Lebanon seeks mechanism to govern entry of refugees

BEIRUT: The Central Security Council Tuesday asked General Security to design a new mechanism to govern the entry of Syrian and Palestinian refugees from Syria into Lebanon, days after authorities deported a group of refugees for trying to illegally flee the country.

“The council asked General Security to design a mechanism to [better] organize the entry of Palestinian and Syrian refugees from Syria into Lebanon based on clear standards,” the council said in a statement after the end of a meeting chaired by Interior Minister Nouhad Machnouk.

The plan will be submitted to Cabinet for discussion and approval, the council added.

The security meeting was attended by the country’s top security and judiciary officials including acting State Prosecutor Samir Hammoud, Police Chief Maj. Gen. Ibrahim Basbous, Head of Army Intelligence Maj. Gen. Edmond Fadel, and Military Prosecutor Saqr Saqr.

The council also discussed measures taken recently against 49 Syrian and Palestinian refugees for attempting to illegally travel to another country via the Beirut airport. Authorities deported the refugees for possessing forged travel documents.

Earlier on Tuesday, Human Rights Watch criticized Lebanese authorities over the deportation, and called on the government to rescind its decision to bar Palestinians from Syria from entering Lebanon and refrain from returning refugees.

The Central Security Council also discussed the entry of Syrian and Palestinian refugees from Syria into Lebanon via land and sea borders

“No decision has been taken to prevent the entry of the refugees and the borders remain open,” the council said.

The number of Syrian refugees fleeing into Lebanon has skyrocketed in the past year with more than one million registered refugees. Thousands of Palestinian refugees from Syria have also sought refuge in Lebanon as the war rages over the border.

Lebanon has said that it can no longer handle the overwhelming number of refugees and that it was struggling to provide them with needed aid.

During the meeting, Mahcnouk also asked the council to prepare for a second operation to deliver aid into the Lebanese village of Tfeil in the next 10 days, saying such operations should become a regular occurrence.

Arsal kidnappings denote frail security along Lebanon-Syria border

ARSAL, Lebanon: Fighters from the Nusra Front kidnapped Tuesday four Syrian refugees from the town of Arsal, east Lebanon, highlighting the presence of dangerous pockets of militants along the country's border with Syria, a security source told The Daily Star.

The kidnapping happened one day after security sources told The Daily Star that Lebanese security services are following up on information suggesting that Nusra Front cells have resumed activity and planned more terrorist attacks in Lebanon.

Nusra fighters drove to Arsal from their hideouts along Lebanon’s highly porous Syrian-Lebanese border and kidnapped three members from the Syrian Ghawi family and their guest from the Yassine family, also a Syrian.

It remained unclear whether the reasons behind the kidnapping were political or financial, the source said.

But according to the source, after the Syrian Army supported by Hezbollah forces regained control of the region of Qalamoun on the border with Lebanon, hundreds of militants were forced to flee inside Lebanese territories.

“Fighters belonging to various Syrian opposition factions, including Nusra, the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria and the Free Syrian Army have inhabited the mountainous areas and agricultural stretches of land on the outskirts of Arsal,” the source disclosed.

The source said the fighters were on high alert in anticipation of attacks against them to be undertaken by one of three parties, the Syrian military, Hezbollah or the Lebanese Army.

The fighters have also engaged in kidnap-for-ransom operations along the border. Over the weekend, three Lebanese hunters were lightly wounded and two others kidnapped in clashes between Arsal residents and armed Syrian rebels.

The Bekaa Valley town of Arsal in the Baalbek region is known for its strong support for Syrian rebels and houses many families of Syrian rebels.

The clashes – the first of their kind – took place in the mountainous region of Rahwa, which separates Arsal from Syrian territories. The kidnapped men were later on released after Arsal officials contacted Syrian opposition groups in the area to secure their release.

Lebanon has witnessed in the past few months a wave of bombings, which mainly targeted Hezbollah-associated areas.

Most of the attacks were claimed by Syrian rebels, who said they were in retaliation for Hezbollah’s military involvement in Syria alongside the regime.

The attacks came to a halt over a month ago, following an Army crackdown on terrorist cells in the country and an operation by the Syrian army and Hezbollah that drove rebels out of Syrian rebel-held territories adjacent to Lebanon.

Researchers warn Oklahoma quakes linked to fracking boom could get stronger

Washington -- Seismologists are warning that Oklahoma’s skyrocketing earthquakes linked to oil and gas activity are liable to get stronger and more dangerous.

Oklahoma has seen a 50 percent rise in earthquakes since October of last year. Since 2009, after the nation’s fracking boom began, the earthquake activity in Oklahoma has been approximately 40 times higher than in the 30 previous years, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.

The recent surge in the rate of the quakes has prompted the USGS and the Oklahoma Geological Survey to issue a warning that the earthquakes could get stronger, with the agencies saying there is a significantly increased chance for a damaging magnitude 5.5 or greater quake in central Oklahoma.

“While it’s been known for decades that Oklahoma is earthquake country, we hope that this new advisory of increased hazard will become a crucial consideration in earthquake preparedness for residents, schools and businesses in the area,” said Bill Leith, senior science advisor at the USGS.

A USGS analysis suggests a likely contributing factor to the increase in earthquakes is drilling wastewater injected into deep geologic formations.

Fracking produces large amounts of wastewater, which companies often pump deep underground as an economical way to dispose of it without contaminating fresh water. Injection raises the underground pressure and can effectively lubricate fault lines, weakening them and causing quakes, according to the USGS.

Most ofthe Oklahoma quakes have been small so far. But scientists have linked a 5.7 magnitude quake near Prague, Oklahoma in 2011 to disposal of drilling wastewater. That earthquake was felt as far away as Milwaukee and destroyed 14 homes.

The Oklahoma Geological Survey disputes the link of that earthquake to oil and gas activities, though, and is not joining the USGS in attributing the skyrtocketing rate of earthquakes to disposal of drilling waste. The USGS has also linked quakes in Arkansas, Ohio, Texas, and Colorado to oil and gas activities. Scientists are studying whether a recent surge in earthquakes in Kansas is also attributate to the uptick in fracking there.

Detroit auctioning homes online in blight fight

DETROIT -- Detroit's effort to auction off vacant, city-owned houses to people willing to quickly fix them up is getting attention from potential buyers.

The auctions began Monday, with The Detroit News and MLive.com reporting the first home being offered as part of the effort getting a top bid of $34,100. Bidding began at $1,000 for the 1,400-square-foot, 3-bedroom colonial-style home in Detroit's East English Village.

One home is being auctioned each weekday. The auctions are part of the city's effort to eradicate blight while stabilizing neighborhoods.

Detroit has struggled for years with vacant homes and buildings, and thousands of them have been razed. Vacant houses and buildings often are vandalized by metal and wire thieves. The damage they do make the structures nearly impossible to sell.

---

Online:

http://bit.ly/SwHq3y

Jury selection begins in Vegas dancer slaying case

LAS VEGAS -- It's a murder trial with all the elements of a Sin City made-for-TV drama: A tempestuous relationship between two passionate Las Vegas stage performers who traded accusations of domestic violence but kept returning to each other until one was dead.

Lawyers and a Nevada judge began selecting a jury Monday to hear the murder case against Jason Omar Griffith, who is accused of strangling Deborah Flores Narvaez during a heated argument and dismembering her body.

Defense attorney Abel Yanez told prospective jurors it was a case of self-defense.

Friends and family members knew something was wrong when the 31-year-old woman who went by the name Debbie Flores failed to show up in mid-December 2010 for her spotlight role in the glittery Las Vegas Strip burlesque show "Fantasy" at the Luxor hotel-casino.

She had told her roommate the night before that she was going to visit her ex-boyfriend, Griffith, at his North Las Vegas house, police said. She said they planned to watch the TV show "Dexter," about a crime scene analyst who leads a secret life as a serial killer.

Griffith, then 32, was a dancer with the Cirque du Soleil show "Love," based on Beatles' music, on the Strip. He also uses the nickname "Blu."

He initially told police that Flores sat in her car outside his house while they talked Dec. 12. Then, she drove away, he said.

Flores' remains weren't found until the following month, when Griffith's roommate told police where to find her dismembered body. It was encased in concrete in two large, green plastic tubs with red locking handles in the closet of an empty downtown Las Vegas home.

By that time, Flores' 1997 Geo Prizm sedan had been found abandoned in a backyard of another home. Her older sister, Celeste Flores Narvaez of Atlanta, had spent the Christmas and New Year holidays in Las Vegas, pleading publicly for information and searching for clues to her disappearance.

Police arrested Griffith late Jan. 8, 2011, after taking him in for questioning as he left work at The Mirage resort.

Griffith, now 35, has pleaded not guilty to a murder charge that could get him life in state prison. He has been jailed in Las Vegas while his trial has been postponed several times.

His lawyers and his mother maintain that Flores had a history of aggression against Griffith and other former boyfriends when she lived in Maryland from 2002 to 2006 and in Las Vegas in 2009 after moving across the country with another boyfriend.

Griffith's defense is expected to focus on what they say was a heat-of-the-moment confrontation. His attorneys, Yanez and Jeff Banks, haven't said whether he will testify.

Clark County District Court Judge Kathleen Delaney is allowing jurors to be referred to by numbers, not names, so they can be comfortable answering questions about what they have heard about the case. Opening statements could come Wednesday, she said.

The trial is expected to feature incriminating testimony from several people close to Griffith.

His housemate, Louis Colombo, told police he left the house after seeing Griffith put his hands around Flores' neck as they argued late Dec. 12, 2010. Colombo said when he returned, he could see Flores was dead.

Colombo received a promise from police that he wouldn't be prosecuted for telling how he helped Griffith dispose of Flores' body not just once, but twice.

A friend, Kalae Casorso, told police that Griffith and Colombo brought a big blue plastic tub full of hardened gray concrete to her house to store on her patio. She said Griffith wouldn't answer at first when she asked what was in it.

"She described Griffith as hesitating again," police said, "but then telling her Debbie was in the tub."

Later, Colombo said, they broke the body out of the large tub and Griffith sawed the legs off so the parts would fit in two smaller concrete-filled tubs that weighed less when moved.

A key to Griffith's defense could be a black-and-white video recording that his mother, Charlene Davis of Brooklyn, New York, said he made while confronting Flores about the tires of his car being slashed.

In it, Flores admits hitting Griffith, entering his house, looking on his computer, pouring egg whites on his car and slashing three tires.

She tells Griffith that if he fights her, he will lose.

"I am not going to lie about anything I'm doing," she says.

Facebook plans campaign to 'friend' small business

By JOYCE M. ROSENBERG The Associated Press

NEW YORK -- Facebook is courting small business owners as part of its drive to increase advertising revenue.

The social media company's operating chief and "Lean In" author Sheryl Sandberg says the key is showing business owners how to find new customers by creating Facebook pages and by buying ads that appear on individual users' pages. It's announcing a campaign called Facebook Fit with workshops in five cities to show small business owners how to use Facebook as a marketing tool.

Facebook is also creating advertising products that Sandberg says will be affordable.

Industry analysts say Facebook needs more small-business advertising to compete with Google. But all Internet and social media companies have been finding small business a hard market to crack.

Report: Growing risk of cyber attacks on banks

ALBANY, N.Y. -- A yearlong survey of New York bank security has found that cyber thieves are using increasingly sophisticated methods to breach bank accounts.

The report, issued Monday by Gov. Andrew Cuomo and the state's Department of Financial Services, found that a majority of the 154 New York banks surveyed reported being the target of cyber attacks in the past three years.

The attacks involved the use of malicious software and phishing schemes intended to take over bank accounts, seize data and steal the identity of bank customers.

Cuomo says he's directing bank regulators to regularly analyze bank security practices to determine how vulnerable they are to attack.