Jumblatt seeks to delay of STL testimony: report
Jumblatt has requested the postponement of his testimony before the Special Tribunal for Lebanon, according to local...
Friday, 6 February 2015
Week in Review: The FY2016 Budget, Health Care Stories, and More Job Growth
This week, the President released his fiscal year 2016 budget, talked with people who have benefited from the Affordable Care Act, welcomed DREAMers to the White House, and carried on a Presidential tradition of attending the National Prayer Breakfast.
Find out more about the past week at the White House in our latest weekly wrap-up.
The President Released His Budget
On Monday, the President released his budget for fiscal year 2016. Following up on his State of the Union address, the President's budget includes funding for Precision Medicine, combating climate change, and keeping America safe by properly supporting the Department of Homeland Security.
President Obama just released his #2016Budget. Check it out on @Medium → http://bit.ly/16s8O8L http://bit.ly/16s8M0w
— The White House (@WhiteHouse) February 2, 2015
Also, as we’re able to communicate with more Americans than ever before, our budget presentation looks a little different than it did decades ago. See what’s new, and dig into the budget that makes the investments necessary to keep America growing.
Week In Politics: Prayer Breakfast, Ukraine, Measles
E.J. Dionne of the Washington Post and David Brooks of The New York Times discuss President Obama's prayer breakfast, politicians weighing in on arming Ukraine and measles immunizations.
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.
Hezbollah unyielding in support for Aoun despite calls for consensus president
BEIRUT: Hezbollah Friday reaffirmed its support for MP Michel Aoun for the presidency, a stance that is likely to further complicate the presidential deadlock as it runs contrary to local and regional calls for the election of a consensus candidate to end the 8-month-old vacuum in the country’s top Christian post.
The Hezbollah position came a day after French presidential envoy Jean-Francois Girault ended a two-day visit to Beirut, apparently without making any breakthrough in the presidential crisis in his talks with rival Lebanese leaders as the March 8 and March 14 parties upheld their support for opposing candidates.
Meanwhile, premier Tammam Salam, addressing the Munich Security Conference late Friday, urged the international community to come forth with its promised aid to help Lebanon cope with 1.5 million Syrian refugees along with half a million Palestinian refugees.
“Lebanon is facing a catastrophe [over the refugee crisis],” he said.
He added that the presence of such a high number of Syrian refugees has led to an increase in crimes in Lebanon.
Salam described the Syrian refugee crisis as a “ticking bomb threatening our national security.”
Salam met in Munich with the foreign ministers of Kuwait, Qatar and Bahrain and the Saudi deputy foreign minister to discuss the situation in Lebanon and bilateral relations with these countries.
Sources in the March 8 and March 14 camps said that Girault, on his second visit to Lebanon in less than two months, did not carry any new proposals to break the presidential impasse.
Media reports said Girault would visit the Vatican next week for talks with Maronite Patriarch Beshara Rai, who is currently in Rome, to explore the possibility of inter-Christian moves led by the patriarch in a last-ditch attempt to end the presidential vacuum.
Aoun, the Free Patriotic Movement leader, is supported by Hezbollah and its March 8 allies for the presidency, against the March 14 coalition-backed candidate, Lebanese Forces chief Samir Geagea, Aoun’s political arch foe.
The presidential deadlock was discussed Friday during a meeting between a Hezbollah delegation and Aoun. The three-member delegation, headed by Mahmoud Qmati, a member of Hezbollah’s political bureau, visited Aoun at his residence in Rabieh, north of Beirut, on the occasion of the ninth anniversary of a memorandum of understanding signed between the FPM and Hezbollah in 2006.
Asked whether Girault had carried any message or initiative to the Lebanese people over the presidential crisis, Qmati told reporters after the meeting with Aoun: “Our position on the presidency issue is clear ... We will not abandon Aoun and will not accept another candidate. Our position is clear and there has been nothing new.”
Former Prime Minister Saad Hariri and other leaders have called for the election of a consensus candidate as the only way to resolve the presidential crisis, a call that effectively rules out both Aoun and Geagea from the presidential race.
Qmati said local and regional developments were favorable for the rival Lebanese parties to reach an agreement to elect a successor to former President Michel Sleiman.
“The presidential election is always a major issue. We have discussed this issue. We see that local and regional developments and inter-Lebanese dialogues are signals about the possibility of [reaching] an agreement to hold the presidential election, but we cannot set a date for that,” he said. “What matters is that the [local and regional] climate is acceptable. Let’s hope for the best.”
Qmati said he updated Aoun on the results so far of the ongoing Hezbollah-Future dialogue, which is yet to discuss the presidential issue. “This dialogue is serious and will continue. All the participants have displayed calmness, rationality, objectivity and seriousness,” he added.
Referring to the removal of political slogans and party banners belonging to Hezbollah, the Future Movement and the Amal Movement from the streets of Beirut, Sidon and Tripoli Thursday, a step agreed during the Future-Hezbollah dialogue, Qmati said: “What has been implemented in the past few days has defused sectarian tensions and restored the patriotic spirit to the Lebanese people.”
Qmati said he and Aoun praised the “great heroism” achieved by the Army in fighting “takfri terrorism,” a clear reference to the military’s open battle against ISIS and Nusra Front militants who are still holding 25 soldiers and policemen hostage on the outskirts of the northeastern town of Arsal.
Qmati said Hezbollah and the FPM reiterated their commitment to the memorandum of understanding which, he said, is “an important gateway to an inter-Lebanese dialogue and understanding.”
For his part, Aoun said the Hezbollah-FPM understanding, which eventually turned into a political alliance, had helped preserve the country’s security and stability in the face of threats from Islamist militants.
“All internal incidents could have shaken the security situation. But the [memo of] understanding has helped preserve stability,” he told OTV channel Friday night. “National interest required preserving stability and security ... Confidence built between the two parties to the agreement had spared Lebanon security jolts.”
Meanwhile, Rai met in the Vatican with Pope Francis, with whom he discussed the status of Christians in the Middle East as a result of local conflicts, and also the political crisis in Lebanon and the failure to elect a new president, the National News Agency reported.
The pope expressed his solidarity with “the Christians in the Middle East and all those who are suffering and refugees and all those who fall victims to war.”
He urged the Christians to stay in the region in order “to continue their message with Muslim brothers,” the NNA said.
Lebanon will respect 1701: Ibrahim
NAQOURA, Lebanon: Lebanon will continue to adhere to U.N Resolution 1701, General Security chief Maj. Gen. Abbas Ibrahim said Friday during a visit to the U.N. peacekeeping force’s headquarters in the southern border town of Naqoura.
“I represent the Lebanese government, which is committed to Resolution 1701,” Ibrahim told U.N. force commander Maj. Gen. Luciano Portolano, offering his condolences over the killing of a Spanish peacekeeper in the latest round of border violence between Israel and Hezbollah.
Ibrahim, who hailed UNIFIL’s peacekeeping role in Lebanon, stressed the need to continue ongoing coordination between the Lebanese Army and UNIFIL, Andrea Tenenti, the spokesperson for the peacekeeping force, told reporters.
Ibrahim also emphasized the importance of maintaining stability in UNIFIL areas of operation.
U.N. Security Council Resolution 1701 ended Israel’s summer 2006 war against Lebanon and permitted UNIFIL peacekeepers to expand their presence along Lebanon’s southern border.
Ibrahim also visited his officers stationed at the southern Ras Naqoura border crossing post.
The Ras Naqoura crossing was established to control the movement of U.N. peacekeepers between Lebanon and Israel and members of the International Committee of the Red Cross who are responsible for the repatriation of Lebanese civilians and deceased Lebanese from Israel.
Ibrahim’s visit came after the recent flare-up of violence last week between Hezbollah and Israel in the occupied Shebaa Farms on Lebanon’s southeastern border that killed two Israeli soldiers.
The Hezbollah attack on an Israeli convoy came in retaliation for an Israeli airstrike against a Hezbollah convoy in Syria’s Golan Heights town of Qunaitra 10 days earlier.
The airstrike killed an Iranian general and six Hezbollah fighters, including Jihad Mughniyeh, son of the party’s late top commander Imad Mughniyeh.
A Spanish peacekeeper was also killed by Israeli shelling in the exchange of fire.
The Security Council Wednesday condemned “in the strongest terms” the killing of the peacekeeper.
Spain’s U.N. ambassador blamed Israel for the death of 36-year-old Cpl. Francisco Javier Soria Toledo.
A U.N. diplomat has said Israel apologized for the incident through several channels, including its ambassador in Madrid who formally extended his condolences to Spain’s foreign minister.
The Lebanese government condemned the Jan. 18 Israeli airstrike and Primer Minister Tammam Salam underlined that Lebanon would continue to respect Security Council Resolution 1701.
More storms on the way to bat away early spring
BEIRUT: After weeks of warm weather and light showers, Lebanon is bracing for another storm that will bear down Sunday, with farmers, citizens and Syrian refugees advised to start taking precautions. The weather Sunday will be partially cloudy with a significant drop in temperatures during the day, according to the Meteorological Department at Beirut’s Rafik Hariri International Airport.
At night there will be heavy showers, thunderstorms, strong winds and snowfall at 1,500 meters above sea level, the department added.
The storm has been triggered by a low pressure system located above west Italy and is predicted to last until Feb. 15.
The Lebanese Agricultural Research Institute says the system will arrive as two separate storms – “Jenni” which will end Tuesday to be immediately followed by “Sylvia” – adding that the second one would be more powerful.
The Meteorological Department, however, said the country would be hit by one storm named “Yohan.”
Temperatures for Sunday are expected to range between 8 and 19 degrees Celsius along the coast, 5 and 11 in the mountains, minus 1 and 7 in the Cedars and 3 and 15 degrees in the Bekaa Valley.
“The storm will intensify [next] Wednesday and Thursday with snowfall expected to fall at altitudes between 700 and 800 meters above sea level,” the MeteorologicalDepartment said.
Last month, Lebanon was hit by storm “Zina,” which wrought havoc for numerous citizens and refugees across the country. Snow fell at an altitude as low as 500 meters, leading to the blockage of vital roads, the closure of schools, a number of deaths, damage to agricultural projects, disruption to the works of fishermen and a delay in flight schedules.
In order to prevent the recurrence of some of these events, LARI recommended farmers speed up their work before the storm kicks off.
On its website, LARI suggested concerned bodies and municipalities take the necessary measures to prepare for the snowy weather and asked relevant bodies to take extra precautions to protect those in Syrian refugee camps.
The institute asked citizens to be careful of billboards and tree branches when winds are strong and asked them to secure loose items that could be blown off balconies and roofs.
When rains are heavy, LARI advises citizens to drive slowly, double check cars’ brakes, avoid taking routes that are prone to flooding, and, for relevant figures, clean agricultural channels and river and stream drainage points.
Avoid taking mountainous routes when there’s snow, it added. Only SUVs or cars equipped with metal chains should take such routes, and all drivers should have a small shovel, warm clothes, and enough food and water with them in case they get stuck in the snow.
Low temperatures can also lead to the formation of layers of ice and black ice, LARI warned.
“The total level of precipitation for this year [in Ras Beirut] from September until Feb. 6 is 498 milliliters,” a source from the Nicolas Chahine Observatory told The Daily Star. The Observatory is based in Ras Beirut.
“This year [the rainfall] bypassed last year’s and is just about equal to the general average 509 milliliters,” the source said, adding that he hoped more rain would be recorded as “Yohan” hit Lebanon.
The Internal Security Forces are ready for any emergency cases, the body told The Daily Star, and can be reached by dialing 112.
The earlier part of the weekend will offer temperate weather seen this week. Saturday’s temperatures will be as follows: between 8 and 23 degrees along the coast, 9 and 19 in the mountains, 5 and 15 in the Cedars and between 6 and 23 in the Bekaa Valley.
Fish market to stay open until Monday
BEIRUT: Beirut Governor Ziad Chebib said Friday that the decision to close the capital’s fish market would go into effect Monday, despite protests by vendors, the National News Agency reported.
The head of the Fish Market Vendors Syndicate, Hajj Abdullah Ghazal, said earlier Friday that the market would remain open to allow for negotiations between the vendors and the municipality.
Chebib ordered the facility closed Thursday for health reasons. The governor affirmed Friday that the decision remained in place, although its implementation had been delayed until Monday.The syndicate met with Chebib and other members of the municipality Friday to discuss the governor’s order.
“We told the governor to present us with an alternative to closing the fish market,” Ghazal said. “We’re not against fixing the place, we’re with fixing the place up but we can’t close this market. It’s a central market, everyone from fishermen to restaurants use it. [Closing it] will stop the country.”
Chebib said Thursday that the municipality’s health department had carried out an assessment of the facility and found the market to be “infested” with rats and insects.
Vendors at the market were outraged by the governor’s order and protested Friday, blocking the road leading to the market in Karantina.
The vendors say they rented the space from the state and it is the government’s responsibility to ensure that the facility meets the required health standards.
Ghazal said the market fell under the authority of the prime minister’s office, adding that the governor could not close the facility without the permission of the premier.
Prime Minister Tammam Salam is currently out of the country but will return tomorrow, Ghazal added.
The market remained open Friday and vendors gathered to await the outcome of the meeting between the syndicate and municipal officials. Internal Security Forces were also present.
Many workers told The Daily Star they were prepared to camp out in front of the market to prevent its closure as their livelihoods depended it.
Ghazal said the option of compensating the vendors while the market was closed for repair was discussed during the talks but said no final decision was made.
17,000 refugees risk eviction from homes
BEIRUT: Around 17,000 refugees in the eastern Bekaa Valley have been ordered by the Lebanese Army to vacate their informal camps, according to UNHCR, reportedly in an attempt to prevent infiltrations by militants in the vulnerable border region.
“UNHCR and its partners were made aware that Syrian refugees in informal tented settlements in the areas of Majdal Anjar, Kfar Zabad, and Barr Elias have been issued with notices to evict by the Army,” said Lisa Abou Khaled, an external relations associate at the U.N. Refugee Agency based in the Bekaa Valley.
Around 4,000 people have already left the camps, she said, prompting the U.N. and fellow aid agencies to scramble to get more information about whether anyone has been made homeless by the move. Around 65 sites are believed to be at risk, she added.
“We are now following up with hosting communities and refugees to get more information on those evicted in order to assess their needs and if possible refer the most vulnerable to collective shelters that are ready to receive them,” Abou Khaled said.
“We are extremely worried about their situation, especially in light of the storm coming next week,” she added, referring to forecasts that predict the arrival of another brutal weather system that will herald the return of snow and sub-zero temperatures to the Bekaa Valley.
Of the 1.5 million refugees estimated to be in the country, only around 180,000 live in what UNHCR refers to as informal tented settlements, clusters of makeshift shacks that are built out of tarpaulin sheets, corrugated iron and wood offering little in the way of protection from cold and wet weather. The vast majority of these are in the Bekaa Valley.
Speaking to The Daily Star, a senior Army source confirmed that the military had asked refugees in camps along the border with Syria to relocate.
“The aim of this move is to prevent terrorists from crossing into Lebanon and hiding in these camps,” the source said. He said he did not have an exact figure regarding the number of refugees that had been asked to leave.
For nearly a year, the Army has been waging a war with radical militant groups, including ISIS and the Nusra Front, who are holed up on the Lebanese-Syrian border.
Last August, fighters from both groups temporarily seized control of the border town of Arsal, leading to a five-day battle that resulted in the capture of more than 30 security personnel. Since then, the militants have made a number of attempts to penetrate the border, but have been fought off.
ISIS running Shariah court in Arsal in bid to win hearts and minds
BEIRUT: It was a brisk January day when Rawad Ezzedine was kidnapped, beaten by a dozen militants, and left standing face-to-face with an elderly sheikh who asked him how often he prayed. The previous day the 21-year-old Ezzedine had engaged in a verbal exchange with a Syrian adolescent in which he lost his temper and used God’s name in vain. At noon the next day, a car pulled up next to his uncle’s sawmill in the Arsal area of Shbib where he worked. A group of men took him forcibly, put a bag over his head and hit him with sticks, asking him again and again why he had sworn. The Syrian adolescent had filed a complaint in ISIS’ religious court, and Ezzedine was about to be tried.
His trial was held on Jan. 30 in a bungalow-turned courthouse just 4 kilometers from the last Army checkpoint in Wadi Hmayyed. When taken to the courtroom, Ezzedine was instructed to greet the sheikh, his judge, in formal Arabic. Their conversation lasted six minutes, and a scribe recorded every word.
The presence of a rudimentary court system run by ISIS in Arsal’s outskirts was corroborated by half a dozen quarry workers who claim to have seen it, as well as two witnesses who were summoned to hearings, including Ezzedine.
While ISIS in Qalamoun have maintained a low-profile since August, the operations of the court are a sign that the militant group is attempting to consolidate power by giving Arsalis the one thing they need most – order.
In addition to the court, quarry workers told The Daily Star the group had set up mobile checkpoints in certain areas of Arsal’s barren range, asking for identification and on occasion, confiscating food stuffs and mobile phones. Workers, who are predominately male, said they were instructed to grow beards and were told smoking was forbidden beyond the Army checkpoint.
Ezzedine was released less than 24 hours after his capture. The sheikh listened to his account and compared it to that of the Syrian adolescent. He then turned to Ezzedine and asked him if he knew how to pray.
“I said I didn’t frequently, so he said he would teach me how before letting me go,” he told The Daily Star.
He slept in the room next door, and in the morning was given bread, yogurt and cheese. A militant then demonstrated how a “good Muslim” ought to pray.
“This is in line with what ISIS does when it comes to an area and starts to build its influence there,” said Hasan Hasan, an analyst at the Delma Institute and co-author of “ISIS: Inside the Army of Terror.”
“That’s how they always start: They try to establish a court system, and they start getting complaints and make connections with the community,” Hasan said.
In a July report, the Institute for the Study of War highlighted how the establishment of religious courts, which adhere to an austere interpretation of the Shariah, even in areas it does not fully control, is a core part of ISIS’ mode of governance.
According to Hasan, the militant group typically rents a small home, where a rudimentary courthouse is established to hear civil complaints. In Syria and Iraq, amid widespread anarchy and war, ISIS succeeded in maintaining a semblance of law and order in areas under its influence. “That has been their strategy of winning hearts and minds,” Hasan said.
But ISIS in Qalamoun has behaved differently from its units in Iraq and Syria, cooperating with its rival the Nusra Front, which occupies the area east of Wadi Hmayyed, and keeping a low profile.
The majority of Arsal’s 35,000 residents work on the outskirts of the town, in some 300 stone quarries, sawmills and factories, according to the municipality. Some believe industry in Arsal might benefit from the semblance of order promised by ISIS in an area long neglected by the government and prone to petty crime. Quarry worker Bilal Hujeiri, who filed a complaint with the religious court on Dec. 12, is of this persuasion.
“When the refugees came there was a lot of chaos, but now things are more controlled because everyone fears the Islamic State,” he said, using the group’s latest name.
Hujeiri was summoned to the court after an Arsal resident, another quarry worker, alleged he was collaborating with the Army. On Dec. 2, two of Hujeiri’s bulldozers were stolen by gangs that he believes were not affiliated with ISIS.
According to the worker, ISIS carried out its own investigation, recovered his bulldozers, and found him innocent after hearing his version of events.
After clearing him, the sheikh handed Hujeiri a slip of paper entitling him to retrieve his bulldozers. He was directed to a warehouse 500 meters away. There, Hujeiri handed a guard the slip and was reunited with his machinery.
“Anyone would do what I did to get their stuff back,” Hujeiri said. “Because after the Army checkpoint [in Wadi Hmayyed] they are the only authority there.”
Since its inception, only one death sentence was reportedly handed down by the court. The name Kayed Ghadadah, a quarry worker who was found guilty of collaborating with Hezbollah on Sept. 3 and promptly executed, was mentioned to The Daily Star by nearly every Arsali worker interviewed.
Ghadadah’s death has succeeded in instilling Arsalis with fear of crossing the militants. His cousin, Khaled, believes ISIS informants in the town tipped off the militants about Ghadadah’s alleged activities.
The night Ghadadah was taken, 10 days before his execution, Khaled said he was with his cousin when a car pulled up outside their home. Three men knocked on the door and asked for Ghadadah, who stepped outside with them. Khaled claimed his cousin was then driven away. “They kidnapped him,” he said.
Ten days later his body was found dumped near Arsal’s outskirts.
“People like me are scared by how it’s become possible for these people to apply laws in a place that is not theirs and judge us,” said Suham Ezzedine, a school teacher. “Most people are terrified of ISIS and wonder how they can be so brutal.”
“But I also have colleagues who are happy with their deeds, and they believe ISIS is punishing the right people,” she added.
Ezzedine, and countless other Arsalis said their fears would abate somewhat if the Army established a permanent presence in the town.
An Army source who acknowledged ISIS was holding court in Wadi Hmayyed said troops did not maintain a fixed position within the town because it would not be “militarily useful.” But another security source said the task was better suited to the Internal Security Forces, which operates west of Arsal.
But unlike Syria and Iraq, where a frenetic environment permitted ISIS to flourish, Lebanon is relatively stable. Hasan recognized the scenario in Qalamoun was substantially different. “If you have a functioning government it will be hard for ISIS to gain the trust of the local population.”
“As long as the government remains effective and the Army can face down any attack, Arsal and other areas should be fine.”
UNCF CEO: Obama's Community College Plan A 'Blunt Instrument'
Robert Siegel speaks with UNCF (formerly the United Negro College Fund) CEO Dr. Michael Lomax about President Obama's recent announcement to make community college free for all Americans.
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.
Polarization Vortex: Obama, Bush Approval Shows Widest Partisan Gap
President Obama and former President George W. Bush in Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania, in 2013. Evan Vucci/AP hide caption
itoggle caption Evan Vucci/AP
President Obama and former President George W. Bush in Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania, in 2013.
Evan Vucci/AP
Many Republicans claim that President Obama is among the most polarizing presidents in modern history. If the results of a new Gallup survey measuring his approval rating are any indication, they might be right.
The president's overall approval rating for his just finished sixth year in office stood at 42.6 percent, according to Gallup. That's well below Bill Clinton's or Ronald Reagan's sixth-year average (63.8 percent and 59.9 percent, respectively). Even so, Obama's average for the year is still ahead of Richard Nixon (25.4 percent), who was by this point in his presidency mired in Watergate, George W. Bush (37.3 percent) or Harry S. Truman (38.6 percent).
But another measure that looks at how Republicans and Democrats view presidential performance shows that Obama is on track to be the most polarizing president ever, nudging out his predecessor with an average 70-point gap between the political parties.
"Both Bush and Obama were elected with hopes of unifying the country. However, the opposite has happened, at least in the way Americans view the job the president is doing, with presidential evaluations more divided along party lines than ever before, Gallup notes.
"These increasingly partisan views of presidents may have as much to do with the environment in which these presidents have governed as with their policies, given 24-hour news coverage of what they do and increasingly partisan news and opinion sources on television, in print and online," the polling organization says.
In his sixth year in office, 79 percent of Democrats approve of Obama's performance, while just 9 percent of Republicans do. George W. Bush's numbers were exactly reversed in year six of his presidency (79 percent of Republicans approval vs. 9 percent for Democrats).
Obama and Bush had their most polarized approval ratings in their fourth years in office, both with a 76 percentage point gap between Republicans and Democrats for the final year of their first term (although Bush had slightly higher approval from both parties, the gap was still the same). As Gallup points out, the fourth year is typically the most polarized in a president's due to it being an election year.
According to Gallup: "Each of Obama's six years in office rank among the 10 most polarized in the last 60 years, with George W. Bush holding the other four spots. Bush's most polarized years were his fourth through seventh years in office, after the rally in support for him following the 9/11 terror attacks had faded. Clearly, political polarization has reached new heights in recent years, under a Republican and a Democratic president."
23 sentenced to death over 2007 Fatah al-Islam battle
BEIRUT: Lebanon’s Judicial Council sentenced 23 people to death Friday over their involvement in the 2007 Fatah al-Islam attacks on the Army, a judicial source said.
The 23 convicts were identified as: Mahmoud Mansour, Bilal al-Khodor, Ali Mustapha, Abdel-Aziz al-Masri, Ahmad Shawat, Bilal Badr, Mohammad Qaddour, Abdel-Karim al-Batal, Mohammad Mustapha, Wafiq Aql, Youssef Khalil, Youssef Shedid, Ibrahim al-Tarman, Moussa al-Amleh, Mahmoud Basyouni, Raafat Khalil, Nader Halwani, Ahmad al-Daqs, Haitham Mustapha, Shadi Makkawi, Adel Ouwayed, Ali Ibrahim and Dahham Ibrahim.
The source added that Khodor Merhi was sentenced to seven years in prison, while Fadi Ibrahim was found innocent and released from custody.
The council charged the 23 convicts with belonging to Fatah al-Islam, which is officially classified as a terrorist organization.
The indictment said the group aimed to weaken the Lebanese state and create a “takfiri fundamentalist emirate in north Lebanon first, and then expand to most [other] Lebanese areas.”
In 2007, Fatah al-Islam waged a full-fledged battle against the Lebanese Army in the Nahr al-Bared refugee camp in north Lebanon, leading to the death of 170 soldiers and 64 civilians.
22 sentenced to death over 2007 Fatah al-Islam battle
BEIRUT: Lebanon’s Judicial Council sentenced 22 people to death Friday over their involvement in the 2007 Fatah al-Islam attacks on the Army, a judicial source said.
The 22 convicts were identified as: Mahmoud Mansour, Bilal al-Khodor, Ali Mustapha, Abdel-Aziz al-Masri, Ahmad Shawat, Bilal Badr, Mohammad Qaddour, Abdel-Karim al-Batal, Mohammad Mustapha, Wafiq Aql, Youssef Khalil, Youssef Shedid, Ibrahim al-Tarman, Moussa al-Amleh, Mahmoud Basyouni, Raafat Khalil, Nader Halwani, Ahmad al-Daqs, Haitham Mustapha, Shadi Makkawi, Adel Ouwayed, Ali Ibrahim and Dahham Ibrahim.
The source added that Khodor Merhi was sentenced to seven years in prison, while Fadi Ibrahim was found innocent and released from custody.
The council charged the 22 convicts with belonging to Fatah al-Islam, which is officially classified as a terrorist organization.
The indictment said the group aimed to weaken the Lebanese state and create a “takfiri fundamentalist emirate in north Lebanon first, and then expand to most [other] Lebanese areas.”
In 2007, Fatah al-Islam waged a full-fledged battle against the Lebanese Army in the Nahr al-Bared refugee camp in north Lebanon, leading to the death of 170 soldiers and 64 civilians.
Aoun: FPM alliance with Hezbollah kept Lebanon safe
UAE urges arming Iraqi Sunni tribes in ISIS fight: media
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Health Ministry discovers rotten cheese in Hamra supermarket
Health Ministry shuts down east Lebanon butcheries
The Ministry of Health closed down two butcher shops in the Bekaa Valley city of Zahle in east Lebanon Friday, as part...
What Bill Bratton Had to Say
What I've Learned: Bill Bratton
Policeman, 67, New York City, interviewed on January 9, 2015
Published in the March 2015 issue of Esquire
All of a sudden—boom—here's the gunman. Six-foot black guy in a bright-red leisure suit—back in the days when we wore leisure suits—and he's got a white female hostage, gun to her head. He's got the money bag in his hand around her throat. And he's in the middle of a menacing crowd—this is South Boston, the height of the school-busing/desegregation crisis, the absolute wrong place for a black man to hold up a bank and take a white hostage. The first instinct for a cop is you face a gun, up comes your gun. But there's no way I can shoot at him without probably hitting her or the bystanders, including other police who were now arriving with sirens blaring. So the training started kicking in—you want to lower the anxiety level of the hostage taker. That's where the talking began. And at some point, I lowered the gun.
Time is on your side. Slow the situation down.
My press guy used to say that you could tell how significant the crisis was by how long it took me to get out of my chair, walk out to the other office, get a cup of coffee, and come back. He said, "The worse the crisis, the longer the walk."
My dad has a fast temper. As a kid, you'd get the back of the hand. But you could almost see him slow down and kind of talk it through. So I think it was a trait learned from him. I have a temper and it can flare from time to time, but as I've gotten older and more experienced, I think I use it in a controlled way. Oftentimes, I'm acting.
You have to bare your fangs once in a while.
What's important is the dose. You might have the greatest doctor in the world dealing with your cancer, but if he ODs you on chemotherapy, he's gonna kill you.
Unfortunately, people have equated "zero tolerance" with the so-called broken-windows issue. Those are two totally separate concepts. Broken-windows enforcement is really about controlling behavior to such an extent you change it: If you deal with the little things, you can keep them from going into the big things. Zero tolerance implies zealotry. It's oppressive. And it's not achievable. You're never going to be in a position to eliminate all crime.
To bridge the gap, you need to develop relationships. It's something that has to be done very intimately, very personally.
Are you familiar with the movie A Man for All Seasons? I've seen that thing twenty times. What was the dilemma that he was facing? Faith versus loyalty to the king. I think of that movie often when I think of relationships with mayors. It's always a balancing act. You have to be very mindful of their temperament.
One of the things I enjoy about leadership is picking a team. I talk about that Super Bowl team. It has an offense, it has a defense, it's got the utility players. You need a multiplicity of players.
I like having ambitious people around me. I could care less if they want my job.
I don't really talk about throwing people under the bus. If I throw them off the bus, I'm not going to run them over.
The inappropriate handling of a racially sensitive situation can be catastrophic. We've seen that in Ferguson. We've been widely applauded for not repeating that in New York. Some of that was luck. Some of it was skill.
Crisis breeds opportunity. And all that's going on right now—Ferguson and Trayvon Martin and the [Eric Garner] incident in Staten Island—this is a phenomenal opportunity if we handle this correctly. Before I leave, I want part of my legacy to be that the profession that I love is recognized as the essential entity in dealing with the race issues in America. Wouldn't it be nice to be the cutting edge of dealing with it?
I can't solve the unemployment problem, the school problem. But if I can create safety, then companies will invest, jobs will be created, schools might be improved. We can't do it all alone, but it can't be done without us.
In the eulogy for one of the two officers assassinated in December, I used the idea of "You see me." That expression goes back to the Bantu in Africa. I first heard it from a wonderful woman in Los Angeles. She said, "The reason we support you is you see us. You're not engaged in the platitudes. You try to see into what's going on." Same with the demonstrators—we might not like what fuels them, but you need to understand them to deal with them. It really is all about seeing each other.
Outrage Over Government's Animal Experiments Leads To USDA Review
Cattle raised at the U.S. Meat Animal Research Center in Clay Center, Neb. A New York Times investigation of animal suffering at the federal research center has prompted a USDA review. Nati Harnik/AP hide caption
itoggle caption Nati Harnik/AP
Cattle raised at the U.S. Meat Animal Research Center in Clay Center, Neb. A New York Times investigation of animal suffering at the federal research center has prompted a USDA review.
Nati Harnik/AP
Revelations about animal suffering at a federal animal research facility have sure gotten the attention of lawmakers on Capitol Hill.
They've also prompted the U.S. Department of Agriculture, which oversees the facility through its Agricultural Research Service, to name its first ever animal welfare ombudsman — as well as review and update its animal welfare strategy.
If you read Michael Moss' investigation in The New York Times about research practices at the U.S. Meat Animal Research Center in Nebraska, you might recall some of these details:
- An experiment where pigs died after being locked in steam chambers. The goal of this taxpayer-funded study was to evaluate how varying temperatures influenced the pigs' appetites.
- A study that left lambs abandoned by their mothers in pastures to die of exposure or starvation.
- An account of the fetuses of 119 pigs being "gently crushed" during an experiment. According to the Times, "the aim was to see if empty space in the uterus affected the intervals between pregnancies. But trial results, published in 2011, were inconclusive."
Animal rights activists were outraged by these and other activities at the center over the last few decades. "An American Horror Story" is how Matthew Bershadker, president and CEO of the ASPCA (American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals), dubbed it.
Rep. Louise Slaughter, a Democrat from New York, expressed alarm as well. In a letter to Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack, Slaughter wrote: "Such heinous examples of egregious cruelty, which would violate the minimum standards of any approved research protocol ... should not occur anywhere for any reason."
As the Times report points out, farm animals used in agricultural research are exempt from protections spelled out in the Animal Welfare Act. Many institutions, including universities and companies, that conduct research on animals abide by independent animal-welfare protocols. But the federal law has big loopholes, according to animal welfare advocates.
Slaughter is hoping to change the law. This week Slaughter, along with a bipartisan group of co-sponsors, introduced a bill known as the Animal Welfare in Agricultural Research Endeavors (AWARE) Act. It aims to end exemptions from protections under the Animal Welfare Act for farm animals used in agricultural experiments at federal facilities.
One of the co-sponsors of the legislation, Rep. Mike Fitzpatrick, a Pennsylvania Republican, said in a statement: "As stewards of taxpayer dollars, we felt a responsibility to present a legislative fix that holds the USDA to the same humane standards that countless research facilities across the country are held to."
The USDA issued a statement this week saying it is "taking action to ensure animals are respected and treated humanely."
Catherine Woteki, undersecretary for research, education and economics at USDA, added in a statement that "two of the research projects featured in the Times article had already been terminated," and "some of the specific incidents described were from many years or decades ago."
The statement went on to say that Vilsack has ordered a review of research practices at the Nebraska center and other USDA research facilities. The agency says reviewers will provide recommendations to strengthen the procedures for humane handling of animals.
Perhaps the strongest sign of growing accountability over animal welfare at the agency is the appointment of the agency's first animal welfare ombudsman. Chavonda Jacobs-Young, the administrator of the USDA's Agricultural Research Service, informally named Eileen Thacker — an ARS veterinarian — to the post. She announced the appointment in an email to ARS staff.
In the email to her staff, Jacobs-Young wrote, "Please remember we all own the responsibility for animal welfare; if you see something that disturbs you, please report it."
The email also announced the development of an updated animal welfare strategy within 60 days.
West Wing Week: 02/06/15 or, “To All The Dreamers”
This week, the President spent time with Scientists, Letter Writers, Immigration, Healthcare and Education Advocates, Spiritual Leaders, Athletes, and DREAMers. That's January 30th to February 5th or, "To All the DREAMers."
Friday
- The President met with experts in the field of Precision Medicine.
Sunday
- The President did a pre-Super Bowl interview in the White House Kitchen with NBC’s Today Show host Savannah Guthrie.
Monday
- The President delivered remarks at the Department of Homeland Security.
- The President welcomed 2014 NHL Champion Los Angeles Kings and the 2014 MLS Cup Champion LA Galaxy.
Tuesday
- The President sat down with ten letter writers who had been directly impacted by the Affordable Care Act.
- The President held a Cabinet meeting with top administration officials.
Wednesday
- A group of young DREAMers met with the President.
Thursday
- The President and First Lady spoke at the National Prayer Breakfast.
- The President hosted Vidal Chastanet and his crew, including Humans of New York photographer Brandon Stanton, in the Oval.
New Arab Woman Forum announces conference in Beirut
BEIRUT: The organizers of the New Arab Woman Forum announced Friday that their 7th conference will be on Feb. 26 in the Four Seasons Hotel in Beirut.
NAWF’s Executive Chair and Founder Nadine Abou Zaki made the announcement at a news conference at the same hotel, in the presence of MP Bahia Hariri.
“For the 7th year, NAWF will bring together a distinguished group of speakers and participants from both genders from the Arab world and internationally, including ministers and senior public officials, business leaders, social entrepreneurs, experts, journalists, heads of NGO and many other personalities,” Abou Zaki said.
Hariri praised Abou Zaki and the organizers for sustaining the “successful initiative” over the year, saying it should be a model for the rest world to follow.
“Today, we have gone beyond gender equality. We do not desire anymore that women become like men because women entrepreneurs from Lebanon and the Arab world represent our national and Arab model,” Hariri said.
“Thus, other people should get inspired by the purity, faith and entrepreneurship of women and young girls from Lebanon and the Arab World.”
NAWF is organized by Al Iktissad Wal Aamal Group and Al Hasnaa Magazine.
Raouf Abou Zaki, Executive Director of Al Iktissad Wal Aamal Group, a co-organizer of NAWF, said the fact that the conference has been organized for the seventh year in a row is a clear demonstration of its outstanding success.
Cafeteria worker behind Nabatieh court robbery: police
BEIRUT: A cafeteria worker in Nabatieh’s criminal court confessed Friday to stealing money and valuables from the court’s registrar office earlier this week, police and a security source said.
After missing work Wednesday and Thursday without giving prior notice, Ibrahim Yahya, 24, arrived back at the court Friday and told his employers that he was in Beirut with his sister who had some medical tests to perform, a security source told The Daily Star.
He was then detained by police for questioning.
A police statement said that Yahya confessed to breaking into the office of the registrar earlier this week and stealing around LL3 million ($1,986) in cash, a gold bracelet, a Kalashnikov, a hunting rifle and a pistol.
He also confessed that he was in Beirut to sell the machine gun, the source added.
Workers discovered that the office had been ransacked Wednesday.
The court has been investigating whether any important documents or files were stolen along with the cash and goods, according to the source.
The files were scattered across the office, making it difficult to determine if any of them were missing.
Suspicion had previously focused on one of the court registrars who was removed from his post more than seven months ago due to infringement cases against him, but investigations showed he was innocent, the security source said.
The Faces of Health Care: Christopher S.
"Thank you ever so much Mr. President for getting my back."
Christopher S. from New Jersey wrote the President in October to thank him for the Affordable Care Act.
Before the new law, Christopher "found health insurance to be a luxury," and couldn't afford to see a medical practitioner. But thanks to the ACA, he signed up for quality, affordable health coverage at HealthCare.gov, and was able to see a doctor and get the prescriptions he needed at no extra cost.
"For a person who had to roll the dice on health for the past five years, I feel fantastic just knowing I have a health card that means something in my wallet," he writes.
Need to get covered? Find a health plan that best fits your needs at HealthCare.gov.
Already covered? Commit to help someone you know get covered here.
And if you want to share your own story, contact us here.
Kansas Will Cut Education Funding To Help Close Budget Gap
Gov. Sam Brownback delivers his State of the State address at the Kansas Statehouse in Topeka last month. Brownback has announced cuts in education to plug the state's budget woes. Orlin Wagner/AP hide caption
itoggle caption Orlin Wagner/AP
Gov. Sam Brownback delivers his State of the State address at the Kansas Statehouse in Topeka last month. Brownback has announced cuts in education to plug the state's budget woes.
Orlin Wagner/AP
Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback says he will cut funding for public schools and universities in a bid to keep the state solvent through June after aggressive tax cuts left gaping budget shortfalls.
Kansas public schools would lose 1.5 percent across-the-board, while the state's regents universities would see budgets trimmed by 2 percent. The estimated savings of $44.5 million would be used to help prop up the state's finances. The move, combined by a budget-balancing bill approved by the GOP-controlled legislature, would fall just short of eliminating a $344 million deficit. Even so, a $600 million shortfall is projected for the next fiscal year, which begins July 1.
"The dramatic increase in state education funding that has occurred over the last four years is unsustainable," Brownback said in a statement released Thursday. "School districts are estimated to have approximately $381 million in reserve fund balances to help them offset the smaller than expected increase in state funding. The Kansas Department of Education should work with school districts to help them with any cash flow challenges that may arise."
In May 2012 Brownback, a Republican, signed into law the state's largest-ever income tax cuts, which helped trigger the budget crisis. The Wichita Eagle reports that his decision to cut education spending to close the budget shortfall "has sparked anger from some lawmakers and education advocates after his previous promises to safeguard education funding."
By way of background, The Associated Press says:
"Brownback's Kansas experiment was hailed by some national conservatives in 2012 and 2013 when he championed personal income tax cuts to stimulate the economy, dropping the top rate by 29 percent and exempting 191,000 business owners altogether. Revenue has since fallen short of forecasts, and Brownback won a closer-than-expected re-election in a heavily Republican state last year after arguing that the tax cuts would not hurt schools or sacrifice core government services."
"Some Republicans have backed away from using Kansas as a tax-cutting example now that the state faces a fiscal crisis."
Lebanon police arrest 2 suspected kidnappers
Employees protest Casino du Liban mass layoffs
Lebanon’s renowned casino issued an administrative decision to lay off 191 employees, prompting protests outside the...
Why Should We Treat Violence Like A Contagious Disease?
Part 4 of the TED Radio Hour episode Seven Deadly Sins
About Gary Slutkin's TED Talk
While looking at the problem of gun violence, Dr. Gary Slutkin wondered — what if it could be treated like a communicable disease? His program, Cure Violence, aims to do just that, with real results.
"[Violence] isn't like a contagious disease; it is a contagious disease."
About Gary Slutkin
Gary Slutkin is an epidemiologist, an innovator in violence reduction and the founder/executive director of Cure Violence, formerly known as CeaseFire. The program is being replicated in several US cities as well as abroad.
Dr. Sultkin is an Ashoka Fellow, a professor of epidemiology and international health at the University of Illinois at Chicago, and a senior adviser to the World Health Organization.
What's The Antidote To Political Apathy?
Part 3 of the TED Radio Hour episode Seven Deadly Sins
About Dave Meslin's TED Talk
Activist Dave Meslin says even though we're apathetic about local politics, we're hardly sloths.
About Dave Meslin
"As long as we believe that people, our own neighbors, are selfish, stupid or lazy, then there's no hope."
Dave Meslin is a community coordinator in Toronto. Some of his projects include 2006's City Idol contest, which put a fresh face on council elections; co-editing Local Motion, a book about civic projects in Toronto; and Dandyhorse and Spacing magazines. He also founded the Ranked Ballot Initiative of Toronto (RaBIT). His latest crowdsourcing project is called 100 Remedies for a Broken Democracy.
Beirut fish market still open despite closure order
18-year-old killed in Lebanon ski accident
The American University of Beirut and College Notre-Dame de Jamhour mourned Monday the death of 18-year-old Melanie...
Lebanese security forces surround hospital to arrest wounded drug dealer
Police make major drug bust near Beirut
Police raided a drug dealer’s house Monday and confiscated large amounts of various drugs, an Internal Security Forces...
Lebanon Maronite patriarch meets Pope Francis in Vatican
Pope tells clergy: Never try to cover up child abuse
Pope Francis has sent Catholic clergy a powerful reminder of their duty to stamp out sexual abuse of children by...
South Lebanon police arrest suspected partisan of fugitive sheikh
SIDON, Lebanon: Security forces apprehended a suspected follower of fugitive Salafist Sheikh Ahmad al-Assir in Sidon Friday, a day after they had circulated rumors that a suicide bomber was planning to blow himself up in the southern coastal city, security sources told the Daily Star.
The source said the suspect, identified by his initials M.K., is the brother of two detainees held in connection with clashes that pitted Assir’s gunmen against the Army in June 2013.
Police were interrogating him after finding recent photos of Nusra Front and ISIS militants on his mobile phone, the sources said.
The arrest came a day after Sidon was gripped by rumors of an imminent suicide bombing attack, triggering tensions and fears that caused the closure of the Lebanese University branches in the city.
The sources said the rumors were deliberately spread by police intelligence in order to alert the parents of extremist youth who had allegedly disappeared in recent weeks and encourage them to report their disappearances.
The families of at least two followers of Assir reported the disappearances of their sons a week ago, but intelligence believe that more than five Islamists went underground and could be recruited to carry out suicide bombings, the sources said.
A partisan of Assir was among one of two attackers who carried out the twin suicide bombing against the Iranian embassy in Beirut more than a year ago, killing at least 27 people and injuring over 100 others.
The anti-Hezbollah preacher, whose gunmen provoked a deadly, two-day battle with the Lebanese Army in June 2013 after attacking one of its checkpoints, is still on the run, while many of his followers were arrested after the clashes.
The attacks resulted in the death of 18 Army soldiers and around 40 of Assir’s followers. The Army arrested dozens of suspects.
Assir is being tried in absentia on charges of murdering and attempting to murder soldiers and civilians, of committing terrorist operations, possessing weapons and explosives, instigating sectarian tension and calling for sectarian fighting.
Assir was the preacher at the Bilal bin Rabah Mosque in Abra, near the site of the clashes. He claimed that the Lebanese government was controlled by Hezbollah and that state institutions, especially its security forces, were biased against Sunnis
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