary residence in Paris.
“Final touches have been put to the technical part [of the Saudi deal] and what remains is the final approval between Saudi Arabia and France. The arms delivery to Lebanon will happen in a swift manner,” he added.
Salam said Hollande had issued the “necessary instructions to expedite the delivery of these arms, especially since the confrontation with terrorism is still ongoing.”
In separate remarks to reporters, Salam said the Army would receive the weapons very soon.
Salam and other Lebanese leaders have called for bolstering the capabilities of the Army, which is locked in an open battle against ISIS and Nusra Front militants, who are still holding 25 servicemen captured during fierce fighting in the northeastern town of Arsal in August.
The Army also routed Islamist militants in the northern city of Tripoli in October as part of its campaign against terrorist groups.
Salam, wrapping up a three-day official visit to Paris to finalize the arms deal, said Lebanon did not provide a safe haven for terrorism, adding that the military and security forces have been able to establish security in the country.
“Some had thought in the past that there is a safe haven for terrorism and extremist ideology in Lebanon,” he said. “But the decisive [military] battle that happened on the ground in Tripoli and the north has shown that there is no safe haven for any extremism and that the Lebanese are yearning for legitimacy, the state, security and safety.”
Salam’s meeting with Hollande at the Elysee Palace was attended by Defense Minister Samir Moqbel and Foreign Minister Gebran Bassil. Salam also met with French Defense Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian to discuss the arms delivery to the Lebanese Army in the presence of senior Lebanese and French army officers.
The Lebanese premier said France was ready to help facilitate the presidential election. “France will not spare any effort to help, whether at the level of the executive branch through President Hollande, or through the legislative branch through parliament and the senate.”
Asked if France was making efforts to break the presidential deadlock following talks held by Jean-François Girault, head of the French Foreign Ministry’s Middle East and North Africa office, with rival Lebanese leaders in Beirut this week, Salam said: “France in particular is following up this file [presidential election] with us and is trying to help us ... I have felt a desire from President Hollande and all French officials that this file should be finished and that Lebanon must have a president.”
Salam said he discussed with Hollande a number of issues, including the Syrian refugee crisis in Lebanon and the need to help the country cope with such overwhelming numbers. He also said international assistance to Lebanon has not been enough for the country.Meanwhile, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Bogdanov met with Maronite Patriarch Beshara Rai and a number of political leaders as part of Moscow’s new bid to relaunch Syrian peace talks. “Developments in Lebanon and the region were discussed in detail and in depth,” Bogdanov told reporters after meeting Rai in Bkirki, seat of the Maronite Church.
From Bkirki, Bogdanov headed to Maarab, northeast of Beirut, for talks with Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea, where the Russian official voiced concerns about the “grave situation in the region as a whole.”
Bogdanov said the meeting touched on the presidential election crisis as well as developments in the region, particularly in Syria. “We exchanged views about all these issues that are beneficial to me,” he said, adding that he would convey Geagea’s views to all the parties he planned to meet in Lebanon.
The Russian envoy called on political leaders to engage in a comprehensive dialogue that would ensure Lebanon’s best interest.
Following the meeting with Geagea, Bogdanov, who last week held talks with rival Lebanese leaders, traveled north for talks with Marada Movement chief MP Sleiman Frangieh in Bneshaai, in the Zghorta district.
Bogdanov said the talks covered the Lebanese presidential election, regional developments and the crisis in Syria.
Later Friday night, Bogdanov met MP Walid Jumblatt at his residence in Clemenceau in the second meeting between the two men within a week. Jumblatt hosted a dinner for the Russian envoy.
Sidon’s rival parties condemn recent violence
SIDON, Lebanon: Sidon’s rival officials blasted an assault by the Hezbollah-linked Resistance Brigades a day earlier on security forces in one of the city’s neighborhoods, as authorities managed to arrest the suspect involved in the fighting.
“We denounce and fully condemn this assault on the [Internal Security Forces] Information Branch in the area of Taamir,” Sidon MP Bahia Hariri said in a statement.
In the Taamir neighborhood, which lies just outside Sidon’s Ain al-Hilweh Palestinian refugee camp, the ISF’s Information Branch Thursday clashed with members of the Resistance Brigades.
The unit was attempting to arrest Palestinian national Adnan Mahmoud Ahmad, who had reportedly been involved in a confrontation with Mahmoud Antar, a Lebanese, after the latter fled to Taamir.
However, the ISF unit was intercepted by members of the Resistance Brigades, leading to a shootout.
Ahmad sought refuge at a shop belonging to the father of Mohammad Dirani, a Brigades member, but security forces were able to arrest him Thursday night after bringing in reinforcements from Beirut.
Hariri expressed her support and solidarity with the state’s institutions and praised the camp’s residents for not getting involved in the clashes.
Hariri’s comments were echoed by her rival, Popular Nasserite Organization head Osama Saad.
Saad said in a statement that the incident could reflect negatively on the security situation in Sidon and the neighboring areas.
For his part, Sidon’s former Mayor Abdel-Rahman Bizri also blasted the attack, saying such incidents were the result of people undermining the security and safety of local residents, describing Sidon as a sensitive area.
Bizri added that he hoped the various problems obstructing the maintenance of security in the area would be resolved soon.
The Lebanese Army set up a checkpoint Thursday night at the entrance to Taamir to inspect all vehicles and passersby, while Palestinian factions in the camp dispatched patrol units to avoid any further escalation and prevent any wanted persons from sneaking into the camp.
Ain al-Hilweh is the largest camp for Palestinian refugees in Lebanon and the area has seen a deterioration in security.
The situation in the neighborhood was calm Friday.
Hariri’s jammer in spotlight at STL
BEIRUT: One of two people authorized to handle assassinated former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri’s custom radio jamming equipment testified at the Special Tribunal for Lebanon Friday, insisting that the electronic system had been functioning properly when the Lebanese leader’s motorcade was blown up.
The functionality of the jammers, intended to block remote-controlled bombs, has emerged as a crucial detail as the defense teams seek to poke holes in the prosecution’s assertion that a suicide bomber was responsible for the attack. The defense claims that an underground bomb, detonated remotely, could have killed Hariri and 21 others on Feb. 14, 2005.
Ali Diab, the electronics expert who testified Friday, explained that Hariri had a special jamming system installed in his Mercedes vehicles that was “not bought from the commercial market place [and] was specifically designed.”
The jamming system covered a wider range of radio frequencies than those available on the open market.
Including Diab, just four people knew the precise specifications of the jammers: Saad Hariri, Yehia al-Arab and an individual identified in the court as “PRH507.” Arab was both Diab’s uncle and head of Hariri’s personal security. He died alongside the former premier in the 2005 attack.
The unidentified electronics expert known as PRH507 testified before the tribunal in October, but was granted protection measures to prevent his identity from being revealed. He traveled to Beirut several times each year to ensure that the equipment was functioning correctly.
Diab testified that he had checked the jamming system on Feb. 12, 2005, just two days before the assassination, and it was in perfect working order.
Defense lawyer Iain Edwards, who represents top Hezbollah operative Mustafa Badreddine, has previously suggested that “catastrophic failures of the jammer system” may have occurred.
Diab repeatedly rebuffed such a possibility, however, in his testimony Friday. He said that it was extremely unlikely for the jammers to fail as he personally checked the system three or four times each week.
In the 12 years that he worked on the jammers, Diab said that he had received concerns “once or twice” about their functionality. There had not been an issue with the jammers, Diab testified, since before the year 2000, and the system was regularly updated and enhanced. The system had been most recently updated in January 2005, the month before the assassination. Diab said.
Throughout his cross-examination, Edwards raised questions to suggest that the jamming system had been tampered with at the time of the attack. The court was shown images taken from footage of the wreckage showing what remained of one of the jamming systems.
Diab was adamant, however, that the jamming systems were in working order, and that the explosives could only have been detonated by “a wire or a suicide bomber.”
Diab, who was at Hariri’s Qoreitem Palace at the time of the attack, said that the jamming device was taken away as evidence soon after the explosion and he did not see it again in person until an investigation commission called him to inspect it.
Berri sees rent law implementation as unlikely: lawyers
BEIRUT: A group of lawyers said Friday that Speaker Nabih Berri told them the controversial new rent law could not go into effect as it currently stands, following a petition that called for the complete withdrawal of the legislation. In a meeting involving several tenants and the committee of lawyers that represent them, Berri said the Constitutional Council’s annulment of three articles had rendered the law ineffective, the head of the committee Adib Zakhour told The Daily Star.
Zakhour said the speaker called during the meeting MP Robert Ghanem, the head of Parliament’s Administration and Justice Committee, and told him that no MPs were to say that the law would become effective.
The move was the latest in a series of developments since the law was endorsed by Parliament in April, including several protests by tenants and counter protests by landlords.
The law will affect approximately 200,000 apartments – mostly in Beirut – that are governed under the old rent law that was in effect prior to 1992.
These tenants pay minimal rent fees that often amount to less than LL1,000,000 a year and are protected from rent hikes. The new law will see their rent rise incrementally over the next six years until it reaches 5 percent of the home’s value, and also gives landlords the right to take back the property after nine years without paying tenants compensation.
The new law was designed to soften the blow on low-income families by creating a fund to assist families whose salaries are under three times the minimum wage.
According to Nadine Bekdache, an Urban Planner who signed the petition calling for the withdrawal of the law, a safety net is not in place.
“[This fund] doesn’t really exist because the state doesn’t have a yearly account system,” Bekdache told The Daily Star. “This is the [article] that was annulled by the [Constitutional Council].”
Lebanon’s Constitutional Council annulled three of the law’s articles in August after the bill was challenged by a number of MPs.
“The law is made of 58 articles and even if two or three articles are annulled only, [the law] no longer becomes applicable,” Zakhour said.
But head of the Landlords Association Joseph Zogheib remained adamant that the law would be implemented; he said the Constitutional Council would have annulled the entire law if it was flawed.
Zogheib said Berri’s intentions were to fix the law to ensure that the special fund for tenants is included. He explained that the Landlords Association was working with Berri on an initiative on which more details would be released Monday.
“Be assured that [future amendments are] not on account of the landlords,” he said.
When asked about Berri’s stance, a source close to the speaker told The Daily star that the speaker had met delegations from both the tenants and the landlords and was working on resolving the issues surrounding the disputed articles in a way that would please both groups.
These developments came following news that prominent journalists, urban planners, architects, lawyers and academics signed a petition calling for the withdrawal of the law, which is set to come into effect on Dec. 28.
Signatories of the petition included several members of the press, as well as lawyer and founder of the NGO Legal Agenda Nizar Saghieh, Kamal Hamdan of the Consultation and Research Institute and Fawwaz Traboulsi, a writer and professor at the American University of Beirut.
An open letter to Parliament attached to the petition highlights several amendments that the signatories wish to see implemented before the law is passed. These include the construction of affordable housing for the most vulnerable tenants set to be evicted under the new law and a comprehensive and transparent survey to determine the social and economic situation of the tenants.
Bekdache, who has family that live under the old rent law, said there is no framework in place to determine which tenants would be eligible for aid from the aforementioned fund and that is why the petition is calling for a comprehensive survey prior to the drafting of a new law.
In its decision, the council also stated that the rent law violated tenants’ right to housing, a requirement that has been the main barrier to drafting new legislation since the old law was suspended in 1992.
Right to housing means developing affordable houses for low-income families and the elderly who will not be able to get bank loans or get back in the job market.
Zogheib argued that the government was providing incentives for companies to build “rent-to-own” properties that have low rent to address the affordable housing problem, and he believes that such property development is better left to the private sector.
While he acknowledged the new-law would be difficult to implement, he said it protected poor renters.
“This law was studied for 22 years, by several committees and several MPs and all the caucuses agreed on it,” Zogheib said. “It has protection for the poor renters but the ... well-off renters don’t need the protection. They should be paying like everyone else.”
Zogheib accused more well-off tenants of attacking the supplementary fund in order to encourage low-income tenants to support their protests. He went on to claim that some tenants have multiple properties and have “no businesses being under rent-control.”
In his eyes, this is a confrontation between the rights to private property and the Communist Party.
While confusion over the law lingers, the tenants remain in limbo over their future.
Sidon’s rival parties condemn recent violence
SIDON, Lebanon: Sidon’s rival officials blasted an assault by the Hezbollah-linked Resistance Brigades a day earlier on security forces in one of the city’s neighborhoods, as authorities managed to arrest the suspect involved in the fighting.
“We denounce and fully condemn this assault on the [Internal Security Forces] Information Branch in the area of Taamir,” Sidon MP Bahia Hariri said in a statement.
In the Taamir neighborhood, which lies just outside Sidon’s Ain al-Hilweh Palestinian refugee camp, the ISF’s Information Branch Thursday clashed with members of the Resistance Brigades.
The unit was attempting to arrest Palestinian national Adnan Mahmoud Ahmad, who had reportedly been involved in a confrontation with Mahmoud Antar, a Lebanese, after the latter fled to Taamir.
However, the ISF unit was intercepted by members of the Resistance Brigades, leading to a shootout.
Ahmad sought refuge at a shop belonging to the father of Mohammad Dirani, a Brigades member, but security forces were able to arrest him Thursday night after bringing in reinforcements from Beirut.
Hariri expressed her support and solidarity with the state’s institutions and praised the camp’s residents for not getting involved in the clashes.
Hariri’s comments were echoed by her rival, Popular Nasserite Organization head Osama Saad.
Saad said in a statement that the incident could reflect negatively on the security situation in Sidon and the neighboring areas.
For his part, Sidon’s former Mayor Abdel-Rahman Bizri also blasted the attack, saying such incidents were the result of people undermining the security and safety of local residents, describing Sidon as a sensitive area.
Bizri added that he hoped the various problems obstructing the maintenance of security in the area would be resolved soon.
The Lebanese Army set up a checkpoint Thursday night at the entrance to Taamir to inspect all vehicles and passersby, while Palestinian factions in the camp dispatched patrol units to avoid any further escalation and prevent any wanted persons from sneaking into the camp.
Ain al-Hilweh is the largest camp for Palestinian refugees in Lebanon and the area has seen a deterioration in security.
The situation in the neighborhood was calm Friday.
Knifemen steal cash from Catholic priest in Sidon
Lebanon detains ISIS commander’s sister-in-law
The sister-in-law of ISIS commander Anas Sharkas, better known by his nom de guerre Abu Ali al-Shishani, has been...
12 Incredible Photos From The Bay Area Storm
On Thursday, the Bay Area in California was hit with the worst storm it's seen in five years, resulting in record rainfall, mass flooding, and power outages all across the state. Thankfully, cars crushed by fallen trees seemed to be the only casualties of "The Pineapple Express," as citizens had been preparing for the storm for weeks.
And with California's recent drought, many meteorologists are saying that, in the grand scheme of things, Mother Nature's deluge was a welcome relief for the land, though certainly a massive inconvenience for its citizens. As always, though, humanity prevails, and the following presents a roundup of images that capture the intensity of #stormageddon, showing how people band together in the worst of circumstances, and even find ways to have some fun in a rough situation.
Outgoing Rep. Mike Rogers Reflects On Congressional Career
Robert Siegel speaks with Mike J. Rogers, outgoing chairman of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence.
Copyright © 2014 NPR. For personal, noncommercial use only. See Terms of Use. For other uses, prior permission required.
Copyright © 2014 NPR. All rights reserved. No quotes from the materials contained herein may be used in any media without attribution to NPR. This transcript is provided for personal, noncommercial use only, pursuant to our Terms of Use. Any other use requires NPR's prior permission. Visit our permissions page for further information.
NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by a contractor for NPR, and accuracy and availability may vary. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Please be aware that the authoritative record of NPR's programming is the audio.
Dingell Admitted To Hospital, One Day After Casting Last Vote In House
Rep. John Dingell, seen here in June, was admitted to a hospital Friday as a precautionary measure. The Democrat is retiring as the longest-serving member of Congress in U.S. history. Mark Wilson/Getty Images hide caption
itoggle caption Mark Wilson/Getty Images
Rep. John Dingell, seen here in June, was admitted to a hospital Friday as a precautionary measure. The Democrat is retiring as the longest-serving member of Congress in U.S. history.
Mark Wilson/Getty Images
Rep. John Dingell, the longest-serving member of Congress in history, was admitted to a hospital in Washington, D.C., as a precaution Friday, one day after casting the final vote in his nearly 60 years in Congress.
The Michigan Democrat's office didn't give details on Dingell's condition, other than to say he was under observation and "resting comfortably." Dingell visited a doctor's office earlier this week, after he fell down and bruised his hip.
Dingell, 88, got an ovation last night in the House of Representatives as it neared the end of the current session. Earlier this week, his colleagues set aside an hour to pay him tribute.
For a sense of the historical perspective Congress will soon be without, we refer you to a recent story by NPR's Don Gonyea, who noted that the retirement of Dingell and Rep. Ralph Hall, R-Texas will leave the legislature without any World War II veterans.
Dingell "has served with one-quarter of all members of the House in history," The Washington Post notes.
Just after the recent Pearl Harbor anniversary, Dingell wrote this on Facebook:
"On this very day, 73 years ago, I sat in the House chamber as a young Congressional Page while President Franklin Roosevelt delivered his now historic 'Day of Infamy' speech. Here is a thorough account of my thoughts and reflections on that important day.
"I was honored to witness this firsthand, to then join the Army in '44 and serve during World War II, and to return home safely and be blessed enough to represent you in Congress for all these years. May God continue to bless us all and bless America."
After Dingell retires, ClickOnDetroit notes, "The job stays in the family Jan. 1, when 60-year-old Debbie Dingell is sworn in to replace her husband."
Some Republicans Rethinking Party's Traditional Stands On Crime, Policing
After grand jury decisions in the deaths of Michael Brown and Eric Garner, there's been a surprising reaction from Republicans as the party of law and order rethinks its traditional stands on crime and policing.
Copyright © 2014 NPR. For personal, noncommercial use only. See Terms of Use. For other uses, prior permission required.
Copyright © 2014 NPR. All rights reserved. No quotes from the materials contained herein may be used in any media without attribution to NPR. This transcript is provided for personal, noncommercial use only, pursuant to our Terms of Use. Any other use requires NPR's prior permission. Visit our permissions page for further information.
NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by a contractor for NPR, and accuracy and availability may vary. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Please be aware that the authoritative record of NPR's programming is the audio.
Budget Bill Proves Perfect Flashpoint For Debate Among Democrats
Did the nail biter of a vote on the government funding bill expose rifts in the Democratic party that will cause the White House headaches next year?
Copyright © 2014 NPR. For personal, noncommercial use only. See Terms of Use. For other uses, prior permission required.
Copyright © 2014 NPR. All rights reserved. No quotes from the materials contained herein may be used in any media without attribution to NPR. This transcript is provided for personal, noncommercial use only, pursuant to our Terms of Use. Any other use requires NPR's prior permission. Visit our permissions page for further information.
NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by a contractor for NPR, and accuracy and availability may vary. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Please be aware that the authoritative record of NPR's programming is the audio.
Even If Torture Doesn't Work In The Real World, TV Has Us Convinced It Does
Kiefer Sutherland (right) with Peter Weller and JoBeth Williams on Fox's 24. Fox TV hide caption
itoggle caption Fox TV
Kiefer Sutherland (right) with Peter Weller and JoBeth Williams on Fox's 24.
Fox TV
As the CIA and Senate Intelligence Committee clash over whether so-called enhanced interrogation techniques are considered torture, another question arises: Have depictions of torture on TV and film helped convince us that it works?
Consider this warning that recently greeted viewers of ABC's political soap opera, Scandal:
"The following drama contains adult content. Viewer discretion is advised."
That label was slapped on the episode because of scenes like the moment when trained torturer Huck prepared to ply his trade on colleague (and soon-to-be girlfriend) Quinn Perkins.
"Normally, I'd start with the drill or a scalpel," he told Perkins, who was bound and gagged, looking on in terror. "Peeling off the skin can be beautiful. Or removing fingers, toes; I like the feeling of a toe being separated from a foot. ... I'm so sorry, because I'm going to enjoy this."
Scenes like that have become a regular part of some popular TV shows and movies. People may disagree in real life, but in Hollywood, torture works.
From Kiefer Sutherland as hard-nosed government agent Jack Bauer on Fox's 24, growling this threat to a bad guy: "You probably don't think that I can force this towel down your throat. Trust me, I can."
To Liam Neeson's ex-CIA operative Bryan Mills, shocking a man for information in the movie Taken: "You either give me what I need, or this switch stays on until they turn the power off for lack of payment on the bill."
There's just one problem with these scenes, according to former FBI agent and interrogation expert Joe Navarro: "None of it works," he says. "I've done thousands of interviews, and I can tell you, none of [the TV torture stuff] works."
Navarro spent 25 years in the FBI, with much of that time spent training others in interrogation techniques. He says treating terrorists humanely and empathizing with them works better than abusing them.
But those softer tactics often surprise trainees raised on TV police dramas and spy movies. "Some of the younger guys were I think really surprised when we came in and talked about rapport-building, establishing friendships, sharing food," says Navarro, who recalled one fateful meeting where fellow interrogation experts talked about what some people were doing to interrogate terrorism suspects after Sept. 11, only to realize they had seen similar techniques on fictional TV programs. "They were shocked ... because they had seen so many hundreds of hours of television."
Navarro joined a group of interrogation professionals in 2006 who asked producers of 24 to tone down their torture scenes. Another expert who talked to them was Tony Camerino, an Air Force veteran who played a key role in tracking down terrorist leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi.
"What we want to do is more educate," Camerino says. "[We] tell people, look ... some of the real-life situations we can give you would be even more exciting, but they don't involve your protagonist, the person we're supposed to be rooting for, torturing people, and then telling us that that's heroic."
Camerino now works as a writer and technical consultant on CBS's adventure drama Person of Interest.
"Two years ago, I wrote an episode in which a detective was interrogating one of our main characters, accusing him of having committed a murder," the writer says. "Essentially, the approach he used is one we call 'we know all.' "
The scene, from an episode titled "In Extremis," features an Internal Affairs officer telling corrupt officer Lionel Fusco, "You see, when dirty cops want to eliminate DNA from a scene, they use bleach. But bleach stains things. Like the carpet in the trunk on the vehicle that you signed out on the day Stills disappeared."
Camerino explains: "He presented all the evidence that he had to make the subject feel as if it was worthless to resist, because he already knew everything."
Have these efforts to change TV torture had an effect?
Two producers from 24 who met with Navarro and Camerino in 2006 say those talks affected work on their current series, Showtime's Homeland. That program won an award in 2012 from Human Rights First for its depiction of the so-called war on terror.
"They all told us that even, apart from the moral and legal objections, torture is a not a reliable way to produce intelligence," 24 and Homeland producer Howard Gordon said during his acceptance speech. "And over time, their way of thinking became ours and at the very least, we became more sensitive to the 'we're just doing a television show' defense."
Still, the episode of CBS's Person of Interest with Camerino's interrogation scene also featured a guest character threatening to shoot someone to get information.
And the revival of 24 this summer showed Jack Bauer interrogating a suspect by saying this: "I can assure you, full immunity is not on the table. But your hand is," just before using a gun butt to smash the suspect's left hand multiple times.
Sometimes, it seems, the drama of torture is too great to resist; even when producers know how dangerous and damaging it is in the real world.
Honoring Lifelong Efforts to End Violence Against Women
Vice President Joe Biden delivers remarks at the Vital Voices of Solidarity Awards ceremony, in New York City, New York, Dec. 10, 2014. (Official White House Photo by David Lienemann)
On Wednesday night, I attended an important event honoring Vice President Biden for his work to reduce violence against women. Hosted by Vital Voices, a leading advocacy organization, the event recognized men who have been leading the fight to end gender-based violence around the globe. Vice President Biden was honored for his role as the author of the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA). This groundbreaking legislation is credited for the dramatic decline in domestic violence in the U.S. over the past 20 years.
The Vice President was introduced by Vital Voices board member and women’s activist Diane von Furstenberg who said, “for his leadership, courage, and relentless spirit, on behalf of Vital Voices, it is my privilege to recognize Vice President Joe Biden with the Solidarity Award.”
As he accepted the award, Vice President Biden spoke in stark terms about the violence women suffer around the globe and how much more there is to do. “For, as I speak, there are thousands of women around the world being brutalized, mutilated, killed – at the hands of those who allegedly love them,” he said.
Rai demands arrest of Christian couple's killers
French arms shipments set to arrive
A shipment of French weapons for the Lebanese Army will soon arrive, paid for by a multibillion-dollar grant from...
Lebanon detains ISIS commander’s sister-in-law
ARSAL, Lebanon: The sister-in-law of ISIS commander Anas Sharkas, better known by his nom de guerre Abu Ali al-Shishani, has been arrested in the Bekaa Valley, her husband told The Daily Star Friday.
Mohammad Sharkas, brother of Abu Ali al-Shishani, told The Daily Star that his wife, Leila Abdullatif, had been arrested.
The husband appeared indifferent over his wife's detention, explaining that she had left him after a dispute between the two.
Sharkas said his wife wanted to leave their home in Hermel to join his brother and other ISIS fighters on the outskirts of Arsal.
Military sources said that the Army was still trying to confirm the woman's identity.
Shishani appeared in a video last week threatening to attack Lebanon and to start kidnapping women and children in retaliation for the arrest of his wife, Ola al-Oqaili, and two children by the Lebanese Army.
Oqaili was apprehended at a Syrian refugee camp in north Lebanon two weeks ago.
She was handed over to General Security on Tuesday, after the Military Prosecutor had cleared her of any major offenses.
Sharkas is a Circassian Syrian from the town of Qusayr where Hezbollah fought alongside the Syrian army in fierce battles against the rebels last year.
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Chart of the Week: Higher-Wage Industries are Adding More Jobs
This holiday season, our economy is ringing in some good news: The U.S. is outpacing much of the world in putting people back to work. Over the first 11 months of 2014, our economy has created 2.65 million jobs -- more than in any year since the late 1990s. Businesses have created 10.9 million jobs over the past 57 months in a row, extending the longest streak of private sector job growth on record. Over the last four years, we’ve put more people back to work than Europe, Japan, and all other industrialized nations combined.
The President is also committed to making sure that all hardworking Americans can see this progress in their paycheck. That is why the latest jobs report was so encouraging -- the pickup in the pace of job growth in 2014 has been in industries that pay higher wages.
Take a look at the chart to see which industries that offer higher incomes have added more jobs over the course of this year:
Lebanon workers union vows return to protests over stalled wage hike
BEIRUT: The Union Coordination Committee announced Friday that it would prepare to escalate measures after the holidays to protest Parliament's failure to pass their long-sought-after wage hike.
Mainly led by teachers and unionists, the UCC said that it would re-launch contacts with parliamentary blocs in an effort to begin reapplying pressure to pass the 121 percent salary scale increase after its "desire for a calm start to the academic year was not reciprocated by the political class.”
If politicians prove to be unresponsive, then the committee will escalate its measures after the holidays.
"We will not push for street [protests] now because there is no need for them at the moment," committee member Elie Khalifeh said during a press conference.
The powerful committee has become famous in Lebanon for its more than three years of large street demonstrations calling for wage hikes.
Over the summer, teachers boycotted the correction of official exams to pressure the legislature into endorsing the salary hike.
Education Minister Elias Bou Saab responded to their refusal to correct the exams by handing out passing certificates to all students who sat for official exams, a move that outraged the teachers who accused the minister of seeking to undermine them.
The UCC is pushing Parliament to approve a 121 percent pay raise for public sector workers and teachers.
Lawmakers were at loggerheads over the salary scale with some groups insisting on a draft law that would create a balance between revenues and expenditures, given that the new wage hike is expected to cost the state some $1.6 billion a year.
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Qatari man shot in east Lebanon
ZAHLE, Lebanon: A Qatari national suffered a non-life threatening gunshot wound in eastern Lebanon Friday, a security source told The Daily Star, adding that the incident could be over a personal dispute.
Unidentified gunmen shot at Walid Abdallah Mohammad in the West Bekaa Valley town of al-Marj.
He was transferred to Al-Hilal Hospital.
The source said the incident could be a personal dispute with some residents of the village.
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Is A Ban On 'Ballot Selfies' Overkill?
The act of photographing or sharing a filled-in ballot is illegal in 44 states. iStockPhoto hide caption
itoggle caption iStockPhoto
The act of photographing or sharing a filled-in ballot is illegal in 44 states.
iStockPhoto
It started out as a seemingly harmless act: voters posting photos of their completed ballots on the internet.
One wrote in his deceased dog's name for senator because he did not like any of the candidates, then shared his message of frustration on Facebook. A state legislator, and another a candidate for the state House, also publicly published photos of their ballots.
Now they're under investigation by the New Hampshire attorney general's office.
The reason?
It turns out the act of photographing or sharing a marked ballot is illegal under state law — and in 43 other states.
A "ballot selfie" risks a felony charge — and a $1,000 fine — in New Hampshire, where photographic images of ballots are banned in an attempt to deter vote buying and uphold the sanctity of the secret ballot. The rationale behind the law is that if a vote cannot be proved, it cannot be purchased.
New Hampshire's law isn't just an awkward vestige from the past: the state actually updated the law this year to explicitly ban "taking a digital image or photograph of his or her ballot and distributing or sharing the image via social media or by any other means."
The policy has sparked a lawsuit from the New Hampshire Civil Liberties Union on behalf of the three voters who posted ballot selfies.
Gilles Bissonnette, one of two NHCLU attorneys on the case, said the new law is over-reaching and it's an infringement on the First Amendment.
"The issue is the chilling effect this law has on people being able to engage in political speech outside the polling place," he said. "It is now prohibited one week, six months, one year later from publishing that ballot to engage in core political speech."
But Dave Scanlan, New Hampshire's deputy secretary of state, said it's a necessary addition to prevent a new era of high-tech vote buying.
"The law was updated as a preventative measure to keep the door closed on voter fraud," he said. "People coming out against it are not considering the issues that election administrators see with trying to make sure that the elections are free from voter fraud and that they're fair."
Scanlan noted that the state has not prosecuted anyone under the new law for smartphone-enabled vote buying.
"Before, the ballot and its image was given up to the state as soon as you stepped out of the booth and cast your ballot, but now people can keep that image and share it on the internet." he said. "Were those votes bought? Probably not. But the statute as it stood before we updated it did not account for new technology and we're just trying to stay up to date to prevent fraud."
Bissonnette said the idea behind the law was to cut vote buying at the knees by banning the display of a marked ballot, which would presumably exist in a vote buying transaction. Still, he says, the law reaches far beyond that and bans the use of one's marked ballot in situations that have nothing to do with coercion.
"It creates a chill on the type of speech we're encouraging. The law fails to recognize how powerful that photograph can be for social media," said Bissonnette. "It's about ensuring that the First Amendment continues to have relevancy in the 21st century."
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Copyright © 2014 NPR. For personal, noncommercial use only. See Terms of Use. For other uses, prior permission required.
Copyright © 2014 NPR. All rights reserved. No quotes from the materials contained herein may be used in any media without attribution to NPR. This transcript is provided for personal, noncommercial use only, pursuant to our Terms of Use. Any other use requires NPR's prior permission. Visit our permissions page for further information.
NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by a contractor for NPR, and accuracy and availability may vary. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Please be aware that the authoritative record of NPR's programming is the audio.
Congress Issues New Sanctions Against Venezuelan Leaders 'On The Ropes'
Officials and experts say the sanctions will be targeted at officials involved in a violent crackdown on pro-democracy protesters this year, and won't make life even harder for average Venezuelans.
Copyright © 2014 NPR. For personal, noncommercial use only. See Terms of Use. For other uses, prior permission required.
Copyright © 2014 NPR. All rights reserved. No quotes from the materials contained herein may be used in any media without attribution to NPR. This transcript is provided for personal, noncommercial use only, pursuant to our Terms of Use. Any other use requires NPR's prior permission. Visit our permissions page for further information.
NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by a contractor for NPR, and accuracy and availability may vary. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Please be aware that the authoritative record of NPR's programming is the audio.
Even Under Obama, Black Activist Says Every Inch Of Progress Is A Fight
President Obama has said he'll work to improve race relations between police and communitie, but in his hometown, many see a leader unable to sustain the progress predicted during his 2008 campaign.
Copyright © 2014 NPR. For personal, noncommercial use only. See Terms of Use. For other uses, prior permission required.
Copyright © 2014 NPR. All rights reserved. No quotes from the materials contained herein may be used in any media without attribution to NPR. This transcript is provided for personal, noncommercial use only, pursuant to our Terms of Use. Any other use requires NPR's prior permission. Visit our permissions page for further information.
NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by a contractor for NPR, and accuracy and availability may vary. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Please be aware that the authoritative record of NPR's programming is the audio.
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Salam, Hollande discuss arms deal, presidential deadlock
BEIRUT: Lebanon's Prime Minister Tammam Salam and French President Francois Hollande discussed the Saudi-funded French arms deal between the two countries in a Friday meeting.
Salam was quoted by local media as saying that France was ready to help Lebanon resolve the presidential deadlock and that the Lebanese delegation had ironed out the final details of the arms deal.
Salam and Holland met in the Elysee Palace in Paris, where the prime minister is on an official visit to the French capital to finalize the arms deal for the ill-equipped Lebanese Army.
Speaking to Lebanese expatriates in Paris Thursday, Salam said the arms would be delivered in the coming weeks. He also said the French National Assembly’s Foreign Affairs Commission would form a special committee tasked with following up on Lebanese issues and devising proposals to help the country end its crises.
France dispatched Jean-François Girault, head of the French Foreign Ministry’s Middle East and North Africa office to Beirut earlier this week. He held a series of meetings with several Lebanese officials in a bid to put an end to the lingering presidential vacuum.
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BEIRUT: Lebanon has not authorized the Committee of Muslim Scholars to represent the government in negotiations to release the captive servicemen, Prime Minister Tammam Salam said in comments published Friday, adding that political bickering had largely affected the hostage crisis.
“I read their [the Committee of Muslim Scholars] request for authorization in the papers. They did not make an initiative as per an authorization and we did not give authorization to anyone,” Salam told Al-Hayat in an interview in Paris.
“This is not a deal but a humanitarian case, and whoever makes an initiative is much appreciated.”
The committee has met with some ministers, asking the government to officially task them with negotiations to release 25 servicemen held hostage by militants from Nusra Front and ISIS. The group has also urged the government to agree to a swap deal as requested by the gunmen.
Their move came after Nusra Front said last week it killed a Lebanese policeman in retaliation for the detention of women and children related to Islamist militants.
Nusra Front and ISIS took more than 30 soldiers and policemen hostage during August clashes with the Lebanese Army in the northeastern town of Arsal. Four servicemen have been executed, while Nusra has released at least six. The committee, which has been accused of working in favor of Nusra Front and ISIS, initially withdrew from negotiations after one of its prominent members was attacked on his way to Arsal.
Asked about the withdrawal of the Qatari mediator from the negotiations, Salam said he did not know why Qatar halted its efforts in the case "or whether developments in Syria had anything to do with it."
Salam said there were differences among Cabinet ministers on how to handle the hostage crisis, preventing the government from making a final decision.
"Political parties that express their viewpoint are not helping because there are clear and big differences in this crisis. If we look at other countries, we see that issues such as these are addressed with utmost secrecy, devoid of political bickering, because they are national cases.”
Asked whether he believed Hezbollah's role in Syria had led to the abduction of the soldiers, Salam said: "The abduction happened during a direct confrontation between the Lebanese and ISIS and Nusra Front amid the situation in Arsal with the presence of some 100,000 Syria refugees in a town of 35,000. Consequently, a safe haven [for militants] was created. But, Hezbollah's fighting in Syrian is different issue.”
He reiterated that there was a big gap between the policy of dissociation his government adopted and Hezbollah’s role in the Syrian conflict.
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