Obama told me so: 01/07/15

Wednesday, 7 January 2015

Kirby Delauter, Who Didn't Want His Name In A News Story, Apologizes

Kirby Delauter, the Frederick County, Md., council member who threatened to sue a local newspaper reporter for using his name in a story without permission, has apologized.

As we reported Tuesday, Delauter was mentioned exactly once in an article about local parking issues by Bethany Rodgers, a reporter for the Frederick News-Post. He did not like that his name was used at all and threatened to sue her in a Facebook post. The newspaper, in a tongue-in-cheek editorial titled "Kirby Delauter, Kirby Delauter, Kirby Delauter," had a field day with its response on Tuesday. The editorial, predictably, went viral on social media.

Today, Delauter apologized in a statement, published by the News-Post.

"Of course, as I am an elected official, the Frederick News-Post has the right to use my name in any article related to the running of the county — that comes with the job," he said. "So yes, my statement to the Frederick News-Post regarding the use of my name was wrong and inappropriate. I'm not afraid to admit when I'm wrong."

He also said that he has in the past felt frustrated at being "misrepresented or misinterpreted by a local media outlet." He did not elaborate, but added: "I thought I had long ago learned the lesson of waiting 24 hours before I hit the send key, but apparently I didn't learn that lesson as well as I should have."

Hariri condemns ‘heinous act’

Lebanon denounces attack on magazine in Paris

Former Prime Minsiter Saad Hariri along with Lebanon’s leading officials denounced Wednesday an assault on the Paris...

Split over waste, food safety hangs over Cabinet meeting

BEIRUT: The Cabinet is scheduled to meet Thursday amid a split among ministers over a widening food safety campaign and waste treatment, a long-simmering key issue hanging over the government for months.

Parliament, meanwhile, failed Wednesday over a lack of quorum to elect a new president in the 17th abortive attempt since April to break the 7-month-old presidential deadlock, prompting Speaker Nabih Berri to postpone the session to Jan. 28.

A heated debate over solid waste treatment between Environment Minister Mohammad Machnouk and the ministers of health and agriculture Wael Abu Faour and Akram Chehayeb, who belong to MP Walid Jumblatt’s Progressive Socialist Party, is expected during the Cabinet session, ministerial sources said.

They added that discussion of a solid waste treatment plan might be postponed to another session to give more time for consultations to find a solution before Jan. 17, the deadline set by the government last year for the closure of the controversial Naameh landfill, south of Beirut.

Naameh residents have vowed to shut down the landfill by Jan. 17 on their own if the Cabinet failed to do so. Chehayeb warned that the Cabinet would face “a big problem” Thursday due to the rift among ministers over the closure of the Naameh landfill.

Asked if contacts made between the health and agriculture ministers with the Environment Ministry to contain the dispute over waste treatment were successful, Chehayeb told The Daily Star: “We will be facing a big problem during Cabinet’s session tomorrow [Thursday]. The Naameh landfill should be closed. There are solutions [for this problem]. The talk about a technical extension of the landfill is rejected.”

Chehayeb was apparently responding to Machnouk, who said this week the landfill would not be closed on time, warning that garbage would flood streets if the dump was shut down and no alternative was found to waste treatment.

In addition to differences with the PSP’s ministers over solid waste treatment, Machnouk is also at odds with the three Kataeb ministers over this issue. A meeting was held Wednesday between Machnouk and Kataeb Party leader Amine Gemayel along with the Kataeb ministers and lawmakers at the party’s headquarters in Saifi in a bid to narrow differences and find a solution to this problem.

The Cabinet will also tackle a war of words pitting Abu Faour against Economy Minister Alain Hakim over the health minister’s food safety campaign. Hakim had criticized Abu Faour’s 2-month-old campaign to combat food corruption, describing it as a “circus show” and “propaganda campaign.”

However, ministerial sources said differences among ministers would not lead to the Cabinet’s resignation or paralysis because this government was needed for political, constitutional and security reasons.

Meanwhile, Parliament failed due to a lack of quorum to elect a president, prompting Berri to postpone the session to Jan. 28. Wednesday’s was the 17th botched attempt since April to choose a successor to former President Michel Sleiman, whose six-year term ended May 25.Lawmakers from MP Michel Aoun’s bloc, Hezbollah’s bloc and its March 8 allies have thwarted a quorum with their consistent boycott of Parliament sessions. They have demanded an agreement beforehand with their March 14 rivals over a consensus candidate for the presidency.

Berri praised the second round of talks between the Future Movement and Hezbollah held at his Ain al-Tineh residence Monday. “The outcome of the second session of this dialogue was more than positive, exceeding bilateral meetings to ensuring a cover for national security and stability,” Berri was quoted as saying by lawmakers during his weekly meeting with MPs.

The parliamentary Future bloc hoped that its dialogue with Hezbollah would facilitate the election of “a consensus president” and reduce sectarian tensions. The bloc, in a statement issued after its weekly meeting, also welcomed dialogue steps taken by other parties, in a clear reference to attempts to arrange a meeting between Aoun and his Christian rival, Lebanese Forces chief Samir Geagea.

The Council of Maronite Bishops decried Parliament’s repeated failure to elect a president and voiced concerns over Lebanon’s future amid the presidential vacuum. “The bishops again call on Parliament to do its constitutional duty to elect a president,” said a statement issued after the council’s monthly meeting chaired by Maronite Patriarch Beshara Rai in Bkirki, north of Beirut.

End in sight for Zina’s deadly rampage

BEIRUT/DAHR AL-BAIDAR/BSHARRI/SIDON: The storm “Zina” will start to ease Thursday after battering the country for two days, with many areas buried in snow, schools closed and three people dead as a result of the sudden explosion of harsh weather.

The storm also disrupted the functioning of sea ports, twice halted activity at the country’s only airport, and led to a surge in power cuts across the nation.

Speaking to The Daily Star Wednesday, a source from the Meteorological Department at Rafik Hariri International Airport said that the storm would start to ease Thursday morning, but added it was possible snow would still fall even at 400 meters around dawn.

Temperatures, however, will continue to drop in the following days, he said, and Thursday would range between 5 and 13 degrees in coastal areas, minus 2 and 2 in the mountains, minus 1 and minus 4 in the Bekaa Valley and minus 7 and minus 4 in the Cedars.

The silver lining is that, after an unusually dry winter last year and the ensuing drought over summer, statistics so far indicate that this winter is promising in terms of rainfall.

According to Mona Chahine from the Nicholas Shahin Weather Station in Ras Beirut, the area had 439 millimeters of rainfall between Sept. 1 and Jan. 7, compared to 133 millimeters in the same period the year before.

School students enjoyed an extension of the Christmas break as a result of the storm, with Education Minister Elias Bou Saab ordering the closure of public and private schools Thursday for the second consecutive day.

Health Minister Wael Abu Faour said kindergartens across Lebanon would be closed Thursday as well.

A national committee designed to confront disasters and crises, chaired by Prime Minister Tammam Salam, held a session at the Grand Serail, with attendees discussing measures to be taken across Lebanon to address road closures, landslides and damage to water, electricity and communication infrastructure.

Electricite du Liban said its crews were working to fix the damage caused to its network.

Salam also highlighted the need to provide Syrian refugee camps with the required aid to help them cope with the storm.

Zina forced Rafik Hariri International Airport to suspend aviation twice Tuesday, delaying the arrival of five flights due to land between 6 p.m. and 8 p.m. and forced several planes to land in Cyprus before being sent back to Beirut.

Snow fell at an altitude of 600 meters Wednesday, blocking many roads across Lebanon, including the international Beirut-Damascus highway, and cutting off large areas in the mountains.

In southeast Lebanon, three Syrians, including an 8-year-old boy, died of the cold on the outskirts of Shebaa in Mount Hermon on the Syrian border.

The boy, identified as Majid Badawi, and an adult named Ammar Kamal were among a group of four people who had crossed from the village of Beit Jinn on the Syrian side of Mount Hermon and were on their way to Shebaa when they were caught in the storm.

The group apparently lost their way and ended up 100 meters away in a cave near a Lebanese Army checkpoint in the hills overlooking Shebaa.The boy’s father, Kheir Badawi, was among the two survivors. The National News Agency later reported that a third member of the group had also died.

In coastal areas, the storm caused the ports of Sidon, Tyre and Tripoli to shut down for the second day Wednesday, while hail fell in Beirut and the temperature dropped to less than 6 Celsius, a rare occurrence in the capital.

Heavy snow fell on Mount Hermon and Shebaa, prompting snowplows from the Transport and Public Works Ministry to be deployed on the town’s main roads, while UNIFIL teams reopened the road linking Shebaa to the town of Kfar Shouba.

But hunters in the Mimas village of Hasbaya had other plans. Unfazed by the snow, dozens roamed through the forests near the village in search of birds that tend to take flight when it snows.

The snow also blocked the vital highway at Dahr al-Baidar, cutting off the Bekaa Valley from the rest of the country.

The Lebanese Red Cross said it had carried out 231 transport and rescue operations related to the storm since 6 p.m. Tuesday, including car accidents, evacuation of snowed-in motorists and hospital transportation of dialysis patients and pregnant women who were cut off by snow in the Bekaa Valley and north Lebanon.

“We have placed 600 volunteers, more than 100 ambulances and 15 special rescue teams on standby in the various red cross centers across the country,” Red Cross Secretary-General Georges Kettaneh told The Daily Star.

Volunteers evacuated people stuck inside their cars in Kfardebian, Mount Lebanon, including one person who suffered a fatal heart attack behind the wheel, he said.“We are using four-wheel drive ambulances to access people, but our cars are not able to reach certain areas that are heavily snowed in.”

The storm has also caused extensive damage to fruit crops, in particular banana and citrus orchards, across regions in the north and the south.

Up north in Akkar, a driver, his wife and daughter were injured when their car slid on the Akroum-Andaqit road and crashed some 20 meters below, and in Tripoli, Christmas trees were destroyed – but this time as a result of the wind rather than sabotage. – Additional reporting by Samar Kadi

Zina: very typical and nothing unusual

BEIRUT: Snowstorm Zina is wreaking havoc around Lebanon, delaying flights and closing off roads in the mountains, not to mention making life unbearable for the over a million Syrian refugees living in tents in the country’s north and northeast.

But scientists say the storm, though severe, is not unusual, though one with its severity likely only occurs every quarter century.

“People have forgotten because we had two to three years of quiet weather,” said Mona Chahine, director of the Lebanon-based Nicolas Chahine Observatory.

Storm Zina is a standard one in its inception, resulting from a “cold front,” essentially a bloc of cold air, descending from the north near Russia and colliding with a “jetstream,” a flow or column of air circling the Earth, that is filled with moisture.

“Very typical and not unusual at all,” said Nadim Farajalla, the faculty research director at the Climate Change and Environment in the Arab World program.

The program is part of the Issam Fares Institute for Public Policy and International Affairs.

Chahine said the cold fronts emerging from Russia usually have high wind speeds, which are indicative of the strength of the storm. The overall strength is usually a combination of wind speed, drops in temperature, and heavy rain and snow.

The snowstorm sweeping the Levant region cut off roads across Lebanon Wednesday, including the international Beirut-Damascus Highway, isolating large areas in the north and east of the country, and leaving three people, Syrian refugees fleeing to Shebaa, dead.

Rough winds and heavy rains shuttered ports and briefly halted air traffic in Beirut, as the country braced for what is expected to be several more days of heavy winter weather.

The Lebanese Agricultural Research Institute, which tracks such storms, said there were significant temperature drops Wednesday with torrential rain and snow above 500 meters altitude at night, along with strong winds.

The cold snap is expected to continue through Sunday.

Wind speeds reached up to 60 km/hr Tuesday, whereas wind gusts, which indicate sudden violent increases in wind speed, reached up to 84 km/hr, according to WindGuru, a website that tracks atmospheric data.

Wind speed is expected to die down in the coming days.

While the storm is not unusual, Farajalla said it was not possible to determine how often such violent storms recur because the data on rain, temperature, wind speed, humidity and other atmospheric measurements have not been collected over large periods of time accurately enough, though he estimates this current storm is likely a once in a quarter-century event.

“The return period for such storms is not really known,” he said. “My sense is it falls within the realm of once in 25 years – but that is not based on data, just anecdotal evidence.”

But he said climate change would likely lead to more extreme weather, with more intense storms, as well as more frequent occurrences of storms like Zina and severe droughts due to less rain during Lebanon’s rainy season.

“That is, we will get more such storms but then once they are over we will experience dry weather until the onset of another,” he said.

Chahine, whose center has been tracking Lebanese weather patterns for years, said this year’s storm was eclipsed by more powerful ones that occurred in the early 1980s and early 1990s.

“[It’s a] natural phenomenon 100 percent, and we have records in the past with stronger storms,” she said.

Chahine advised residents to stay at home if they had no pressing needs to drive during the storm, especially if they live in high-elevation areas with heavy snow. She cited the fact that the strong wind gusts had knocked over parts of unfinished buildings as well as trees. “If you don’t need anything, stay at home and cover your feet,” she said.

Zina: very typical and nothing unusual

But scientists say the storm, though severe, is not unusual, though one with its severity likely only occurs every quarter century.

“People have forgotten because we had two to three years of quiet weather,” said Mona Chahine, director of the Lebanon-based Nicolas Chahine Observatory.

“Very typical and not unusual at all,” said Nadim Farajalla, the faculty research director at the Climate Change and Environment in the Arab World program.

The program is part of the Issam Fares Institute for Public Policy and International Affairs.

Rough winds and heavy rains shuttered ports and briefly halted air traffic in Beirut, as the country braced for what is expected to be several more days of heavy winter weather.

The cold snap is expected to continue through Sunday.

Wind speed is expected to die down in the coming days.

“The return period for such storms is not really known,” he said. “My sense is it falls within the realm of once in 25 years – but that is not based on data, just anecdotal evidence.”

“That is, we will get more such storms but then once they are over we will experience dry weather until the onset of another,” he said.

Chahine, whose center has been tracking Lebanese weather patterns for years, said this year’s storm was eclipsed by more powerful ones that occurred in the early 1980s and early 1990s.

“[It’s a] natural phenomenon 100 percent, and we have records in the past with stronger storms,” she said.

Refugees primary victims of the storm

BEIRUT: Syrian refugees across Lebanon have resorted to burning clothes, rags and scraps of wood to survive Zina, the harsh winter storm which has lashed the country over the two days.

While Zina’s bitter cold and gale force winds have been felt throughout Lebanon, hundreds of thousands of Syrian refugees living in tented settlements across the country face critical conditions.“We haven’t left the tent for three days,” said Umm Mohammad, a refugee living with her family in a tent in Arsal. “We’re burning rags instead of heating oil to keep our stove lit. ... The children are all cold.”

While her family was promised warm winter clothes by an aid agency, she said they have received nothing.

Abu Jassem, a Syrian refugee living in Bar Elias, said that people trying to keep warm inside their unheated shelters by burning lumber and waste paper. “People are setting fire to anything they can find, including clothes, to keep warm. It is a most tragic situation.”

Strong winds and accumulated snow have caused tents to collapse in camps across the Bekaa Valley.

“Last night we didn’t sleep,” said Abu Mohammad, who resides in a tented settlement in Arsal.

“We spend all our time clearing the roof of the tent so it doesn’t fall on us. We have to do it every five minutes,” he told The Daily Star. More than 50 centimeters of snow have fallen on Arsal over the past two days.

Three Syrian refugees died after being caught in the storm on the outskirts of the Shebaa Farms while trying to cross into Lebanon from Syria. A source told The Daily Star that authorities found the bodies of two Syrians, including a young boy, in a cave where they had sought shelter. Another man traveling with them also died when he sought help.

Sheikh Mohammad Jarrah, who presides over a mosque in Shebaa, said that the situation for refugees was dire. “For two to three days they have gone without heating oil,” he said. “People are burning wood, and if they don’t have wood they are burning sheets and mattresses.”

Heating oil is among the most exigent needs, said Muhammad Nour Qarahani, who works with the aid organization Igatheyya.

“There is a huge need for heating oil,” Qarhani said, adding that his group had launched a campaign asking donors to provide refugees with “cash, diesel, anything.”

Relief efforts have been hampered by road closures across the country, including the vital Dahr al-Baidar highway which links the Bekaa Valley to the coast.

“With roads impassable in the Bekaa, our staff have not been able to reach refugee settlements, but refugees have sent photos of themselves clearing the snow from their tents,” said Niamh Murnaghan, director of the Norwegian Refugee Council in Lebanon.

Staff at the UNHCR offices “are continuing to work throughout the storm” although “road closures are affecting some operations,” said spokesperson Dana Sleiman.

Sleiman said UNHCR had opened a crisis cell in the Bekaa Valley in conjunction with other relief groups and local authorities, but that to date “there were no major incidents in the Bekaa.”

Zina stirs up a storm on social media networks

BEIRUT: “Zina” caused a storm among Lebanese on social media networks Wednesday, as Facebook was inundated with pictures of cars buried under mounds of snow and gripping pictures of meter-high waves crashing into the railings of Beirut’s waterfront.

On Twitter, the hashtag, “#HowToKeepWarmInTheCold” topped the microblogging website’s trending list for Lebanon Wednesday.

There was clear humor in the approach to the storm, with users posting photos of people desperately clutching on to heaters. For others, pyromania was the way to go.

“Get all your diplomas, all your school books and all your notepads and set them on fire!” one Lebanese user tweeted.

Another user chose to point out Lebanon’s relative warmth when compared to the blistering cold of other countries. “Come on guys, what cold? The foreigners are laughing at us,” he tweeted.

Some users, however, went for a more serious approach.

“Think of those who don’t have electricity and fire. Think of the men in the Army and the resistance and you will stop being cold, or you will be ashamed of claiming that you are,” one user wrote.

Soldiers were not the only subjects of concern for the Lebanese, with the majority of posts warning of the plight of refugees who are facing freezing temperatures, heavy snow, hail, rain and thunderstorms.

Famous Lebanese Satirist Karl Sharro didn’t miss the opportunity to tie the weather to both politics and the general state of Lebanese paranoia. “If Lebanon were a novel it would be called ‘Waiting for the Storm,’” he tweeted.

But unanimous agreement over the harshness of the weather was clouded by ambiguity about to what to call the storm. Twitter users debated whether to refer to it as Zina, Zeina or Xena, while others joked about how in Jordan the same storm is called Huda.

“Not sure if its Xena but I know that she’s really angry,” one user said in reference to the television series Warrior Princess.

“It’s Zeina not Xena and it’s a storm not a Barbie,” tweeted Ahmad Yassine, the content producer at television channel LBC.

The storm also drew mixed reactions from users, with some tweeting #welcomeZeina, while others pleaded for it to blow over.

Former MP Jawad Boulos said he was grateful for the storm for one very particular reason – it was an excuse for talk show hosts to discuss something serious rather than coming up with their own means of directing national conversation.

“Somehow I prefer it when “Zeina” imprints the national conversation to when talk show hosts attempt to,” he said on his official Twitter page.

But for prominent Lebanese actress Nadine Nasib Njeim, the answer was not that easy.

“Everyone knows that I am in love with the rain but ... you’ve scandalized us Zeina.”

Lebanese leaders condemn deadly Paris attack

BEIRUT: Lebanese leaders condemned in the strongest of terms Wednesday an assault by suspected jihadis on the Paris offices of a weekly satirical newspaper which killed at least 12 people, describing it as a terrorist act that did not reflect the teachings of Islam.

Prime Minister Tammam Salam slammed the “unacceptable and unjustifiable terrorist act.”

In a fax issued to French President Francois Hollande Wednesday, Salam expressed his “sympathy with the families of the victims during this painful circumstance.”

Hooded gunmen stormed the offices of Charlie Hebdo (Charlie Weekly), in Paris, killing 12 people and wounding 20 others.

The magazine is well known for courting controversy with satirical attacks on political and religious leaders and has published cartoons ridiculing the Prophet Mohammad.

Ten members of Charlie Hebdo staff died in the attack.

French authorities said the attack, the most deadly Paris has witnessed for decades, was carried out by three men.

The men were heard shouting in French: “We have killed Charlie Hebdo. We have avenged the Prophet Mohammad.”

Former Prime Minister Saad Hariri said in a statement that the perpetrators actually targeted the education and values of Islam.

“If what was attributed to eyewitnesses about the identity of the perpetrators is true, then those who use the name of the Holy Prophet as a means to ask for revenge and commit the most heinous acts, are a group of misguided people who do not only aim to harm Islamic-French relations, but also target Islam as a religion, values, education and permanent calls for moderation, dialogue and integration between religions,” Hariri said.

“In all cases, the attack on the French capital is a clumsy stab that harms Islam and hundreds of thousands of Muslims who have been living in France for decades, and benefitting from social, political and human rights,” Hariri said.

According to the Future Movement leader the terrorist crime was condemned by all Arabs and Muslims, who were standing beside France in the war against terror.

Lebanon’s Foreign Ministry also denounced the act and expressed its “full sympathy and solidarity with France’s government and its people in their war against terrorism.”

In a statement released Wednesday, the ministry noted that Lebanon has repeatedly warned against terrorism that knows no religion and no border. “Europe specifically is not immune it,” the statement read.

The ministry reiterated its call on the international community to work in accordance with international law in order to uproot terrorism.

Kataeb Party leader Amine Gemayel condemned the attack as “a terrorist act par excellence which targeted democracy and freedoms.”

The former president urged the international community to put an end to such acts. Gemayel offered his condolences to Hollande, the families of the victims and the French press.

How France became Syria’s enemy No. 1

BEIRUT: The gory attack Wednesday on the offices of French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo came at critical time for France: Its traditional sway in the Middle East is steadily declining and more than ever its foreign policy marred by confusion. Those very miscalculations are the topic of journalists Christian Chesnot and Georges Malbrunot’s polemic book “The Roads to Damascus: The Black Dossier of French-Syrian Relations.” The duo – who rose to fame after their kidnapping in Iraq in 2004 – trace in their latest book the details of almost 30 years of French-Syrian ties – relations that have greatly deteriorated at the onset of the Syrian uprising in 2011.

Lebanon being the bone of contention between Damascus and Paris; the authors also go into great lengths describing the major milestones that have shaped the peculiar relationship between the three countries. From the 1981 assassination in Beirut of French diplomat Louis Delmare, including the assassination of former premier Rafik Hariri, the 2006 war with Israel and more recently Hezbollah’s involvement in the Syrian war, Lebanon has always been the catalyst of Syrian-French relations.

“The French-Syrian couple has seen it all,” they wrote.

“Tensions, honeymoons, a reconciliation followed by a divorce and today, hatred.”

Home to Europe’s biggest Muslim minority, France struggles to curb the flow of would-be jihadis to Syria and Iraq while being on high alert over the terrorist risk at home; Chesnot and Malbrunot’s book looks to have a premonitory quality to it.

Chesnot and Malbrunot wrote that while France was “theoretically right” in pledging support to the rebels in light of the undeniably cruel nature of the Bashar Assad which has “committed crime against humanity and used gas against its own people, ... demonstrating against a dictator does not [automatically] turn you into a democrat.”

“Very quickly, the rebellion was taken over by Islamists and jihadis ... [a fact] that was long underestimated by Paris.”

In their revelatory account, the reporters disclose that in light of growing terrorism threats, Paris tardily dispatched two security delegations to meet with top Syrian security official Maj. Gen. Ali Mamlouk in 2013. France sought the help of Lebanon’s head of General Security Maj. Gen. Abbas Ibrahim – reportedly the link between Damascus and Western Intelligence agencies – to facilitate the encounters.

Mamlouk, however, was predictably uncooperative insisting that political and diplomatic ties be restored before the once thriving security cooperation between the two countries is revived. “We have time,” the Syrian official would tell his French visitors, with a grin.

“When we sent a delegation to see Mamlouk we lost our dignity,” a top officer at France’s intelligence agency the DGSE, who was a member of one of the delegations confided to the two writers.

Speaking to The Daily Star, Malbrunot maintained that France wanted to be “at the right side of history” when the uprising in Syria erupted after it demonstrated “laxity” in dealing with the upheavals in Tunisia, Libya and Egypt partly due to the close ties French officials entertained with dictators in these countries.

But “good intentions” and “ethics” have never governed external politics, noted the Le Figaro journalist and Middle East expert. Malbrunot interviewed Assad in Damascus in September 2014.

“France is one of the countries that knew the most about Syria,” Malbrunot said during a recent visit to Beirut. “We held all the cards yet unfortunately French officials misdiagnosed the situation.”

With “neo-conservatives and neo-interventionists” at the helm of the Quai d’Orsay – the French Foreign Ministry – and the real experts on the Arab world marginalized, France made several mistakes regarding the situation in Syria, Malbrunot said. “French is having its neoconservative moment 10 years after the Americans did,” he added.

The book cites a stormy meeting at the Quai d’Orsay in 2011 shortly after events in Syria began, during which France’s ambassador to Damascus Eric Chevallier, who had toured several Syrian regions in the early days of the uprising, shared the conviction that Assad’s regime would not collapse easily as it was still strong. But Chevallier was brutally rebuffed by then-President Nicolas Sarkozy’s adviser for the Middle East Nicolas Galey, who interrupted him saying: “Stop your nonsense!”

“Galey did not attend the meeting to take part on deliberations on Syria but to impose the idea that Assad’s fall was inevitable,” Chesnot and Malbrunot wrote.

Now that France has become Syria’s “No. 1 enemy” as the two authors contend, it would be difficult for Paris to go back on the intemperate policies it has maintained vis-a-vis Damascus for the past four years.

“We should have reached out to the Russians or the Iranians even to find workable solutions,” Malbrunot said. “Unfortunately now, history is going to be made without us.”

“The Roads to Damascus: The Black Dossier of French-Syrian Relations” is published in French by Robert Laffont and available at select bookstores.

Watch Bill Gates Drink Water Made from Human Poop

"I watched the piles of feces go up the conveyer belt and drop into a large bin. They made their way through the machine, getting boiled and treated. A few minutes later I took a long taste of the end result: a glass of delicious drinking water," Bill Gates writes in his poetic introduction to his essay on a magical machine that transforms human waste into water and electricity (and also ash).

The way the Omniprocessor, as it is officially called, works is that it takes sewer sludge, boils it, and separates the water vapor from the solids. The solids are burned to to make steam, and the steam is then sent to a generator that creates electricity. Meanwhile, the water vapor is run through a cleaning system that results in clean drinking water.

It all sounds pretty gross, but it doesn't seem to phase Gates, who wrote, "The water tasted as good as any I've had out of a bottle. And having studied the engineering behind it, I would happily drink it every day. It's that safe."

And as tempted as one might be to make a joke like "Drink shit" or something equally immature and fecal-minded, the fact is that the machine could be revolutionary for developing countries where there is significantly more human waste than clean water, not least of all because it is self-powering and therefore financially viable.

So, a toast to the future of sanitary water for all!

Watch Gates's video demonstration below:

5 Signs We're Not In Post-Partisan Paradise Yet

i i

Speaker John Boehner is handed the gavel by House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi after being re-elected for a third term to lead the 114th Congress. Pablo Martinez Monsivais /AP hide caption

itoggle caption Pablo Martinez Monsivais /AP

Speaker John Boehner is handed the gavel by House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi after being re-elected for a third term to lead the 114th Congress.

Pablo Martinez Monsivais /AP

If you follow the latest fashions in Washington politics, you've surely noticed the new look for 2015. It's all about "showing we can govern" and putting the flamboyant partisan stylings of past years behind us.

Unfortunately, this week the new political season opened in Washington, and that latest theme took a pratfall as soon as it reached the runway. All the cheery holiday talk about consensus and working together seemed forgotten overnight.

"It's going to be a little bumpy," was the gentle warning relayed from Sen. John Cornyn, the Texas Republican just re-elected in November and newly installed as the majority whip for the Senate.

It took only a day for the shiny new 114th Congress to start looking like the beaten and battered 113th that limped out of town last month. Here are five ways you could tell the winter chill outside was penetrating the Capitol and that thoughts of a new era were on hold.

1. Keystone Kops Return

The new Senate majority leader, Mitch McConnell, had made the Keystone pipeline his first order of business. The long-delayed and controversial project, designed to bring tar sands oil from Canada all the way to the Gulf Coast, has been approved by the House and will be again later this week. But it has never won its day in the Senate. Now McConnell has anointed it Senate Bill 1, announcing there would be a hearing on it Wednesday, a committee vote on Thursday and floor debate next week. But Senate Democrats would not accede to holding the hearing during a regular Senate floor session. And President Obama immediately issued a veto threat in advance.

2. Rumblings Of Veto Avalanche

Obama has cast only two vetoes so far in his presidency — fewer than any president in the 20th century — and neither was a big deal. He hasn't needed the veto pen because he has been protected from unwanted bills reaching his desk. Even after Republicans took over the House four years ago, Democrats in the Senate smothered all legislation the president seriously objected to. That regime is over. Now the Democrats' last line of defense will be the president himself. The issuing of the Keystone veto threat before the bill had even been officially considered in the Senate was a clear sign that the White House is ready, even raring, to play this kind of defense.

3. An Agenda Of Cloture And Overrides

As much as McConnell would like to preside over a productive Senate — and no one questions that he would — at this point he seems far more likely to supervise a parade of cloture petitions and veto overrides. Keystone would only be the beginning, with tougher sanctions on Iran up next and budget and immigration struggles after that. The Senate GOP appears to have the half-dozen Democratic crossovers it needs to shut off a filibuster on Keystone, but not the baker's dozen it would need to override a veto. McConnell has a raft of regulations and restrictions on business he would like to address, but his early weeks are more likely to be dominated by leftover business and held-over controversies — including the confirmation of Loretta Lynch, Obama's choice for attorney general.

4. Hardened Party Lines Everywhere

McConnell's team has identified a handful of Democrats it sees as centrists ripe for alliance with the majority and a few more as prospects for persuasion. But the truth is, the six Democrats most likely to side with the GOP on floor votes were the six who lost their seats to Republican challengers in November — three from the South and three from the Mountain West. And it's harder to base bipartisanship on personal friendship. Nearly two-thirds of the senators in the 114th have been in the chamber eight years or fewer. And most of this Senate arrived after serving in the House, the home of partisan warfare. Speaking of the House, Republican gains there have depressed the Democratic minority to something resembling an irreducible minimum. That means the remaining Democrats are more liberal, not less, and more likely to vote as a bloc than ever.

5. Tea Party Still Brewing

The largest GOP majority in nearly 70 years was supposed to give Speaker Boehner a stronger hand. But 25 Republicans voted openly against the speaker's re-election. That was the biggest rebellion against a speaker since the Civil War, and it stepped all over the party's triumphant storyline. Still more trouble for Boehner: Those 25 rebels represent a larger group deeply opposed to "showing we can govern" if that means working with the White House. Restive over the budget deal Boehner struck with Obama last month, the hard core within his caucus fears he will also compromise on immigration, trade, taxes and changes to the Affordable Care Act. An early test on Obamacare, changing the definition of "full-time work" from 30 hours to 40, was to be a slam-dunk for both chambers. Now, so many conservatives are rejecting the idea that the proposal may not even be brought to a vote. In the Senate, McConnell will have several colleagues with Tea Party ties to contend with. An extra, vexing challenge given that at least three of them are running for president.

Judiciary launches probe in to radioactive goods

Mount Lebanon General Prosecutor, Judge Claude Karam launched Wednesday a probe in to radioactive material found in...

Education Minister orders schools shut

Three dead as winter storm batters Lebanon

A snow storm sweeping the Levant region cut off roads across Lebanon Wednesday, including the international...

Future bloc brushes off U.S. Syrian visa criticism

BEIRUT: Given lackluster international support for refugees in Lebanon, the U.S. State Department’s criticism of stricter entry restrictions imposed on Syrians is out of place, according to the Future Bloc.

“The bloc believes that Lebanon has [received] only a small fraction of the required and necessary assistance,” the bloc said in a statement released after their weekly meeting Wednesday.

The comments were made only days after the U.S. State Department and international organizations criticized recently announced measures that require Syrians to obtain one of six types of entry permits – tourist, business, student, transit, short stay, or medical.

The new measures are meant to distinguish visitors and workers from refugees and curb the flow of Syrian nationals into Lebanon.

In defense of stricter entry regulations, the bloc said the latest restrictions represent a “primarily sovereign decision” that comes as a result of the mounting pressures of Syrian displacement and the protracted oppression of the Syrian people.

Laying fears to rest, the bloc said measures involve a “fluid formula” that can be altered, noting that problems arising during application could prompt changes to entry policies.

Rather than concentrating on Lebanon’s measures against refugees, the bloc called on Western countries and international organizations to shift their focus to ending the “destructive war waged by the Syrian regime and its enemies against the Syrian people in order to halt the influx of Syrians into Lebanon.”

Shifting to another controversial file, the statement sounded alarms over a media spat between two of the country’s ministers. Squabbles have emerged between Economy Minister Alain Hakim and Health Minister Wael Abu Faour over the latter's handling of the recent food safety campaign.

“Exchanging accusations weakens the state and its image and reflects [poorly] on Lebanon and the Lebanese,” the statement said.

Lebanon denounces attack on magazine in Paris

BEIRUT: Former Prime Minsiter Saad Hariri along with Lebanon’s leading officials denounced an assault Wednesday on the Paris offices of a weekly satirical magazine that killed at least 12 people.

“The armed attack on the French capital is a clumsy stab targeting the chest of Islam and hundreds of thousands of Muslims that France has hosted for decades,” Hariri said in a statement released by his press office, noting that the act serves to hinder France’s Islamic relations.

According to Hariri, the “deplorable” terrorist crime is condemned by all Arabs and Muslims, who are standing beside France and the international community in the war against terror.

The former prime minister's comments came hours after hooded gunmen stormed the offices of Charlie Hebdo, a satirical magazine known for ridiculing radical Islam.

Sources at the weekly told Reuters that the dead included co-founder Jean "Cabu" Cabut and editor-in-chief Stephane "Charb" Charbonnier who were among ten members of the staff that killed during the assault.

The Future Movement Leader expressed his warm condolences to the families of the victims and voiced his solidarity with the French people and President Francois Hollande.

Prime Minister Tammam Salam joined in on the spate of condemnations as he expressed his condolences to the French President over the victims killed during the attack.

In a fax issued to Hollande Wednesday, Salam condemned the “unacceptable and unjustifiable terrorist act,” and expressed his “sympathy with the families of the victims during this painful circumstance.”

Lebanon’s Foreign Ministry also denounced the act and expressed its “full sympathy and solidarity with France’s government and its people in their war against terrorism.”

On the occasion of the assault, the Foreign Ministry reiterated its call on the international community to work in accordance with international law in order to uproot terrorism that “is linked to ideology and not just geography.”

The Resurgence of the American Auto Industry – in Three GIFs

After nearly a decade of grit and grind, the American auto industry has quite a story to tell.

At the start of the century, U.S. automakers were leading global competitors in the industry, producing and selling cars at impressive rates. But the Great Recession hit our auto companies hard -- sales plummeted, the industry was losing 40,000 jobs a month, and suddenly these giants of American manufacturing were teetering on the brink of collapse when President Obama took office in 2009. That March, the President had to make a tough decision: Let national icons go bankrupt, or rescue the American auto industry.

Thanks to six years of grit and resilience -- and one decision to stand by American companies -- here’s the moral of the story: The American auto industry’s resurgence is real.

Today, the President is headed to Detroit to highlight the progress that American automakers, manufacturers, and the economy have made since the recession. See how American auto companies have roared back to life, creating jobs, generating profits, expanding business, and helping to strengthen the economy:

President Obama's Statement on the Attack in France

Following today's tragic shooting at the offices of Charlie Hebdo magazine in Paris, President Obama strongly condemned the attack, and offered the Administration's thoughts and prayers to both the victims of the attack and the people of France.

You can read President Obama's full statement here:

I strongly condemn the horrific shooting at the offices of Charlie Hebdo magazine in Paris that has reportedly killed 12 people. Our thoughts and prayers are with the victims of this terrorist attack and the people of France at this difficult time. France is America’s oldest ally, and has stood shoulder to shoulder with the United States in the fight against terrorists who threaten our shared security and the world. Time and again, the French people have stood up for the universal values that generations of our people have defended. France, and the great city of Paris where this outrageous attack took place, offer the world a timeless example that will endure well beyond the hateful vision of these killers. We are in touch with French officials and I have directed my Administration to provide any assistance needed to help bring these terrorists to justice.

Lebanon minister appeals for winter aid for Syrian refugees

BEIRUT: Education Minister Elias Bou Saab called Wednesday on the international community to follow the example of the United Arab Emirates, which is airlifting emergency winter aid to Syrian refugees in Lebanon as a fierce storm batters the country.

“All other states that could help in these conditions should endeavor to assist,” Bou Saab said after meeting with Lebanon’s Grand Mufti Abdul-Latif Derian.

The education minister’s comments come a day after UAE President Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed al-Nahyan ordered an emergency airlift of blankets, winter clothes, medicine, food and heaters to refugee camps in Jordan, Lebanon and Iraq, Gaza and other parts of Palestine, according to a report published by The National. The first flight was due to take off in the early hours of Wednesday morning.

According to Bou Saab, as long as Syrian refugees are present in Lebanon then the country is obliged to fulfill its humanitarian duty toward them.

It remains unknown whether or not the aid has arrived to camps in Lebanon. The UNHCR could not be reached for comment.

A snow storm sweeping the Levant region has already taken its toll on Syrian refugees in Lebanon, who are facing freezing temperatures, heavy snow, hail, rain and thunderstorms.

At least four Syrian refugee children in a tented settlement in Bar Elias in the Bekaa were rushed to hospital for hypothermia Wednesday, a source at the camp told The Daily Star. Snow caused several tents to collapse, as refugees tried to keep warm inside their unheated shelters by burning lumber and waste paper.

Several refugee families had their tents blown down by strong winds that battered Lebanon overnight and had to seek shelter with other refugees.

In east Lebanon, three Syrians, including an 8-year-old boy, died in the storm in the outskirts of Shebaa in Mount Hermon on the Syrian border.

Lebanon is hosting more than 1.2 million Syrian refugees who had fled the raging conflict at home, now in its fourth year. The majority live in make-shift camps in extremely harsh conditions without proper sanitation or heating.

Police bust smuggling ring at north Lebanon prison

Lebanon presidential election postponed to Jan. 28

Speaker Nabih Berri Wednesday postponed to Jan. 28 Lebanon's presidential election after legislators failed for a 17th...

'Zina' causes storm over condition of Jbeil harbor

BEIRUT: A heavy storm sweeping through the country this week sparked controversy Wednesday over the condition of Jbeil’s historic harbor, as the mayor decried its deteriorating state and the Culture Ministry insisted that there is no threat to the port.

In a statement Wednesday, the Department of Antiquities at the Culture Ministry said that it had dispatched a team of engineers and archeologists to inspect the harbor, one day after Mayor Ziad Hawat sounded alarms over its poor state. The statement said the storm had not inflicted any damage on the port, assuring that the historic harbor of Byblos was not threatened with collapse.

When contacted by The Daily Star, Hawat disputed the Culture Ministry’s claim, saying that there are “direct and indirect damages inflicted on the harbor.”

Hawat noted that the storm did not inflict any “grave destruction” but signaled to damage to some restaurants near the post as well as the fishermen’s docks.

“I am not a technician but it doesn’t take more than looking at the condition of the port to know that it needs renovation,” he said.

As for the threat to the harbor, the mayor said that a ministerial statement claiming the absence of any real threat to the port wouldn’t suffice. In that regard, Hawat urged the ministry to publish an official report that is signed by both the culture minister and the director general of the Antiquities Department, confirming that the harbor is not under threat of collapse.

“Maybe this time it’s not threatened but what about the next major storm?” he asked, expressing his belief that the harbor can’t withstand more drastic weather.

Jbeil MP Simon Abi Ramia also claimed that the port was damaged after inspecting the city in the aftermath of the storm Wednesday.

“The preservation of the archaeological harbor in Jbeil is a chronic demand, and now there is a need to double rehabilitation [efforts] because of the damage inflicted on it,” he said.

On Tuesday, pictures circulated on social media showed the port completely overrun by high waves.

In response, Hawat warned that the town's historic harbor was at risk.

"We repeatedly appealed to the Directorate General of Antiquities to ask the Ministry of Public Works to kick off renovation works at the old port but to no avail," he wrote on Twitter

A snow storm sweeping the Levant region cut off roads across Lebanon Wednesday, including the international Beirut-Damascus highway, isolating large areas in the north and east of the country and leaving at least three people dead.

Heavy rains are expected Wednesday night and temperatures will continue to drop as “Zina” intensifies. The storm is being brought over by a low-pressure weather system from the North Pole via Eastern Europe, according to Michel Frem, head of the Lebanese Agricultural Research Institute.

Beirut flights get Cyprus detour, courtesy of 'Lina'

BEIRUT: With strong winds and torrential rain ripping through Beirut, several planes were forced to land in Cyprus Tuesday night before eventually arriving at Rafik Hariri International Airport several hours behind schedule.

Rafik Hariri International Airport was closed on two separate occasions Tuesday evening after storm “Zina” caused winds of at 90 km/h, toppling billboards and trees across the city.

Bassem Tabbara, a passenger on a Royal Air Maroc flight, said that his plane circled over Beirut “for a long time” amid heavy turbulence before being forced to land at the Larnaca International airport in Cyprus.

Tabbara said that the aircraft, along with two Middle Eastern Airlines planes and a British Airways plane, waited on the tarmac in Cyprus for just over an hour before heading back to Lebanon.

A source at Rafik International Airport said he did not know how many flights were rerouted to Cyprus because of the storm.

While tempers are known to flare on grounded planes, Tabbara said that the passengers were patient and amiable, walking up and down the aisles and sharing food with one another before the plane took off again.

“Everyone was very friendly. Some had bought food and cookies at duty free in Morocco which they opened and shared with everyone on the plane,” said Tabbara.

The plane, scheduled to land in Beirut around 9:30, finally touched down at Beirut International Airport at 12:45 a.m.

Weary passengers were met with a rush at the baggage claim and long Customs lines.

A recording playing Wednesday on the Middle Eastern Airlines call center said that all flights “are operating normally as per schedule.”

Storm causes hypothermia among Syrian refugee children

BEIRUT: A snow storm that tossed heavy rain and hail on Lebanon’s coast and snow on the mountains and the Bekaa Valley added to the misery of Syrian refugees clustered inside tents in hundreds of gatherings across the country.

At least four Syrian refugee children in a tented settlement in Bar Elias in the Bekaa were rushed to hospital for hypothermia Wednesday, a source at the camp told The Daily Star.

Snow caused several tents to collapse, as refugees tried to keep warm inside their unheated shelters by burning lumber and waste paper.

“People are setting fire to anything they could find, including clothes, to keep warm. It is a most tragic situation,” the source said.

Several refugee families had their tents blown down by strong winds that battered Lebanon overnight and had to seek shelter with other refugees.

In Arsal, on Lebanon’s eastern border with Syria, the municipality equipped halls inside mosques in anticipation of a possible evacuation of refugees from their camps, sources said.

“Some refugees were treated for severe bruises they suffered when tents collapsed under the weight of snow,” a medical source in Arsal told The Daily Star.

The snow storm sweeping the Middle East since Tuesday evening has disrupted life in Jordan and Turkey, which also play host for large Syrian refugee communities living in camps on their borders with Syria.

Damage, power outages due to Lebanon storm: EDL

Electricite du Liban crews are hustling to fix the damages caused by a powerful storm sweeping through Lebanon, the...

New House Leadership Passes A Tax Cut 'Scoreboard'

i i

House Speaker John Boehner of Ohio arrives on the House floor in the Capitol on Tuesday, the opening session of the 114th Congress. J. Scott Applewhite/AP hide caption

itoggle caption J. Scott Applewhite/AP

House Speaker John Boehner of Ohio arrives on the House floor in the Capitol on Tuesday, the opening session of the 114th Congress.

J. Scott Applewhite/AP

In a move to cement their party's fiscal ideology, Republicans used the first vote of the new Congress to change the rules for estimating the economic consequences of major legislation.

"Dynamic scoring" is an analysis that requires macroeconomic projections be used when analyzing major bills. Republicans argue, for example, that tax cuts bring in more revenue to the government, not less, because they lead to economic growth which increases tax revenues. The new rules require the non-partisan experts at the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) and the staff of Congress's Joint Committee on Taxation (JCT) to use dynamic scoring.

The New York Times reported that under the new law, the incoming House Budget Committee chairman, Tom Price, R-Ga., will be able to send tax-related bills to the "scoreboard" to be tallied, dynamic-style.

"We're saying, 'If you think a piece of legislation is going to have a big effect on the economy, then include that effect in the official cost estimate,'" Price said. "So if you think a bill is going to help or hurt the economy, then tell us how much."

The rule was passed along party lines, 234-172, as Democrats criticized the process as a way to hide the real costs of tax cuts favored by Republicans. Ranking Democrat of the House Ways and Means Committee Sandy Levin said Tuesday that the law was not a good way to gather more information about tax policy.

"Republicans today are extending their embrace of voodoo economics by wrapping their arms around voodoo scorekeeping.

They are changing House rules to be able to cook the books to implement their long-held, discredited notion that tax cuts pay for themselves.

I think that former Reagan and George H. W. Bush administration official Bruce Bartlett said it best: 'It is not about honest revenue-estimating; it's about using smoke and mirrors to institutionalize Republican ideology into the budget process.'

That's what this is all about."

In an earlier statement, Levin called it "trickle-down economics," a Republican-favored theory that would provide tax breaks and the like to corporations and the wealthy, projecting that the benefits would eventually reach the lower classes through hiring, spending, services and other transactions.

The scoring rule was passed Tuesday as part of a package that also included an extension of the panel on the 2012 attack on the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi. The GOP lawsuit against President Obama for his recent executive actions was also extended in the vote.

In Typical Biden Fashion, The Vice President Welcomes Senators

Audio for this story from Morning Edition will be available at approximately 9:00 a.m. ET.

A third of the Senate was re-elected this past election, which means the presiding officer of the chamber, Vice President Joe Biden, had to swear them in.

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Lebanon presidential election postponed to Jan. 28

BEIRUT: Speaker Nabih Berri Wednesday postponed Lebanon's presidential election to Jan. 28 after legislators failed for a 17th time to elect a new head of state amid lack of consensus.

The scene at Parliament was the same as the previous 16 attempts, with a lack of quorum prompting Berri to postpone the vote.

Only 47 lawmakers from Berri’s parliamentary bloc and the Future Movement-led March 14 coalition showed up for Wednesday’s session.

MPs from the Hezbollah-led March 8 have boycotted the election sessions due to lack of consensus on a presidential candidate.

Quorum was met during the first legislative session to elect a president in April, but no candidate received enough votes to win.

Seven months after the end of former President Michel Sleiman's term, Lebanon's parliamentary blocs have repeatedly failed to elect a new head of state.

Obama Begins State Of The Union Preview In Michigan

Audio for this story from Morning Edition will be available at approximately 9:00 a.m. ET.

President Obama hits the road to promote his upcoming State of the Union address, and perhaps, to try to steal the spotlight away from Republicans in their first week leading the new Congress.