Assir to become ISIS Emir in Lebanon: report
ISIS will soon appoint fugitive Salafi-labeled Sheikh Ahmad Assir as the Emir of Lebanon, local daily Al-Joumouhria...
Tuesday, 27 January 2015
Hariri upbeat about new Saudi king’s support
Assir to become ISIS Emir in Lebanon: report
ISIS will soon appoint fugitive Salafi-labeled Sheikh Ahmad Assir as the Emir of Lebanon, local daily Al-Joumouhria...
Ahbash member shot dead in Ain al-Hilweh
Obama to bolster crucial Saudi alliance amid Mideast unrest
Obama arrives in Saudi Arabia to pay U.S. respects after the death of King Abdullah, a trip that underscores the...
Email: "Still Want to Enter?"
Earlier today, Video Director Adam Garber sent the following message to the White House email list earlier today, noting that the deadline for White House Student Film Festival submissions is February 2. If you're a student filmmaker and you want to submit a video -- or you know someone else who fits that description -- visit our Student Film Festival page here!
Didn't get the email? Sign up for updates here.
Are you a student filmmaker with big ideas about the importance of service and giving back? Do you know a young person who is?
Here's how it works:
Any K-12 U.S. student can submit a film that's three minutes long or shorter. You can read more about the submission guidelines here.
We'll feature the official selections on the White House website, and share them across the Internet on official White House accounts. And if you're selected, you might even have the chance to attend the film festival yourself, at the White House.
Along with representatives from the American Film Institute and other White House staff, I'll be taking a look at every submission we get -- and last year, we got some great stuff. Take a look at the official selections of 2014:
Obama Administration Won't Seek To End 529 College Tax Break
Reversing what had been an unpopular approach, the White House says it is dropping the idea of ending a tax break for 529 college savings plans. Critics had called the proposal a tax hike. All 50 states and the District of Columbia sponsor 529 plans.
Money in 529 accounts is meant to grow along with future college students, and then be distributed to pay for education expenses without being taxed.
As NPR's Tamara Keith reported this morning, "It's a pretty good deal, and one that's been around since 2001. But the White House says fewer than 3 percent of families use these accounts — and 70 percent of the money in them comes from families earning more than $200,000 a year."
Obama's plan had been to end the tax benefit for future contributions, replacing it with other education and tax proposals. But the idea drew bipartisan criticism, and the White House said today that it will now ask Congress to focus on "a larger package of education tax relief that has bipartisan support," along with proposals the president mentioned in his State of the Union speech.
NPR's Keith confirmed the reversal Tuesday. The New York Times reported the news today, saying that the president was "facing angry reprisals from parents and from lawmakers of both parties."
The move comes a day after Rep. Lynn Jenkins, R-Kan., introduced a bill that would expand college savings plans instead of limiting them.
Today, Jenkins said her bill would "further promote college access and eliminate barriers for middle class families to save and plan ahead. It would also modernize the program by allowing students to purchase a computer using their 529 funds."
House Speaker John Boehner, who had urged Obama to keep the 529 plans intact, says he's glad the president "listened to the American people and withdrew his proposed tax hike on college savings." He added, "This tax would have hurt middle-class families already struggling to get ahead."
Aides familiar with the conversations tell NPR's Keith that House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi urged preserving the 529 provisions today, as she traveled with the president on Air Force One from India to Saudi Arabia.
You can read about 529 plans at the SEC website, as well as at the IRS site.
Koch Brothers Put Price Tag On 2016: $889 Million
Americans for Prosperity Foundation Chairman David Koch speaks in Orlando, Fla., in Aug. 2013. Phelan M. Ebenhack/AP hide caption
itoggle caption Phelan M. Ebenhack/AP
Americans for Prosperity Foundation Chairman David Koch speaks in Orlando, Fla., in Aug. 2013.
Phelan M. Ebenhack/AP
The political network led by industrialists Charles and David Koch plans to spend $889 million dollars for the 2016 elections. In modern politics, it's more than just a ton of money.
It's about as much as the entire national Republican party spent in the last presidential election cycle, four years ago. And as Sheila Krumholz – director of the nonpartisan Center for Responsive Politics, which tracks politicians and donors – pointed out in an interview, it's double what the Koch brothers and their network spent in 2012.
Krumholz summed it up: "It is staggering."
But not just staggering – it's also mostly secret. The Republican and Democratic political parties have to disclose their donors. The Koch network consists almost entirely of groups that don't register under the campaign finance laws, and so don't publicly identify their donors.
"So much of their funding and operations are conducted in secret that we really don't know else is behind this," Krumholz said.
The Koch organization unveiled the $889-million budget to several hundred donors at a private conference in Palm Springs, Calif., which concluded Monday. Donors were asked to pledge.
The conference featured Republican senators who were elected last fall with help from the Koch network and their success stories colored the event.
No other outside money operation matches the Koch network in funding or organizational breadth. Various components of the network run TV ads, do grassroots work and phone banking, develop voter data files, and reach out to veterans, women, Hispanic voters and young voters.
"Essentially we've created a new party. It's the party of conservative, rich activists," said political scientist Darrell West, author of Billionaires, a book about wealthy donors in politics. While the Republican and Democratic parties have big donor bases, West said, with the Koch donors, "you're talking about an incredibly tiny slice of Americans."
Before the pledging session at the Palm Springs conference, donors watched three likely GOP presidential candidates in a debate. Moderator Jonathan Karl, of ABC News, asked the three about the influence of wealthy donors.
Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul said the real political corruption involves government contracts: "I haven't met one person since I've been here or as I travel around the country who's come up to me saying, 'Oh, I want a contract.' They simply wanna be left alone."
Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida said the real corruption was about special access, which wasn't happening with these donors. "I don't know a single person in this room who's ever been to my office, and I haven't seen everyone here today, but a single one who's been to my office asking from government any special access."
But it was Texas Sen. Ted Cruz who gave a full-throated endorsement of his hosts.
"Let me very clear. I admire Charles and David Koch," he said. "They are businessmen who have created hundreds of thousands of jobs."
Cruz paused for the audience to clap. "And they have stood up for free market principles and endured vilification, with equanimity and grace."
There's no word yet on whether the donors were dazzled. But the Koch network is showing interest in jumping into the presidential primary fight, something it's never done before.
MPs set to botch presidential election again
BEIRUT: Parliament is scheduled to meet Wednesday to elect a new president amid signs that the session is destined to fail like previous ones over a lack of quorum, heralding a prolonged vacuum in the country’s top Christian post.
Ministerial sources said a rapprochement between Saudi Arabia and Iran, which wield great influence in Lebanon, held the key to breaking the 8-month-old presidential stalemate.
Wednesday’s session will be the 18th abortive attempt since April to choose a successor to former President Michel Sleiman, whose six-year tenure ended on 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.
The presidential deadlock was believed to have been discussed during a meeting between Speaker Nabih Berri and MP Walid Jumblatt at the former’s residence in Ain al-Tineh. During the meeting attended also by Finance Minister Ali Hasan Khalil, a political aide to Berri, and Health Minister Wael Abu Faour, the two leaders reviewed the “current situation and developments,” the National News Agency reported.
During his short visit to Riyadh Monday to offer condolences over the death of Saudi King Abdullah, Aoun, accompanied by Foreign Minister Gebran Bassil and Education Minister Elias Bou Saab, met with former Prime Minister Saad Hariri. Hariri and Aoun discussed local developments, Al-Jadeed TV station said, without giving further details.
The Parliament session comes as foreign envoys who are interested in the Lebanese presidential election, particularly French presidential envoy Jean-Francois Girault, have suspended their political activity for now.
Parliamentary sources in the March 8 and March 14 camps said that the flurry of political activity by international envoys has been replaced by internal dialogue, namely between the Future Movement and Hezbollah, which is aimed at defusing sectarian tensions, and the dialogue between the Free Patriotic Movement and the Lebanese Forces designed to arrange a meeting between the FPM leader Aoun and LF chief Samir Geagea to resolve the presidential crisis.
But such a meeting could not be held unless Aoun won a firm pledge from Geagea to back him for president in exchange for the FPM leader’s readiness to meet the LF chief’s possible conditions in this respect, the sources said.
However, ministerial sources said an improvement in Saudi-Iranian relations, strained by regional conflicts, mainly the war in Syria, was essential to help break the presidential deadlock.
But the possibility of Riyadh and Tehran meeting to discuss divisive issues in the region, including the Lebanese presidential election, is not favorable now, the sources said.
Therefore, the sources added, Lebanon must wait to find out the prospects of the Saudi-Iranian ties in light of the results of the ongoing negotiations between Iran and Western powers over its nuclear program.
According to the sources, Prime Minister Tammam Salam’s “government of national interest,” formed to manage the presidential vacuum crisis, is functioning properly and doing its job to the fullest.
The Cabinet is scheduled to meet Thursday to discuss 51 items on its agenda, including a draft decree calling for raising the number of Internal Security Forces from 29,000 to 40,000.
Meanwhile, Maronite Patriarch Beshara Rai, in his first public appearance since undergoing brain surgery last week, expressed hope that dialogue between rival factions would lead to the election of a president.
“We are at the end of the eighth month of the presidential vacuum, in addition to paralysis in Parliament and the government’s failure to exercise the president’s powers according to Article 62 in the Constitution,” Rai told a meeting of Catholic patriarchs held in Bkirki.
“Strenuous efforts should be made by the relevant parties [MPs] and decision-makers to quickly elect a president. We hope the ongoing dialogue among the conflicting political parties will help in this solution.”
Anger over stadium plan in Horsh Beirut
BEIRUT: The Beirut municipality’s plan to build a football stadium in the capital’s largest park has sparked controversy, with many activists and MP Walid Jumblatt saying the project would damage one of few remaining green spaces. But Beirut Mayor Bilal Hamad said that the new stadium would only replace an already existing one in the same area of Horsh Beirut, adding that the project would not cut even a single tree.
Last month, the government agreed to task the Council of Development and Reconstruction to prepare a study to construct a civic center to replace the current football stadium in Beirut’s neighborhood of Al-Tariq al-Jadideh.
An underground parking lot accommodating 2,000 cars would be built under the center.
The CDR was also tasked with studying plans to build an alternative stadium in Horsh Beirut.
According to Raja Noujaim, the representative of the Association for the Protection of the Lebanese Heritage, there was no justification behind the decision to cut the greenery in Horsh Beirut by constructing the stadium. “We want green spaces in this country to breathe,” he told The Daily Star.
“We want something environmentally friendly in Horsh Beirut rather than a cement structure and all the associated noise,” Noujaim added.
He complained that the municipality had not consulted urban planners or designers about any of its projects.
“There is already an environmentally friendly stadium by the edge of Horsh Beirut. Why do they want to decrease green spaces in this country [to build a new one], as if Beirut is full of green spaces,” Noujaim said.
“Let them refurbish the stadium near the Horsh in an environmentally friendly way and form a civic center near Horsh,” he said.
Although his ministers approved the Cabinet’s decision, Progressive Socialist Party leader Jumblatt voiced his opposition to the project in his weekly editorial last week.
He urged the municipality to preserve Horsh Beirut, saying it was one of the few remaining green spaces in the capital.
Commenting on the uproar, Mayor Hamad stressed that the new stadium would replace one at the edge of Horsh Beirut, which Noujaim had mentioned, adding that it would also overtake two abandoned adjacent pieces of land.
“There is a big training stadium, the size of it is almost Olympic. It is there now and it is used by many Beirut teams for training ... so it is already there,” he said.
Hamad said the stadium would be built in a barren area of Horsh Beirut, and would not affect its concentration of green space. “What I am doing is using that space for a stadium. I am not cutting a single tree.”
He said that the Olympic stadium would accommodate around 7,000 spectators and there would be no construction done above street level.
“Even the stands will be below ground floor level. It is a green environment, green structure. It is environmentally friendly for sure,” Hamad said.
Hamad added that a parking lot would be constructed under the new stadium that would also serve the nearby hippodrome area.
“Our project is to transform the hippodrome [into a sort of] Beirut Central Park [where horse] races will still be held,” Hamad said.
He explained that the municipal council had approved a master plan for Horsh Beirut, adding that a bidding process would be launched in the spring to select a company to execute it. Under the plan, benches, tracks, an amphitheater, bathrooms, signage and other facilities would be installed.
“This company which we will commission will be in charge of management, maintenance and security of the Horsh,” he said. “God willing we will have a company before the end of summer in Horsh. Once we finish what we want, we will open it for the public.”
Around 300,000 square meters big, Horsh Beirut, which was renovated following the end of Civil War, is not yet open for the public.
“Now it’s open ... for people above 30 ... and we allowed children to enter with their parents,” Hamad said.
Hamad said that the current public stadium in Al-Tariq al-Jadideh would be replaced with a civic center, containing another underground parking lot accommodating 2,000 cars.
“In Al-Tariq al-Jadideh, there is a football stadium in the middle of a very heavily populated area ... It is used six to eight times per year ... we are transforming Al-Tariq al-Jadideh [stadium] into a civic center,” Hamad said.
Noujaim, however, questioned why a carpark would be built in a crowded area such as Al-Tariq al-Jadideh, wondering how vehicles would reach the parking lot.
“It is a heavily crowded neighborhood and they haven’t done any traffic studies,” Noujaim explained. “There will be 600 cars entering and 600 cars leaving the parking lot three times a day at peak hours.”
Noujaim said that parking lots planned for the city center should be constructed instead near the entrances of crowded neighborhoods.
But Hamad said that entrances to the planned parking lot would be easy. “We can have ramps to enter and leave to serve four corners [of the neighborhood]. This way we serve most of Al-Tariq al-Jadideh ... we will solve the problem of multi-street parking,” Hamad said.
“Fifty percent of the traffic jam in Beirut is because of double parking and illegal parking.”
Illegal adoption agency charged with child trafficking
BEIRUT: An illegal child adoption agency which allegedly worked to convince migrant domestic workers to give up newborns in return for facilitating travel back home has been accused of child trafficking and forging birth certificates. Zeina Abdullah, the owner of a migrant domestic worker recruitment agency, and two licensed Lebanese doctors were accused three weeks ago of child trafficking after an investigative reality show reported the case of a migrant worker who agreed to give up her child to the network.
Arrest warrants were issued Tuesday against Dr. Aziz Samaha and Dr. Fouad Joseph Helou by Judge Rami Abdullah, who is presiding over the case.
The three are accused of forming an illegal adoption network, which provides adopting families with newborn infants delivered by migrant domestic workers, according to a source who has attended the trial hearings of the three suspects.
According to the source, Abdullah was responsible for dealing with the birth mother and the adopting family, while the doctors would forge birth certificates and place the adoptive parent’s name on the certificate instead of the birth mother.
The recruitment agency would then try to convince the migrant domestic worker to give up her child by promising financial compensation or facilitating a flight home. Abdullah would contact the adoptive family and ask them to settle medical fees incurred for the delivery.
Abdullah is currently in custody alongside three adopting mothers who resorted to using her services.
One of the three mothers in custody, Sara, whose name has been changed, adopted a child through Abdullah on Feb. 5, 2013, her cousin told The Daily Star.
Abdullah contacted Sara after the latter informed several hospitals and organizations of her desire to adopt a child. Abdullah had never met Sara before and had acquired her number through an unidentified third party, the cousin said.
The recruitment agency owner informed the woman of the case of a Filipino domestic worker who had delivered a boy two days earlier in the Bitar Hospital in Metn. After telling Sara that the mother didn’t want the child, Abdullah proceeded to ask whether she would be interested in adoption.
“Out of her desperation for kids,” Sara agreed, the cousin said.
Sara immediately rushed to the hospital where she met with Abdullah and Dr. Samaha, who worked at the facility.
Abdullah informed the adopting mother that she would only have to cover hospital expenses, roughly $3,500, in return for the child.
Before leaving the hospital, Dr. Samaha approached Sara and asked if she would prefer to fabricate the child’s birth certificate by placing her own name as the biological mother.
“Of course she said yes. Having her name as the birth mother would spare her child so much difficulty when he would have to apply for official documents later on,” the cousin said. “She saw it as a means of avoiding further complications.”
The Filipino mother – who left Lebanon shortly after giving birth – had decided to give up her child after Abdullah had promised to facilitate her travel back to the Philippines. This was not the first time that Abdullah struck such a deal.
Zeina Abdullah rose to notoriety after the show “Hki Jeles” revealed the case of Victoria Salfani, also in custody for resorting to the services of the agency owner last February.
Elveena Okambo, a Filipino domestic worker, delivered her child in the Lebanese-Canadian Hospital in Sin al-Fil last January. The presiding physician, Dr. Helou, fabricated the birth certificate and Abdullah arranged for the adoption of the child by Salfani only a few days later.
Anger over stadium plan in Horsh Beirut
BEIRUT: The Beirut municipality’s plan to build a football stadium in the capital’s largest park has sparked controversy, with many activists and MP Walid Jumblatt saying the project would damage one of few remaining green spaces. But Beirut Mayor Bilal Hamad said that the new stadium would only replace an already existing one in the same area of Horsh Beirut, adding that the project would not cut even a single tree.
Last month, the government agreed to task the Council of Development and Reconstruction to prepare a study to construct a civic center to replace the current football stadium in Beirut’s neighborhood of Al-Tariq al-Jadideh.
An underground parking lot accommodating 2,000 cars would be built under the center.
The CDR was also tasked with studying plans to build an alternative stadium in Horsh Beirut.
According to Raja Noujaim, the representative of the Association for the Protection of the Lebanese Heritage, there was no justification behind the decision to cut the greenery in Horsh Beirut by constructing the stadium. “We want green spaces in this country to breathe,” he told The Daily Star.
“We want something environmentally friendly in Horsh Beirut rather than a cement structure and all the associated noise,” Noujaim added.
He complained that the municipality had not consulted urban planners or designers about any of its projects.
“There is already an environmentally friendly stadium by the edge of Horsh Beirut. Why do they want to decrease green spaces in this country [to build a new one], as if Beirut is full of green spaces,” Noujaim said.
“Let them refurbish the stadium near the Horsh in an environmentally friendly way and form a civic center near Horsh,” he said.
Although his ministers approved the Cabinet’s decision, Progressive Socialist Party leader Jumblatt voiced his opposition to the project in his weekly editorial last week.
He urged the municipality to preserve Horsh Beirut, saying it was one of the few remaining green spaces in the capital.
Commenting on the uproar, Mayor Hamad stressed that the new stadium would replace one at the edge of Horsh Beirut, which Noujaim had mentioned, adding that it would also overtake two abandoned adjacent pieces of land.
“There is a big training stadium, the size of it is almost Olympic. It is there now and it is used by many Beirut teams for training ... so it is already there,” he said.
Hamad said the stadium would be built in a barren area of Horsh Beirut, and would not affect its concentration of green space. “What I am doing is using that space for a stadium. I am not cutting a single tree.”
He said that the Olympic stadium would accommodate around 7,000 spectators and there would be no construction done above street level.
“Even the stands will be below ground floor level. It is a green environment, green structure. It is environmentally friendly for sure,” Hamad said.
Hamad added that a parking lot would be constructed under the new stadium that would also serve the nearby hippodrome area.
“Our project is to transform the hippodrome [into a sort of] Beirut Central Park [where horse] races will still be held,” Hamad said.
He explained that the municipal council had approved a master plan for Horsh Beirut, adding that a bidding process would be launched in the spring to select a company to execute it. Under the plan, benches, tracks, an amphitheater, bathrooms, signage and other facilities would be installed.
“This company which we will commission will be in charge of management, maintenance and security of the Horsh,” he said. “God willing we will have a company before the end of summer in Horsh. Once we finish what we want, we will open it for the public.”
Around 300,000 square meters big, Horsh Beirut, which was renovated following the end of Civil War, is not yet open for the public.
“Now it’s open ... for people above 30 ... and we allowed children to enter with their parents,” Hamad said.
Hamad said that the current public stadium in Al-Tariq al-Jadideh would be replaced with a civic center, containing another underground parking lot accommodating 2,000 cars.
“In Al-Tariq al-Jadideh, there is a football stadium in the middle of a very heavily populated area ... It is used six to eight times per year ... we are transforming Al-Tariq al-Jadideh [stadium] into a civic center,” Hamad said.
Noujaim, however, questioned why a carpark would be built in a crowded area such as Al-Tariq al-Jadideh, wondering how vehicles would reach the parking lot.
“It is a heavily crowded neighborhood and they haven’t done any traffic studies,” Noujaim explained. “There will be 600 cars entering and 600 cars leaving the parking lot three times a day at peak hours.”
Noujaim said that parking lots planned for the city center should be constructed instead near the entrances of crowded neighborhoods.
But Hamad said that entrances to the planned parking lot would be easy. “We can have ramps to enter and leave to serve four corners [of the neighborhood]. This way we serve most of Al-Tariq al-Jadideh ... we will solve the problem of multi-street parking,” Hamad said.
“Fifty percent of the traffic jam in Beirut is because of double parking and illegal parking.”
Hezbollah clashes with militants trying to infiltrate border
BEIRUT: Hezbollah clashed with jihadis who were trying to infiltrate Lebanese territory in northeast Lebanon Tuesday evening as mystery continued to shroud the whereabouts of fugitive Islamist Chadi Mawlawi. Violent clashes ensued Tuesday evening between Hezbollah and militants in the outskirts of the village of Nahleh northeast of the town of Baalbek, as the party foiled an infiltration attempt into Lebanese lands.
In an attempt to thwart the advance of militants, security sources said Hezbollah clashed with militants in Wadi al-Khashaa in the outskirts of the town.
Hezbollah heavily pounded militant hideouts in the outskirts of Nahleh, with the sound of artillery echoing across the Baalbek area, the sources said.
Meanwhile the location of fugitive terror suspect Chadi Mawlawi remained unclear. While the interior minister and Palestinian officials confirmed that he had left Ain al-Hilweh camp, a security source said he was likely still inside.
“Chadi Mawlawi is in the Arsal area with the Nusra Front,” Interior Minister Nouhad Machnouk told MTV news television channel.
While clarifying that it was not the first time fighters were smuggled into Arsal’s outskirts, Machnouk said authorities were tracking Mawlawi.
In an interview earlier this month, Machnouk said that Mawlawi and Osama Mansour, another fugitive Islamist, have managed to sneak to the Palestinian refugee camp of Ain al-Hilweh, located on the outskirts of Sidon.
Mawlawi and Mansour fled to Ain al-Hilweh after fighting a deadly battle against Lebanese Army troops in the city of Tripoli last October.
Last week, Fatah Movement official Azzam al-Ahmad, who is in charge of Palestinian refugees in Lebanon, said during a visit that refugee camps in the country would not shelter wanted people.
Ahmad Abdel-Hadi, deputy political Hamas leader in Lebanon, also insisted that Mawlawi had left the camp.
“We have received assurances from the camp’s Islamist groups, including Osbat al-Ansar, and from Lebanese security authorities that Mawlawi was no longer in Ain al-Hilweh,” he told The Daily Star.
Abdel-Hadi was commenting after news emerged Tuesday that Mawlawi was still inside the camp despite reports Sunday that he had left.
Sunday’s announcement by Sheikh Jamal Khattab, spiritual leader of Islamist factions in Ain al-Hilweh, was the first confirmation that Mawlawi was no longer in the camp.
“There is consensus among all Palestinian factions that it is forbidden for Mawlawi to stay inside the camp,” Abdel-Hadi stressed.
“Whether Chadi is still in the camp, or had left two days ago, or left an hour ago, or he would be leaving in an hour, it doesn’t matter,” he argued. “What matters is that there is a decision banning him from staying at the camp so that it does not become a safe haven for outlaws.”
The spokesperson for Osbat al-Ansar made similar remarks.
“Information in our possession and [Lebanon’s] Interior Ministry show that Mawlawi had left the camp,” the spokesperson told the Voice of Lebanon radio.
“This issue is over.”
But a security source said he doubted that Mawlawi had actually left the camp.
Earlier Tuesday, the Lebanese Army shelled sporadically the outskirts of the northeastern Bekaa Valley town of Ras Baalbek, in a pre-emptive move aimed at fending off jihadi militants holed up in the rugged border area with Syria, security sources said.
Troops have been bombing intermittently the outskirts of Ras Baalbek since Sunday.
The area was the scene of deadly battles Friday between the Lebanese Army and jihadis who tried to overrun a military post in nearby Tallet al-Hamra, a strategic hill.
The Syria-based militants launched a surprise attack on an Army post in Tallet al-Hamra, prompting clashes that lasted for over 16 hours. The Army retook the hill at the end of the fighting.
Eight Lebanese soldiers were killed and at least 22 others wounded in the altercation. At least 40 militants, whose bodies were discovered on the outskirts of Ras Baalbek, were also killed, most of them in Army airstrikes.
Israel, takfiri groups ‘aim to destabilize’ Lebanon
Israel and takfiri groups have one thing in common: inciting sectarian strife in Lebanon with the aim of destabilizing the country, according to high-ranking security sources.
“There is a link in the chain of military events that happened recently. There is more than a linkage between the Israeli airstrike in Qunaitra and the attacks by ISIS and the Nusra Front [on the Lebanese Army] in Ras Baalbek,” one of the sources told The Daily Star.
“Lebanon is facing an Israeli threat and a takfiri-terrorist threat, both of which are aimed at stirring up sectarian sentiments and sabotaging the current equation of stability in the country with a view to disrupting the atmosphere of the ongoing dialogue [between the Future Movement and Hezbollah],” the source said.
“However, the result was contrary [to what Israel and takfiri groups had planned] as most political parties upheld the internal dialogue and refused to be dragged into attempts to push the country toward a civil war or sectarian strife,” the source added.
The source called for assessing the security, military, political and religious dimensions of the Israeli raid on a Hezbollah convoy in the Syrian town of Qunaitra in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights on Jan. 18, which came entirely contrary to Israel’s calculations.
“Reactions from the Future Movement and the majority of the Lebanese political parties [to the Israeli raid] were united in absorbing the incident locally and in condemning the Israeli crime which was utterly unjustified,” the source said.
Hezbollah has so far kept mum on how and when it might respond to the Israeli raid on its convoy in Qunaitra which killed six party fighters, including a field commander, the son of the slain military commander Imad Mughniyeh and a senior Iranian general.
The Qunaitra raid came less than a week after fierce clashes between the Lebanese Army and ISIS militants on the outskirts of the village of Ras Baalbek near Lebanon’s eastern border with Syria. Eight Lebanese soldiers, including an officer, were killed and 22 others were wounded in the clashes, which erupted after ISIS militants attacked and briefly overran an Army post in Tallet al-Hamra on the outskirts of Ras Baalbek.
Political sources warned that Lebanon was facing security challenges as demonstrated by the repeated attacks of Syria-based jihadis on Army positions in Lebanon’s east, or in renewed talk about bomb-rigged vehicles spread across Lebanese territories, or the Israeli security alert on the southern border in the wake of the Qunaitra attack.
According to one source, U.S. Ambassador to Lebanon David Hale recently conveyed a message from the Israeli side to senior Lebanese officials warning that Israel was determined to respond harshly to any military operation that might be launched by Hezbollah against Israeli interests.
The Israeli message along with the “security message” issued by the U.S. Embassy in Beirut last week warning its citizens against traveling to Lebanon heralded a difficult stage for Lebanon, where security developments gained predominance over political activity, the sources said.
With regard to reports about car bombs, security sources said authorities are currently searching for three terror suspects who have been equipped with explosive belts to carry out suicide attacks. The attacks would resemble one carried out by two suicide bombers who blew themselves up at a crowded cafe in the Jabal Mohsen neighborhood in the northern city of Tripoli earlier this month, killing at least nine people and wounding more than 30 others, the sources said.
The names and identities of the three terror suspects are known, but the individuals disappeared a while ago and their parents are unaware of their whereabouts, the sources said.
Media reports said security agencies have received information about the infiltration of a field commander from the Nusra Front, identified as Saeed M., from Syria to Lebanon.
According to the reports, the Nusra official had held secret meetings with a militant cell comprising three Syrians in the Cola neighborhood of Beirut to plot terror attacks.
Meanwhile, a number of Islamist sheikhs in the Palestinian refugee camps have escalated their speeches against Russia following the broadcast of an ISIS video purporting to show a young boy executing two men accused of working for Russian intelligence services.
A Lebanese official voiced fears that militant Islamist organizations have actually begun planning to target Russian interests and embassies in Lebanon and Syria. Citing security reports, the official disclosed that Bilal Badr, a Fatah al-Islam official, had blessed the beheading of the Russian spies, arguing that the Russians have been the enemies of Muslims since the war in Afghanistan.
Obama Makes Guest Appearance On Modi's Radio Show
India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi hosts a radio show and this week his guest was President Barack Obama. They answered questions from a curious Indian public.
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Koch Brothers Rival GOP With Plans To Spend $900 Million In 2016
The billionaire industrialist Koch brothers have announced their fundraising goal for the 2016 election: nearly $900 million, which puts the assorted secret-money groups in the same league as the national Republican Party.
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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.
President Obama Protects Untouched Marine Wilderness in Alaska
Today, the President is taking another step to protect our most valuable natural resources. Relying on an authority used by presidents of both parties since Eisenhower, President Obama is designating 9.8 million acres in the waters of the Beaufort and Chukchi Seas off Alaska’s coast as off-limits to consideration for future oil and gas leasing. This action builds on recent steps by the President to protect Bristol Bay and the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.
Teeming with biological diversity, these areas in the Beaufort and Chukchi are part of one of the last great marine wildernesses left untouched by development. Endangered whales swim through the icy seas, walruses and bearded seals feed on the Hanna Shoal, and more than 40 species of fish like cod and herring grant fishermen their livelihoods. Each year, the bowhead whale hunt draws Native communities throughout northern Alaska, as essential for their sustenance as it is to their way of life and cultural history.
Lebanon unions denounce labor minister's 'backwards' maid protection proposal
BEIRUT: The National Federation of Labor Unions slammed Labor Minister Sejaan Azzi Tuesday for rejecting its proposal to create a union for migrant domestic workers in Lebanon.
“The Labor Ministry, despite all its speeches about the ‘importance of modern laws,’ comes out with a statement empty in content and backwards in proposal,” the federation said in a statement.
The unions expressed disappointment that Azzi’s statement Monday described the domestic workers’ right to form a union as “illegal.”
“This fundamentally contradicts the International Labor Convention... the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the Universal Convention for Social, Economic and Cultural Rights, and even intentionally overlooks the Lebanese Constitution,” the federation’s statement said.
Azzi had voiced his rejection to the union’s formation Monday, saying the workers’ rights would instead be protected by a bill he is introducing to Cabinet.
“Advanced laws would solve the problems that the [migrant worker] sector is suffering from, not the formation of groups under the guise of a syndicate,” the ministry said in a statement.
“Did the author of the Labor Ministry’s statement forget when he... referred to the appropriate work organization and the standards of the ILO, that appropriate work is based on the right of association and collective bargaining?” the unions’ statement wondered.
“It would be useful that they review the international standards before writing such statements.”
The federation also reminded the ministry that workers' unions should participate in drafting any decision, bill or policy that concerns work conditions.
Currently, the employment of migrant domestic workers in Lebanon is governed by a sponsorship, or “kafala” system, which has been widely criticized by human rights groups that liken it to slavery.
Under the system, migrant workers must be sponsored by a Lebanese employer in order for them to work in the country. But since such workers are not protected under the labor law, the kafala system gives sponsors leeway to impose harsh working conditions with little fear of reprisal.
Azzi’s bill, which he says respects the International Labor Organization’s Domestic Worker Convention, requires a written contract between the employer and the employee.
The bill also prevents employers who have previously mistreated migrant domestic workers from hiring a new worker.
Other articles stipulate providing insurance, annual vacation, suitable living conditions, fair compensation, and the right to employee privacy.
The bill has not yet been ratified by Parliament.
According to the ILO, Lebanon is home to more than 250,000 female migrant domestic workers, the majority of whom come from Sri Lanka, Ethiopia, the Philippines and Bangladesh to work as housemaids.
Rights groups have complained that employers often withhold pay, lock workers in their homes and confiscate their passports, among other abuses.
The harsh living conditions have pushed some migrant workers to commit suicide. Others have died or been seriously injured while trying to escape their employers’ homes.
In 2008, Human Rights Watch recorded one migrant domestic worker death per week from unnatural causes, including suicide.
Employees protest Casino du Liban mass layoffs
Employees protest Casino du Liban mass layoffs
Lebanon’s renowned casino issued an administrative decision to lay off 191 employees, prompting protests outside the...
Police to Google: Stop Letting Waze Tell People Where We Are
Police officers and sheriffs around the U.S. are calling on Google to turn off police tracking on Waze, the traffic and navigation app Google purchased in June 2013, claiming that the feature makes Waze into a “police stalking” app that puts their lives in danger.
Waze is a crowdsourcing app that alerts drivers in real time to potential hazards, delays, and other traffic happenings; users might flag construction zones, accidents, or other areas of single lane driving. Drivers also use the police warnings often to broadcast potential speed traps, though there’s no way to designate the exact nature of police presence—whether they’re actually monitoring speed or the officers just happen to be parked there.
Mike Brown, a sheriff in Virginia, wants the function removed over concern for police lives in the wake of the shooting of two police officers in New York City. The shooter, Ismaaiyl Brinsley, posted a Waze screenshot to Instagram along with threatening messages.
“The police community needs to coordinate an effort to have the owner, Google, act like the responsible corporate citizen they have always been and remove this feature from the application even before any litigation or statutory action,” Brown told ABC News. Fraternal Order of Police executive director Jim Pasco echoed these concerns, saying that it may be a way to plan future crimes. He said bank robbers may “use [their] Waze” in the plotting of a crime.
The Waze backlash has some civil liberties groups up in arms, maintaining that the app is simply reporting on freely available data—the position of law enforcement officers in plain sight. In 2011, Apple banned many DUI checkpoint style apps going forward due to police pressure. That pressure (and stiff competition from Waze) also contributed to the demise of Trapster. Trapster and PhantomAlert also fell in the scopes of policymakers in DC.
Source: ABC News.
This article originally published at Popular Mechanics
3 arrested over 250 kilos of spoiled chicken for sale in Beirut
BEIRUT: Security forces arrested a tradesman and his two adult sons after finding 250 kilos of spoiled chicken stored in their house in Al-Tariq al-Jadideh neighborhood of Beirut, a police statement said Tuesday.
The statement said the suspects, identified only by their initials K.N., M.N., and W.N., were apprehended after they had been placed under surveillance on suspicion of selling spoiled chicken to several restaurants.
Police raided their house where they seized 250 kilos of rotten chicken stored in a fridge, and confiscated two vans they used for distribution, the statement said.
It pointed out that health ministry inspectors were present when the chicken was seized.
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UN health inspectors survey Beirut slaughterhouse ahead of renovations
Army seizes warheads, arrests 24 Syrians
The Lebanese Army arrested Monday two Syrians nationals in Zghorta, north Lebanon following the seizure of several...
Japan urges Lebanon security cooperation amid ISIS threat
BEIRUT: Japan Tuesday called for security cooperation with Lebanon to face terrorist threats, days after ISIS beheaded one of two Japanese hostages.
Ambassador Seiichi Otsuka told Prime Minister Tammam Salam during a meeting Tuesday that Japan's premier was keen on achieving "close cooperation with [Lebanon] to combat terrorism," a statement from Salam's office said.
The news comes three days after ISIS released a video showing the beheading of Haruna Yukawa, one of two Japanese hostages held by the jihadi group.
Japan's premier Shinzo Abe had denounced the killing of the Japanese hostage as a “completely unacceptable terrorist act,” and was adamant on saving the life of the second hostage, journalist Kenji Goto Jogo.
Salam offered his sympathies to Japan over the killing, and extended condolences to the victim's family, the statement said.
The Japanese premier likened his country’s hostage crisis to the case of 25 Lebanese servicemen being held captive by ISIS and the Nusra Front on Lebanon's northeastern border, expressing hopes for their “immediate release.”
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Lebanon Press Federation head fined over defaming FPM leader, former security chief
BEIRUT: Lebanon's newly elected Press Federation chief Aouni al-Kaaki was ordered Tuesday to pay compensation to former General Security head Jamil al-Sayyed, and MP Michel Aoun in separate libel cases.
The Court of Criminal Appeals found Kaaki, who is also editor-in-chief of As-Sharq newspaper, guilty of publishing content that defames Sayyed, and ordered him to pay LL6 million ($3,972) in compensation to the former security chief, Sayyed's office said in a statement.
Kaaki was fined an additional LL500,000 to be paid to the state in indemnities, and was ordered to publish the court’s verdict in his newspaper, after losing the appeal.
A judicial source confirmed the ruling to The Daily Star.
Separately Tuesday, Kaaki was ordered by the Beirut Publication Court to pay LL10 million for slandering Michel Aoun in an article published on April 14, 2010 in the same newspaper, the source said.
He will also have to pay an additional LL6 million to the state in indemnities.
The author of the article, Mirvat Sioufi, was ordered to pay the same amounts.
Kaaki and Sioufi can appeal the verdict in the Aoun case. If they appeal the verdict, the case could be forwarded to the Court of Criminal Appeals.
Kaaki was elected earlier this month as the head of the Lebanese Press Federation.
Jazeera TV host formally charged with 'insulting' Lebanon Army
Facebook suffers outage affecting users worldwide
Facebook is suffering a widespread outage Tuesday affecting users in the United States, Asia and Australia.
Obama Takes Heat For Proposing To End College Savings Break
President Obama has proposed changing the tax treatment of college savings accounts known as 529 plans. Some are calling this a tax increase on the middle class.
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.
M. Lebanon electricity workers protest sacking of colleagues
BEIRUT: Electricity workers employed at a Mount Lebanon provider protested Tuesday the recent sacking of dozens of their colleagues.
The National National Agency said workers at private electricity company EPS protested outside their office in the Iqlim al-Kharroub village of Mazboud, days after the firm fired 36 people.
Among the three dozen sacked, around 20 are contract workers who had worked for state-run Electricite Du Liban before Energy Minister Gebran Bassil outsourced the management of the electricity network to EPS in 2012.
Workers at EPS had earlier told The Daily Star that they fear the company is preparing to announce a new round of layoffs.
Contract workers at the Tyre branch of EDL held a similar protest Monday in solidarity with their Mount Lebanon comrades.
Another service provider, Debbas Group’s NEU Company, is responsible for providing electricity to the districts of South Lebanon and the southern part of Mount Lebanon.
It has subcontracted EPS to manage several areas of Mount Lebanon, including Iqlim al-Kharroub.
The protests come less than than two months since contract workers ended a 4-month, nationwide strike.
The strike, during which workers blocked the EDL's Beirut headquarters and prevented the entry of any employee or executive, called for employing all of the 1,700 contract workers in EDL, or a promise that they would be employed after the end of the service providers’ contracts in 2016.
The final deal, brokered by Minister Akram Chehayeb, states that all of the workers would be employed after the current employees go into retirement.
But as EPS sacks workers, they worry that they would become ineligible to take the place of retirees at EDL.
Top Lebanon fugitive 'in outskirts with Nusra': interior minister
BEIRUT: Lebanon's Interior Minister and a Palestinian official Tuesday dismissed reports that Shadi Mawlawi, one of Lebanon’s most wanted terrorists, was still inside the Palestinian refugee camp of Ain al-Hilweh in the southern city of Sidon.
"Shadi Mawlawi is in the Arsal area with the Nusra Front," Interior Minister Nouhad Machnouk told MTV news television channel.
A report Monday published in local daily As-Safir said Mawlawi had fled Ain al-Hilweh to hide with Islamist militants fighting on the outskirts of the northeastern border town of Arsal.
Ahmad Abed-Hadi, deputy political Hamas leader in Lebanon, also insisted that Mawlawi had left the camp.
“We have received assurances from the camp’s Islamist groups, including Osbat al-Ansar, and from Lebanese security authorities that Mawlawi was no longer in Ain al-Hilweh camp,” he told The Daily Star.
Abed-Hadi was commenting after reports emerged Tuesday saying Mawlawi was still inside the camp despite confirmation Sunday that he had left.
The announcement made Sunday by Sheikh Jamal Khattab, spiritual leader of Islamist factions in Sidon’s Ain al-Hilweh, was the first confirmation that Mawlawi was no longer in the camp.
“There is consensus among all Palestinian factions that it is forbidden for Mawlawi to stay inside the camp,” Abed-Hadi stressed.
“Whether Shadi is still in the camp, or had left two days ago, or left an hour ago, or he would be leaving in an hour, it doesn’t matter,” he argued. “What matters is that there is a decision banning him from staying at the camp in order not to provide a safe haven for outlaws.”
Spokesman for Osbat al-Ansar made similar remarks.
“Information in our possession and [Lebanon’s] Interior Ministry show that Mawlawi had left the camp,” the spokesman told the Voice of Lebanon radio. “This issue is over.”
How Much Oil And Gas Is At Stake In ANWR?
Alaska politicians are furious about Obama's proposal to protect the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge from oil and gas development. They've argued ANWR is vital to the state's economic future.
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.
Murkowski Critical Of Proposal For Arctic National Wildlife Refuge
Renee Montagne talks to Republican Senator Lisa Murkowski about White House plans to designate 12 million acres of the Alaska National Wildlife Refuge as wilderness.
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.
Lebanon Maronite Patriarch Rai chairs first meeting after surgery
Lebanon Army shells Syrian border region for third day
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Lebanon Army shells Syrian border region for third day
Kataeb urges anti-ISIS coalition to protect Lebanon
Kataeb Party deputy leader Sejaan Azzi called Tuesday on the U.S.-led coalition fighting ISIS to protect Lebanon...
Emirates suspends Baghdad flights after shooting involving flydubai
Kataeb urges anti-ISIS coalition to protect Lebanon
Kataeb Party deputy leader Sejaan Azzi called Tuesday on the U.S.-led coalition fighting ISIS to protect Lebanon...
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