Lebanon's fuel prices keep dropping
Global slide in oil prices brought another decrease in fuel prices in Lebanon Wednesday, with a drop of LL 700 in the...
Tuesday, 13 January 2015
Obama To Host White House Meeting With Congressional Leaders
White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest says President Obama plans to talk about possible areas of agreement: tax changes, trade and infrastructure.
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Lebanon signs MOU to protect birds of prey
UAE bans Exodus: Gods and Kings
The UAE said Tuesday that it will not allow screening of Hollywood’s Biblical epic “Exodus: Gods and Kings,” echoing...
Damascus Highway open for cars, not trucks
Damascus Highway open for cars, not trucks
The snow on Dahr al-Baidar’s main road has melted enough to allow the passing of cars, while trucks remain barred from...
Naameh mayor vows to block landfill extension
BEIRUT: Naameh’s mayor announced Tuesday that he would defy the Cabinet’s decision to extend the deadline for closing the town's infamous landfill, pledging direct action to shut the facility down on time.
“Extending for the landfill beyond the 17th of this month will not be allowed, and we have begun the preparations for a huge protest on the landfill’s doors,” Mayor Khalil Matar told Voice of Lebanon 100.3. “We will not back down.”
After months of heated debate, Lebanon’s ministers finally agreed Monday night on a new plan to manage the country’s waste management sector.
The agreed-upon plan includes postponing the deadline for Naameh landfill’s closure to April 17, with the possibility of another 3-month extension if necessary.
Media reports said the ministers of the Progressive Socialist Party “had reservations” about the decision but did not veto it.
In light of the presidential vacuum, Lebanon's Cabinet is currently making decision by consensus instead of majority vote.
The head of the Progressive Socialist Party, Walid Jumblatt, has repeatedly rejected any delay in closing the facility and had pledged to call for mass demonstrations if the Cabinet decided to do so.
However, the normally vocal Druze leader has yet to comment on the Cabinet decision. Jumblatt enjoys wide popularity in the concerned area, and was behind the end of a protest that shut down the landfill one year ago when he promised that the landfill would be closed in January 2015.
Al-Akhbar newspaper reported Tuesday that Health Minister Wael Abu Faour and Public Works Minister Ghazi Zeaiter, who represent the PSP in the Cabinet, left the 5-hour session Monday and made a quick visit to Jumblatt. The visit, the Lebanese daily said, sought to receive his approval for the new plan and extension.
Created as a 6-year project in 1997, the landfill has now been running for 17 years, exceeding its design capacity by a factor of five and frustrating the residents of the area with its odors and gas emissions.
Environment Minister Mohammad Machnouk advocated a "technical extension" of the deadline, until an alternative could be found.
The Cabinet’s plan also includes a detailed plan for holding calls for tenders to bring new companies to manage the collection and treatment of garbage across the country.
Terror plans seized in Roumieh raid
BEIRUT: Documents recently seized from the notorious Roumieh prison have shown that Islamist inmates were planning further terrorist attacks in Lebanon, a security source told The Daily Star Tuesday.
A large number of files that were seized in an operation in Roumieh’s notorious Block B Monday revealed that several terrorist attacks across Lebanon in the past had been directed from inside the prisoners’ “operations room.”
Documents also uncovered that the attacks had been coordinated with external sides, according to the source.
Security forces stormed Block B Monday, moving all 900 Islamists to Block D, in an unprecedented nine-hour operation linked to the weekend twin suicide bombing in the northern city of Tripoli that left nine people killed and at least 30 wounded.
The source stressed that the operation’s purpose was first to separate prisoners in well-monitored cells and to end the previous chaos, where they had illicit access to mobile phones and the Internet.
Interior Minister Nouhad Machnouk said Monday that security forces “have seized all phones” in a move he said aimed to “stop a process of communication that was facilitating terrorism.”
Machnouk also vowed to "cut off heads" if mobile phones were allowed to be smuggled into prisons by corrupt guards.
The security source, however, said two more cell phones were confiscated Tuesday from Block D.
The source said a wall-mounted prison jammer has been reactivated so that cellular phone users, if any, would not be able to make or receive calls.
Among Block B’s inmates, more than 300 are labeled terrorists by security forces.
Excluding Lebanese prisoners, most inmates in Block B are Syrians and Palestinians – though other Arab and non-Arab nationals are also present. The block also boasts a collection of dangerous individuals accused of belonging to militant Islamist movements such as ISIS; Al-Qaeda and its Syrian affiliate, the Nusra Front; and Fatah al-Islam, among others.
Monday, 12 January 2015
Machnouk vows strict measures against prison guards
Machnouk vows strict measures against prison guards
Interior Minister Nouhad Machnouk has pledged to “cut off heads” if mobile phones were allowed to be smuggled into...
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