A Qatari delegation Friday stepped in to help secure the release of Lebanese soldiers and policemen held hostage by...
Kurdish forces engaged in sporadic battles with ISIS around the Syrian town of Kobani on Saturday, seeking to expand...
The CIA and Israel's spy agency Mossad were behind an elaborate plot to kill Hezbollah commander Imad Mughniyeh in a...
The following are a selection of stories from Lebanese newspapers that may be of interest to Daily Star readers. The...
MP Walid Jumblatt decided to postpone his resignation to May at the request of Speaker Nabih Berri after a meeting...
Audio for this story from Weekend Edition Saturday will be available at approximately 12:00 p.m. ET.
NPR's Scott Simon speaks with senior Washington editor Ron Elving about the narrowing Republican presidential field for 2016 and what we've seen so far in the first month of the new Congress.
Copyright © 2015 NPR. For personal, noncommercial use only. See Terms of Use. For other uses, prior permission required.
Copyright © 2015 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.
UNIFIL chief Maj. Gen. Luciano Portolano met Saturday with Speaker Nabih Berri over the latest wave of violence that...
Lebanon announced Friday three days of mourning for the death of Saudi King Abdullah, who was described by Lebanese...
Speaker Nabih Berri said Friday that Israel had informed UNIFIL of its desire to curb any escalation with Lebanon,...
Prime Minister Tammam Salam extended his condolences to Egypt's president Saturday over the deaths of dozens of...
Cabinet concluded Thursday’s session without agreement on the controversial waste management file, as politicians...
Prime Minister Tammam Salam extended his condolences to Egypt's president Saturday over the deaths of dozens of...
BEIRUT: U.S. and French diplomats expressed concern over an escalation between Hezbollah and Israel following remarks made by party Secretary-General Hasan Nasrallah, a report said.
An-Nahar Saturday said that members of the Lebanese government received calls from U.S. and French diplomats who were unnerved by Nasrallah's speech, in which he warned that Hezbollah was prepared to respond to any Israeli attack.
Nasrallah warned Friday that his group would respond to any Israeli attack at any time and in any place. He also said that the Israeli airstrike that killed six Hezbollah fighters and a top Iranian general in Syria’s Golan Heights this month had shattered the rules of engagement that had governed the military confrontation between Hezbollah and Israel in south Lebanon in the past.
The unidentified diplomats, who feared further escalation as a result of Friday’s fiery speech, said that Nasrallah should have echoed the moderate stance of Prime Minister’s Tammam Salam instead.
During Thursday’s Cabinet session, Salam urged all parties to avoid any escalation. “Don’t give Israel any chance to drag us in to war,” he was quoted as saying.
Salam also voiced Lebanon’s commitment to U.N. resolution 1701 that ended the 2006 war between Lebanon and Israel, as well as the presence of UNIFIL peacekeepers along its southern border.
A Hezbollah attack wednesday killed two Israeli soldiers in the Shebaa Farms in retaliation for an Israeli airstrike that killed six party fighters and a top Iranian general in Syria's Golan Heights on Jan. 18.
Hezbollah's Wednesday attack involving a salvo of anti-tank missiles on an Israeli military convoy was answered by artillery fire from the Israelis, which killed a Spanish UNIFIL peacekeeper.
Spain and Israel have agreed to a joint investigation to look into his death.
Advertisement
MP Walid Jumblatt decided to postpone his resignation to May at the request of Speaker Nabih Berri after a meeting...
WASHINGTON: The CIA and Israel's spy agency Mossad were behind an elaborate plot to kill Hezbollah commander Imad Mughniyeh in a 2008 car bomb attack in Syria, the Washington Post reported Friday.
Citing former intelligence officials, the newspaper reported that U.S. and Israeli spy agencies worked together to target Mughniyeh on Feb. 12, 2008 as he left a restaurant in the Syrian capital Damascus.
He was killed instantly by a car bomb planted in a spare tire on the back of a parked car, which exploded shrapnel in a tight radius, the Post said.
The bomb, built by the United States and tested in the state of North Carolina, was triggered remotely by Mossad agents in Tel Aviv who were in communication with Central Intelligence Agency operatives on the ground in Damascus.
"The way it was set up, the U.S. could object and call it off, but it could not execute," a former U.S. intelligence official told the newspaper.
A senior Hezbollah commander, Mughniyeh was suspected of masterminding the abduction of Western hostages in Lebanon in the 1980s and of the 1992 bombing of the Israeli embassy in Argentina that killed 29 people.
He was also linked to the bombing of the U.S. marine barracks at Beirut airport in 1983, in which 241 American servicemen died, and the hijacking of TWA Flight 847 in 1985, in which a U.S. navy diver was killed.
The CIA declined to comment to the Post about the report.
According the newspaper, the authority to kill required a presidential finding by George W. Bush. Several senior officials, including the attorney general, the director of national intelligence and the national security advisor, would have had to sign off on the order, it added.
- 'Find, fix and finish' -
The former officials that spoke to the newspaper said Mughniyeh was directly involved in arming and training Shiite militias in Iraq that were targeting U.S. forces, and though it occurred in a country where the United States was not at war, his assassination could be seen as an act of self-defense.
"They were carrying out suicide bombings and IED attacks," one former official told the Post, referring to alleged Hezbollah operations in Iraq.
They added that getting approval from the most senior echelons of the U.S. government to carry out the attack against Mughniyeh was a "rigorous and tedious" process, and it had to be proven that he was a true menace.
"What we had to show was he was a continuing threat to Americans," the official told the Post.
"The decision was we had to have absolute confirmation that it was self-defense."
The newspaper said that during the Iraq war, the Bush administration had approved a list of operations aimed at Hezbollah, and according to one official, this included approval to target Mughniyeh.
"There was an open license to find, fix and finish Mughniyeh and anybody affiliated with him," a former U.S. official who served in Baghdad told the Post.
According to the newspaper, American intelligence officials had been discussing possible ways to target the notorious Hezbollah commander for years, and senior US Joint Special Operations Command agents held a secret meeting with the head of Israel's military intelligence service in 2002.
"When we said we would be willing to explore opportunities to target him, they practically fell out of their chairs," a former U.S. official told the Post.
Though it is not clear when the agencies realized Mughniyeh was living in Damascus, a former official told the newspaper that Israel had approached the CIA about a joint operation to kill him in Syria's capital.
The agencies collected "pattern of life" information about him and used facial recognition technology to establish his identity after he walked out of a restaurant the night he was killed.
This week, the President traveled to India, launched the new Precision Medicine Initiative, and called on Congress to protect the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.
Find out more about the past week at the White House in our latest weekly wrap-up.
“Chalein saath saath.” It means "forward together we go," and it perfectly sums up the President's recent trip to India.
The President and First Lady traveled to India this week -- their first time visiting since Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi was sworn in on May 26, 2014. President Obama also made history as the first sitting U.S. president to visit India twice.
President Obama tosses petals on a monument at Rajghat, a memorial to Mahatma Gandhi: http://bit.ly/1yW1nlM http://bit.ly/1yW1lu7
— The White House (@WhiteHouse) January 26, 2015
The United States and India are true global partners, both in strengthening economies and strong democracies. From a pledge on fighting climate change to beautiful parades, the trip was full of notable moments.
BEIRUT: Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hasan Nasrallah warned Friday that his group would respond to any Israeli attack at any time and in any place.
The resistance party chief said that the Israeli airstrike that killed six Hezbollah fighters and a top Iranian general in Syria’s Golan Heights this month has shattered the rules of engagement with the Jewish state.
In a defiant speech, two days after Hezbollah fighters ambushed an Israeli military convoy in the occupied Shebaa Farms, killing two soldiers in retaliation for the Israeli raid in the Syrian town of Qunaitra, Nasrallah said the Lebanese and Iranian martyrs who died in Syria reflected the unity of the battle among the three countries against Israel.
“After what happened in Qunaitra [on Jan. 18] and in the Shebaa Farms Wednesday, you have tried us. Don’t try us again,” Nasrallah warned the Israelis in a televised speech during a Hezbollah ceremony in Beirut’s southern suburbs commemorating the six slain party fighters and the Iranian commander.
“We do not want war ... but the resistance is militarily ready and we are not afraid of war,” he said, drawing cheers from hundreds of supporters assembled at a complex in the southern suburbs, waving the party’s yellow flags.
“If the Israeli enemy thinks that the resistance fears war, I tell them today in the commemoration of the Qunaitra martyrs and after the Shebaa qualitative operation that we don’t fear war and we are not reluctant to face it, and we will face it if it is imposed on us, and we will win it, God willing,” Nasrallah said.
He added that the Qunaitra attack has destroyed the rules of engagement that had governed the military confrontation between Hezbollah and Israel in south Lebanon in the past.
“Following the Qunaitra operation and the response in the Shebaa Farms, I want to be clear: We in the Islamic Resistance [Hezbollah] in Lebanon are no longer concerned with any such thing as the rules of engagement. We don’t recognize the rules of engagement that have ended,” a seemingly defiant and relaxed Nasrallah said.
“It is our religious, moral, humanitarian and legal right to face aggression, wherever and whenever it may occur. The story that you hit me here and you retaliate here is finished,” he added, speaking through a huge screen via a video link. “We have the right to respond in any place and at any time and in the way we deem as appropriate.”
The Hezbollah chief said the Israeli attack in Qunaitra revealed the unity between Beirut, Damascus and Tehran.
“The martyrs who fell in Qunaitra reflected a fusion of Lebanese-Iranian blood on Syrian territory, and also reflected the unity of the cause and the unity of the fate and the battle of these countries [against Israel],” he said. “When blood unites Palestine, Lebanon, Syria and Iran, then we will enter an era of victory.”
The death of Revolutionary Guard Brig. Gen. Mohammad Ali Allahdadi and Hezbollah field commander Mohammad Issa shows how commanders are present on the ground along with the fighters, Nasrallah said. He added that the death of Jihad Mughniyeh, son of the slain Hezbollah commander Imad Mughniyeh, shows how entire families have given themselves to the resistance.
Among those present at the ceremony was visiting Iranian official Alaeddin Boroujerdi, head of the Iranian parliament’s national security and foreign policy committee. The wall behind the podium was decorated with pictures of the six party fighters and Iranian general killed in the Israeli raid.
The din of automatic weapons reverberated in parts of Beirut and the southern suburbs before and after the roughly 90-minute speech, during which Nasrallah revealed that the Hezbollah ambush in the Shebaa Farms was planned to resemble the Israeli attack in Qunaitra.“They killed us in broad daylight, we killed them in broad daylight ... They hit two of our vehicles, we hit two of their vehicles,” he noted. “As for the casualties, we’ll have to wait and see.”
The main difference between the two attacks was that Israel did not immediately acknowledge that its soldiers were targeted, while Hezbollah announced Israel’s attack in Qunaitra moments after the strike, he said.
Nasrallah said Hezbollah decided to avenge the Qunaitra attack when Israel was at the highest level of security alert along its border with Lebanon.
He added that threats by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu against the individuals who carried out the attack in the Shebaa Farms indicated that he was evading military confrontation and was seeking to track them down to assassinate them. He warned that Hezbollah would retaliate if any of its members was killed by the Israelis.
“From now on, if any Hezbollah resistance cadre or youth is killed in a treacherous manner, we will hold Israel responsible and it will then be our right to respond at any place and at any time and in the manner we deem appropriate,” he said.
Meanwhile, Lebanon Friday lodged a complaint with the U.N. Security Council against Israel over its artillery shelling of areas in south Lebanon in which a Spanish peacekeeper was killed, the National News Agency reported.
It said Lebanon’s Ambassador to the U.N. Nawaf Salam filed the complaint, requesting the international community condemn Israel with “the strongest words” for its shelling of south Lebanon in response to the Hezbollah ambush in the Shebaa Farms.
The complaint said the Israeli shelling “constituted a blatant violation of [Lebanon’s] sovereignty, the United Nations’ Charter and Security Council decision, notably Resolution 1701,” the NNA said.
For his part, Speaker Nabih Berri said that Israel had informed the U.N. peacekeeping force, UNIFIL, shortly after the Hezbollah attack in the Shebaa Farms that it did not want to escalate the situation with Lebanon if Hezbollah showed restraint. Berri, according to visitors, was informed of Israel’s willingness to maintain calm by the Lebanese Army Command, which informed the speaker and Prime Minister Tammam Salam that Israel said that it could implement a cease-fire within 20 minutes.
“Israel knocked on the door and got their answer. It was not the first time that Israel violated the rules of engagement,” Berri was quoted as saying.
He said the Hezbollah attack in the Shebaa Farms did not violate Resolution1701 that ended the Israel-Hezbollah war in 2006. “It was a calculated and clean operation that took place on occupied Lebanese territory,” he said.
Berri added that the situation was de-escalated following intense high-level contacts between him, Salam, the Army, UNIFIL, the United States and the United Nations.
SIDON, Lebanon: In the hallways of the Civil Council against Addiction in the southern city of Sidon, Karim refuses to be photographed. Off camera, he speaks at length about how he beat his dependence on drugs.
Hasan, another addict, shares Karim’s preference for staying out of the public eye.
“Lebanese society is ruthless and, if it was known, we would not be able to find a job after recovery,” he said.
CCAA welcomes addicts and helps them throughout their recovery, whether their problems are physical, psychological or legal.
It opened two years ago as an initiative of Sidon MPs Bahia Hariri, former Prime Minister Fouad Siniora and local community members.
According to CCAA’s statistics, 48 percent of admitted addicts were Palestinian, 45 were Lebanese and 7 percent were of other nationalities. Fifty-eight percent took pills and did heroin and 41 percent did not finish middle school.
Most of the center’s patients are young people – as young as 15 – some students, others workers.They are both male and female and come from across the social divide.
“Addiction doesn’t distinguish between the poor and the rich,” the council’s executive director Majid Hamatto said.
The son of a middle-class family, Karim blamed the free time he had on his hands for pushing him to experiment with drugs. “I was sure of myself; I used to say that it’s just for fun,” said Karim, who is the second of four sons.
“I went on enjoying [drugs], I got addicted to it and my life changed.”
While Karim’s family tried to help him overcome his addiction, he struggled for 18 months, during which he increased his drug intake.
“I started stealing money from my father’s jacket in order to fulfill my addiction until I found myself in the hospital,” said Karim, who began his treatment nine months ago.“My life changed when the doctor told me that I had been thrown on a roadside, and I had peed in my pants.”
Hasan, on the other hand, comes from an impoverished background, which he said can easily compel someone to drug use.
Despite excelling as a craftsman, the hardships of making a living intensified as he began surrounding himself with friends who often did drugs.
“I was running away from the troubles of life by first smoking cigarettes, which made me feel like I owned the world,” he said.
“So I moved from cigarettes to pills and soon I started injecting myself with poison.”
The need to feel the pleasures of heroin again forced Hasan to sell his property and his mother’s jewelry.
Once he even sold his family’s gas canister.
“What pushed me to stop, to receive treatment and come to this center was when the health of one of my friends, who used to mentor me, deteriorated and he got sick,” Hasan said.
“He needed blood, so I went to the laboratory to donate mine,” he said. “But the nurse couldn’t draw my blood because all of my veins had been destroyed.”
The death of Hasan’s friend made him feel immensely guilty. “I swore that I would never to go back to addiction and here I am healing.”
The CCAA provides counseling, guidance, treatment and rehabilitation for drug addicts through its own Social Preventive Center.
A team of professionals help addicts restore a regular lifestyle, building their confidence, developing their skills and helping them find jobs.
Patients’ families also participate in the center’s activities. The SPC communicates with them through regular sessions and keeps them up to date about their children’s cases.
From January 2013 to December 2014, 102 addicts between ages 17 and 49 participated in the center’s services. Fifteen patients were admitted to hospitals to receive detox treatment.
In addition to conducting laboratory drug testings, the center also conducts free tests for Hepatitis B, Hepatitis C and HIV.
The SPC, which offers a 24/7 hotline service, deals with addicts in a humane way and respects each patient’s privacy.
The center also helps addicts serving time in Lebanese prisons by coordinating with judicial authorities to speed up their cases and assisting them find the right treatment. So far, the center has been following 12 cases.
According to the Internal Security Force’s unit of drug-related crimes, 458 individuals were arrested in 2014 for offenses related to using, smuggling, dealing or promoting drugs.
Nearly 400 males and 10 females were arrested for either dealing cannabis, heroin, cocaine, narcotic pills or a combination of substances. Of the 3,587 drug-related arrests in the country last year, 2,806 were Lebanese nationals.
Hamatto explained that treatment expenses were too high for most patients to handle and there was a huge reliance on the community to shoulder the costs.
The minimum cost for each patient is around $2,000, Hamatto said, primarily because of the high cost of medication.
“The goal is to involve local society to help and contribute to cover the patient’s recovery expenses,”Hamatto said.
“This is why a huge part of the treatment is based on donations from local society.”
BEIRUT: MP Walid Jumblatt decided to postpone his resignation to May at the request of Speaker Nabih Berri after a meeting between the two leaders earlier this week, a source close to the Amal Movement leader said.
Speaking to The Daily Star Friday, the source said Berri told Jumblatt, a lawmaker for Chouf and leader of the Progressive Socialist Party, that the time was not appropriate right now for his resignation, which would entail holding a by-election to fill his post.
The source said Jumblatt responded positively to Berri’s request.
Berri, who received Jumblatt at his Ain al-Tineh residence, voiced his hopes that the security and political situation in Lebanon would become better by May.
The presidential seat has been vacant since last May and the country is facing rising threats from jihadi groups holed up on the northeastern border with Syria.
This month alone there was a twin suicide bombing in Tripoli claimed by the Nusra Front and an attack by Islamist militants on Army posts on the outskirts of the village of Ras Baalbek in northeast Lebanon.
The country has postponed general elections twice starting May 2013 citing deteriorating security, which is heavily linked to the civil war in neighboring Syria.
Jumblatt, 65, had informed Berri that he wanted to resign so his eldest son, Taymour Jumblatt, could run for his seat.
If Jumblatt did resign, the Interior Ministry would have to set a date for a by-election to fill not just his seat but also one of the three seats of the southern district of Jezzine that have been vacant since the death of MP Michel Helou last spring. Helou was from Michel Aoun’s Change and Reform parliamentary bloc.
The source said that among the reasons Berri urged Jumblatt to postpone his resignation was the fact that the speaker did not want to engage in an electoral battle with Aoun in Jezzine right now.
Although candidates of the March 8 coalition ran alongside those of Aoun in the 2009 parliamentary elections, this did not apply to Jezzine, which saw a standoff between Aoun and Berri’s allies.
In the end, Aoun won all of Jezzine’s three seats.
The source added that MP Sleiman Frangieh, the head of the Marada Movement, would likely follow Jumblatt’s example in order to allow his son Tony to replace him in one of the three Zghorta parliamentary seats.
The leader of the Druze minority sect, which is historically influential in Lebanese politics, Jumblatt was elected an MP for the first time in 1992 and in all of the following polls since then.
Jumblatt became the PSP’s leader in the early years of the country’s Civil War following the March 1977 assassination of his father Kamal Jumblatt, the founder of the party.
However, it is unlikely that if he resigns Jumblatt would abandon his political career altogether.
In an interview last year, Jumblatt said he would continue to follow up on politics once he was no longer an MP.
“I will not run in the parliamentary elections. But I will continue my political life as an observer ... observing events of the world and traveling,” he said.
Born in 1982, Taymour Jumblatt, who earned a degree in politics from the American University of Beirut, has been accompanying his father on visits to politicians in Lebanon and abroad in recent years.
BEIRUT: From the ground, it’s hard to envision how tiny, day-to-day changes add up to big impact. Viewing Earth from space can help broaden perspectives, completing the stories that quantitative data cannot. Further, images of Earth’s surface can be worth a thousand possibilities for progress. The recently released book, Space Atlas of Lebanon, a project of Lebanon’s National Council for Scientific Research, aims to show the public a big picture view of Lebanon, from above. Scientists and policy planners say that the images are particularly valuable for long-term planning, and to visualize changes to Lebanon’s natural resources over time.
Paired with existing data, the satellite images yield a wealth of information, boosting visibility and strengthening evidence of changes to urban development, water resources and vegetation through time.
“If you want to do a plan for five years, you need a current land use map. The only source for that is through satellite images,” said Ghaleb Faour, director of the CNRS Remote Sensing Center.
“For any project in development, you need updated data to implement your plan.”
He collaborated with Moueen Hamzeh, director general of CNRS, to assemble the satellite images for the 138-page book. The archive of images dating back 40 years offers a sweeping, historic view of Lebanon’s topography.
Using remote sensing mechanisms, the images have helped to accurately locate and quantify water loss and deforestation levels; enabling efficient response on the part of developmental project planners.
The book also contains photographs that track changes to the airport and the port of Beirut as far back as the 1940s. Satellite imagery began to be collected by CNRS in 1972, from a NASA-launched satellite. The satellite’s multispectral scanner captures images of the atmosphere, sea and land.
CNRS receives updated images each month. Originally the cost of obtaining the images was expensive, but that cost has decreased through time, thanks to Internet access.
At the same time, image resolution has improved.
“Ten years ago, we paid to get the images, now they are free,” Faour said. Only the processing fees remain.
The archive of data generated spanning over 40 years, has made it easier to detect changes in urban growth, deforestation and water availability. Also, it has helped estimate crop yields, when paired with climatic data.
The images also show how urban sprawl has proliferated in Lebanon throughout the late 20th century, and continues to spread.
“The most striking thing to see is land use change, especially in the greater Beirut area,” Faour said.
Population growth and urban sprawl in the Lebanese capital, accelerated during the latter half of the 20th century.
Today, around one third of the population resides in the metropolitan area.
CNRS has used the images to detect changes to human migration when used with Geographical Information System, a software program that helps integrate data in map format to display and enable richer analysis. GIS is often helpful in determining risk and the relationship between natural resources and on its proximity to human or plant life.
Hamzeh, CNRS director general, said that the high resolution images are good for picking up detail on urban spread in cities and infrared images are good at detecting the vegetation health and plant stress. The thermal sensing provided by the infrared images give indication of human activity.
A major aim of the book was to show the applications of the images, as a source of information for a myriad of development projects. For example, those working in agriculture can better detect water management in soil.
“You can indicate to the farmer the areas where there should be more irrigation,” Faour said.
Other information gleaned from the images includes the impact of groundwater pollution, and the diminished availability of fresh water resources.
Faour described 1992 images of Lake Qaraoun in the Bekaa valley, which showed the water cover as 11 kilometers square, in 2014, it had dropped to 5 square kilometers. Further, the atlas images revealed that the number of fresh water springs had been slashed in half in the past 40 years.
Faour said the images were of particular interest to the geographic affairs wing of the Lebanese Army, who used the images to develop a topographic map for military affairs.
Sami Feghali, head of land use planning at Lebanon’s Council for Development and Reconstruction, said that the satellite images from CNRS have helped in planning projects related to infrastructure, filling in the existing data gaps.
“We don’t have accurate data for demographics or buildings,” Feghali said.
Although the images have helped in project and planning, having more information doesn’t necessarily spur action. Lebanon has been slow to move on pressing threats, such as water loss and unchecked urban development.
“We are excellent at coming up with excuses,” said Nadim Farajalla, research director of the Climate Change and Environment in the Arab World Program at the American University of Beirut’s Issam Fares Institute.
In terms of policymaking related to urban expansion and the protection of natural resources, he said that satellite images of CNRS’ remote sensing center are valuable in their reaffirmation of knowledge and the complementary effect they have with existing numbers.
“What this is doing is giving unbelievers visual proof,” he said.
He added that some ministries aren’t aware of the data resources they already have, and that those in power aren’t all of the notion of providing the public with free and accessible information.
He suggested the creation of a national research unit that would compile data, such as satellite photos, and make information available to the public and private sector.
“Ideally, we would have access to satellite imagery, to make policy on a national level,” he said.
Lebanon Space Atlas is available to the public at the CNRS center in Bir Hasan, 59, Zahia Salmane Street, Jnah. For more information, call 01-850-125.
A brutal stretch of winter has just passed, but Syrian refugees living in Lebanon’s Bekaa Valley are still struggling amid the deplorable living conditions they’ve endured for years now. The season is almost irrelevant at this point. If it’s winter, they must contend with glacial nights and heavy snowfall that often collapses their fragile tents. In summer, they’re exposed to extreme, arid heat. Rain at any time brings floods and mud. Regardless of the month, refugees have little access to the sort of health care so many of them urgently need.
Staff at the four clinics Doctors Without Borders (MSF) runs in the Bekaa Valley regularly see patient numbers rise when the weather conditions get particularly harsh.
Regrettably, four years into the Syrian crisis, the circumstances are as dire as they were predictable.
“Families are living in despicable conditions in informal tented settlements spread all over the country,” notes Thierry Coppens, MSF head of mission in Lebanon.
Oftentimes, these settlements are hastily set up in vacant lots, abandoned buildings, garages and sheds on farmlands.
“Support and assistance to this vulnerable population should remain constant,” Coppens adds. “This crisis cannot be forgotten.”
Of particular concern is the lack of access to free, high-quality health care. The needs are evident. In December 2014, MSF teams in the Bekaa Valley provided some 5,000 consultations; the count for January will easily surpass that number.
MSF doctors observed a rise in respiratory infections among Syrian refugees at this time of the year.
“It’s a direct consequence of the harsh winter combined with extremely poor living conditions,” Dr. Bilal Kassem, an MSF doctor in Baalbek points out. “People living in these settings suffer from very limited access to water and hygiene, so the risks of communicable diseases are very high as well. That’s not even mentioning the struggle they face to find food, which also leads to health complications.”
MSF staff not only receive patients in their clinics but also roam the settlements in search of those who need assistance. One MSF social worker, Khaled Osman, recently visited the village of Majdaloun, where eight Syrian families are huddled together in one of the smallest and most isolated settlements in the Bekaa Valley.
“Have you seen how it snowed last week?” asked an 8-year-old refugee, Asma. “Now the snow is melting and we are living in the mud. I feel cold.”
Sitting as close as they could to a burning stove that will keep them warm for no more than an hour, Asma shared a blanket with her cousin Sara.
“The worst is at night,” Asma confided. “Sometimes I do not feel my feet and I am scared. Blankets are humid and we do not have wood to light a fire.”
Both Sara and Asma, who were struggling with respiratory issues and recurrent fevers, were treated at MSF’s clinic in Baalbek. Even as temperatures rise in the Bekaa Valley, however, the cousins will still be vulnerable to the illnesses so many refugees regularly contract, not to mention the risk of burns from having stoves in such cramped quarters.
“I wonder how they cope with this level of misery,” Khaled told his colleagues at MSF later. Khaled travels the country looking for the most vulnerable families to report on their needs and refer patients to the MSF clinics. He tells stories of refugees boiling snow to make drinking water, and with no wood or proper fuel readily available, many pick cardboard and plastic from the trash to keep warm.
It is often freezing inside their tents and there are never enough blankets for the whole family. Khaled speaks of unbearable situations and cites the children and the elderly as the most vulnerable.
In a bid to limit their sufferings, MSF teams this week distributed urgently needed winter essentials to Syrian refugees in northern district of Akkar, where few aid groups operate and the fear of being deported back to Syria is widespread. The distributions focused on villages up in the mountainous areas where the winter temperatures have been particularly cold. Around 900 families – 4,700 people in all – have received stoves, fuel and blankets.
In Lebanon, MSF is assisting refugees including Palestinians, Syrians and vulnerable host communities including Lebanese returnees from Syria through primary health care such as treatment of acute and chronic diseases, immunization, reproductive and mental health care, as well as distributing relief items. In 2014, MSF teams provided more than 260,000 primary health care consultations to Lebanese, Syrian and Palestinian patients.
Melissa Block talks to regular political commentators E.J. Dionne of The Washington Post and Brookings Institution and David Brooks of The New York Times. They discuss Mitt Romney's decision to not run for president in 2016, the Koch brothers' plan to spend nearly $900 million dollars on campaigns and next week's budget proposal.
Copyright © 2015 NPR. For personal, noncommercial use only. See Terms of Use. For other uses, prior permission required.
Copyright © 2015 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.
After flirting with a third run for president, Mitt Romney now says he won't run in 2016. What does that mean for the rest of the GOP field?
Copyright © 2015 NPR. For personal, noncommercial use only. See Terms of Use. For other uses, prior permission required.
Copyright © 2015 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.
Today, First Lady Michelle Obama’s Reach Higher initiative closed out the week with a very special thank you to some of the hardest-working, caring, and critically important adults charged with putting young people on the path to college: America’s school counselors.
In collaboration with the American School Counselor Association (ASCA), the White House, for the first time ever, hosted the Counselor of the Year Ceremony. The First Lady, along with television star Connie Britton, spoke in the East Room to honor the 36 finalists and semi-finalists, and 2015 School Counselor of the Year, Cory Notestine.
This past July, when the First Lady spoke at the ASCA Annual Conference in Orlando, Florida, she declared that “school counseling is a necessity to ensure that all our young people get the education they need to succeed in today’s economy.” She also promised to bring the Counselor of the Year Ceremony to the White House – and this afternoon, that promise became a reality.
The view from aerial tour of Hurricane Sandy damage of New Jersey's barrier beaches, Nov. 18, 2012. (Official White House Photo by Sonya N. Hebert)
When Hurricane Sandy hit New York City, the storm sent water cascading into the South Ferry subway station, pouring into the Brooklyn-Battery Tunnel, inundating neighborhoods from Staten Island to Queens. At Battery Park in lower Manhattan, water reached more than 9 feet above the average high-tide line.
One factor fueling the surge -- New York Harbor, where waters have risen about a foot since 1900. We know that rising sea levels, higher average temperatures, higher ocean temperatures, and other effects of climate change will make extreme weather events more frequent and more severe. And the climate is changing -- earlier this month, NASA and NOAA announced that 2014 was the hottest year on record globally, meaning that 14 of the 15 hottest years in recorded history have happened this century.
That’s why when we invested billions to help communities rebuild from Sandy, we also committed to “build back better” -- to rebuild infrastructure to a higher standard so it can withstand the increased risks posed by sea level rise and other climate impacts.
Today, the White House is building on that experience by releasing a new flood risk management standard for new and rebuilt federally funded structures in and around floodplains. This new resilience standard will help ensure taxpayer dollars are well spent on infrastructure that can better withstand the impacts of flooding.
This week, the President made history by being the first sitting President to make a second visit to India. He and the First Lady also traveled to Saudi Arabia to pay their respects to the late King. And back at home, the President convened a meeting with U.S. mayors and honored outgoing Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel. That's January 23 to January 29 or, "Namaste Obama."
Hezbollah is ready to respond to Israel at any time and in any place, party chief Hasan Nasrallah underlined in a...
"Behind the Budget" is a series of posts featuring audio stories from staffers from across the Office of Management and Budget, discussing aspects of the budget process that most Americans don't get to see.
Underlying the President's FY 2016 budget is a database holding about 600,000 pieces of information across multiple agencies and accounts. The database keeps track of every dollar appropriated by Congress: when it was appropriated, when it was or is going to be obligated -- whether that means signing a contract or placing an order -- and when the dollar goes out the door. It catalogues what the dollar was used for, and why. It's a lot of information, and right now, Aron Greenberg -- who's worked in OMB's Budget Review Division for about 11 years -- is responsible for helping to make sure it's accurate. Listen to him describe the work of the team responsible for doing the final comb of the budget.
Meet Aron Greenberg, Budget Methods Specialist in OMB's Budget Review Division.
BEIRUT: Speaker Nabih Berri said Friday that Israel had informed UNIFIL of its desire to curb any escalation with Lebanon, hours after a Hezbollah revenge attack killed two Israeli soldiers in the occupied Shebaa Farms.
Berri told his visitors Friday that Israel informed UNIFIL that it had no interest in escalation if Hezbollah showed restraint.
Berri, who was informed of Israel’s willingness to maintain calm by the Lebanese Army, also announced that Israel said that it could implement a ceasefire within 20 minutes.
“Israel knocked on the door and got their answer,” Berri said, in reference to a Hezbollah revenge attack that killed two Israel soldiers in the Shebaa Farms Wednesday.
The attack, which came in retaliation to an Israeli airstrike that killed six Hezbollah fighters and a top Iranian general in Syria’s Golan Heights on Jan. 18, “is not a violation of resolution 1701,” he said, referencing the agreement that ended Lebanon’s 2006 war with Israel. “It is a calculated and clean operation that took place on occupied Lebanese territory.”
The speaker noted intense coordination between his office and that of the prime minister, the Army, UNIFIL, the United States and the United Nations in the aftermath of the attack.
Berri reiterated that the Nusra Front had seized territories in Syria’s Golan Heights, noting that Israel had assisted the jihadi group capture the territory.
Israeli assistance offered to the Nusra Front involved direct attacks on Syrian military position paired with logistical support, Berri said, noting that Israel was using Syrian rebel positions as a line of defense along the border from Shebaa to the Syrian town of Deraa.
The threat posed by terrorist groups, according to Berri, serves as “a new direct and dangerous violation of the rules of engagement in the Golan heights.” This reality prompted the Hezbollah convoy which was targeted by the Israeli airstrike to inspect the area, he added.
Hezbollah is ready to respond to Israel at any time and in any place, party chief Hasan Nasrallah underlined in a...
Mitt Romney says he will seek the Republican presidential nomination once again. Rogelio V. Solis/AP hide caption
Mitt Romney says he will seek the Republican presidential nomination once again.
Former Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney says he isn't running for president in 2016.
"After putting considerable thought into making another run for president, I've decided it is best to give other leaders in the Party the opportunity to become our next nominee," Romney said in a statement to supporters.
The former Massachusetts governor was the GOP nominee in 2012, but lost to President Obama in the general election. He also ran in 2008, but lost to eventual Republican nominee, Sen. John McCain of Arizona.
Romney's decision still leaves a crowded Republican field. Although there have been no other major announcements, former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush is considering a run, as are Florida Sen. Marco Rubio and Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul.
On the Democratic side, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is widely expected to be the party's nominee.
Most roads across Lebanon were reopened Friday, the Traffic Management Center said Friday, after snow had blocked...
Hezbollah’s individual acts do not represent Lebanon, Information Minister Ramzi Joreige said Friday, days after...
Your feedback is important to us!
We invite all our readers to share with us their views and comments about this article.
Disclaimer: Comments submitted by third parties on this site are the sole responsibility of the individual(s) whose content is submitted. The Daily Star accepts no responsibility for the content of comment(s), including, without limitation, any error, omission or inaccuracy therein. Please note that your email address will NOT appear on the site.
Alert: If you are facing problems with posting comments, please note that you must verify your email with Disqus prior to posting a comment. follow this link to make sure your account meets the requirements. (http://bit.ly/vDisqus)
The latest bout of violence along the border with Israel will not affect dialogue between Hezbollah and the Future...
Visiting Iranian official Alaeddin Boroujerdi Friday underlined the need for stronger ties among Saudi Arabia and...
Hezbollah’s individual acts do not represent Lebanon, Information Minister Ramzi Joreige said Friday, days after...
BEIRUT: Israel’s Jan. 18 attack on a Hezbollah convoy in Syria revealed the unity between Beirut, Damascus and Tehran, Hezbollah chief Hasan Nasrallah said Friday.
In televised comments made during a Hezbollah ceremony commemorating the death of six party fighters and an Iranian commander killed in an Israeli airstrike on the Golan Heights town of Qunaitra earlier this month, Nasrallah said that the martyrs of the Qunaitra attack reflect a “fusion of Lebanese-Iranian blood on Syrian territory, and reflects the unity of the cause and the unity of the fate of these countries.”
When blood unites Palestine, Lebanon, Syria and Iran, then we will move towards an era of victory, he added.
“The martyrs of Qunaitra attack reflect at least three generations of the resistance,” Nasrallah said.
The death of Revolutionary Guard Brig. Gen. Mohammad Ali Allahdadi and Hezbollah field commander Mohammad Issa shows how commanders are present on the ground along with the fighters, he added.
And the death of Jihad Mughniyeh, son of late-Hezbollah commander Imad Mughniyeh, shows how entire families have given themselves to the resistance, he added.
Nasrallah extended his condolences to the families of the victims and blessed the fallen fighters for their martyrdom.
The party leader also expressed his condolences over the deaths of Lebanese soldiers who killed during fierce clashes with militants in Ras Baalbek last week, likening the jihadi threat to the Israeli one.
His remarks came two days after Hezbollah retaliated to the Qunaitra attack, when troops fired anti-tank missiles towards an Israeli military convoying in the occupied Shebaa Farms, killing two soldiers.
The assembly hall that hosted the commemoration ceremony was packed with supporters waving Hezbollah flags.
The wall behind the podium was decorated with pictures of the six party fighters as well as the top Iranian general who were killed in the Israeli raid.
BEIRUT: Syrian Ambassador to Lebanon Ali Abdel-Karim Ali Friday praised Hezbollah’s Wednesday attack against an Israeli convoy in south Lebanon which killed two soldiers, accusing Israel of supporting jihadi militant groups fighting the Syrian regime.
“Israel feels the danger resulting from (the aggression) it has committed against Lebanon, Syria and the whole region, which clearly reveals that it is a backer, supporter and mentor of (jihadi) terrorism which is sweeping the region,” Ali said after emerging from a meeting with Foreign Minister Gebran Bassil.
Wednesday’s rocket attack on a military convoy in the Israeli-occupied Shebaa Farms caused the death of two soldiers and wounded seven. It came in response to an Israeli airstrike on Syria’s Golan Heights town of Qunaitra which targeted a Hezbollah convoy, killing six party fighters and an Iranian Revolutionary Guard commander.
The Syrian envoy called for closer coordination between Lebanon and Syria in their bid to combat terrorism.
“Lebanon cannot combat terrorists who are striking in various areas, without (comprehensive) coordination with Syria which has succeeded in confronting them for four years,” Ali said.
Asked if Syria planned to retaliate to Israel’s attack on Qunaitra, Ali said: “By hitting at scores of ISIS and Nusra (militants), we are striking, as well, at the Israeli army because they are an extension of it.”
Ali also pointed out that his talks with Bassil covered the entry regulations imposed on Syrian nationals traveling to Lebanon, and the need to relax them.
Advertisement
BEIRUT: The European Commissioner for Enlargement and European Neighborhood Policy Johannes Hahn arrived in Beirut Friday for talks with Lebanese officials.
A source at Beirut airport said Hahn arrived from Greece. He was met upon arrival by EU Ambassador to Lebanon Angelina Eichhorst.
The Commissioner for Enlargement and European Neighborhood Policy is a member of the European Commission in charge of overseeing the accession process of prospective new member states and relations with those bordering the European Union (EU).
Advertisement
BEIRUT: Talks between Hezbollah and the Future Movement have begun touching on the issue of the Hezbollah-linked Resistance Brigades, former Prime Minister Fouad Siniora said Friday.
Siniora, who is also head of the Future parliamentary bloc, complained that Hezbollah’s Resistance Brigades allows them to “overpower” citizens, and is now one of the issues being discussed in dialogue sessions launched last month.
So far, top officials from Hezbollah and the Future Movement have met on four separate occasions since Dec. 27 in a bid to ease sectarian tensions.
The Resistance Brigades is the military wing of Hezbollah designated for non-Shiites, or for Shiites who do not want to commit to the party's main military formation.
Siniora accused the party of purchasing and using followers by providing them with arms that would in turn allow them to bully others.
Siniora reiterated the Future Movement’s rejection of Hezbollah arms and expressed hopes that talks could progress positively on that track.
“We hope that the other team (Hezbollah) does not spark any problems,” he said.
Siniora, who had last week offered his condolences to Hezbollah over its six fighters killed in the Jan 18. Israeli airstrike in Syria, denounced Hezbollah’s retaliation two days ago.
Hezbollah Wednesday attacked an Israeli military convoy in the occupied Shebaa Farms, killing two soldiers.
Siniora said Hezbollah’s unilateral decision to launch the attack risked dragging Lebanon into a new war with Israel.
Siniora said he “does not accept in any way that a team of Lebanese would make decisions and carry out actions that implicate all of Lebanon,” especially if these decisions are taken without considering Lebanese consensus and the position of the country’s top institutions.
According to the former premier, Lebanon was spared a major conflict with its southern neighbor because neither Tehran nor Israel were interested in escalation. Israeli officials are too preoccupied with elections while Iran’s reluctance stems from its ongoing involvement in nuclear talks, he said.
Hezbollah, however, can’t always bet on regional circumstances that would ensure restraint, he added, noting that respect for U.N. Security Council Resolution 1701 - which ended Lebanon’s 2006 war with Israel - was the only guarantor of peace.
Two masked gunmen went on a robbing spree before dawn Friday, raiding a pub in Beirut and a restaurant in Metn within...