Worldcrunch
BEIRUT — Meeting for a drink, Lina, Ali and Johnny at first blush seem like normal young people enjoying a pleasant social gathering. But there is also heartbreak behind what has brought them so far from their homes in Damascus. Friends since childhood, these upper middle-class Syrians gather at one of their usual cafés lining […]
Though Russia’s proposed diplomatic solution casts doubt over a U.S. military strike in Syria, Lebanese fear being caught in the middle if the fire spreads across the entire region.
REUTERS, BBC, RUSSIA TODAY, AFP Worldcrunch BEIRUT — Israel’s Air Force bombed a militant target south of Beirut Friday in retaliation for rockets fired into Israel from Lebanon the day before, Reuters reports. “Israel will not tolerate terrorist aggression originating from Lebanese territory,” military spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Peter Lerner said in a statement. According to […]
BBC, AL JAZEERA, NEW YORK TIMES Worldcrunch BEIRUT – A previously unknown Sunni group has claimed responsibility for Thursday’s car-bomb explosion in a southern Beirut neighborhood, one of Lebanon’s bloodiest attacks in recent memory and the clearest sign to date that the conflict in neighboring Syria is crossing the border. As the death toll climbed […]
BEIRUT – Somehow, the shots missed Jesus. He survived the rampage by armed men in St. George’s Cathedral during the Lebanese civil war. But since the mosaic of which he is a part is otherwise shell-pocked, his figure has become something of an attraction. The cathedral is not far from downtown Beirut’s posh hotels, and […]
HAARETZ, JERUSALEM POST (Israel), NEW YORK TIMES (U.S.), REUTERS, AFP, BBC Worldcrunch DAMASCUS – The situation in Syria has gotten both more dangerous and more complicated over the past 72 hours. On Monday, Chinese officials indirectly criticized Israel’s weekend strikes in Syria, as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu began a five-day visit to China. During a […]
Worldcrunch PARIS – La Stampa’s veteran war correspondent Domenico Quirico has been missing in Syria more than three weeks now. Our Turin-based partner released the news earlier this week after working quietly with the Ministry for Foreign Affairs to trace the journalist. Heading for Homs, he crossed the Syrian border through Lebanon on April 6 […]
SOFIA – While Cyprus was in the middle of a financial crisis, the court of Limassol, the island’s second largest city, made a ruling that largely went unnoticed. Yet it was a judicial first. On March 28, the Cyprus court condemned a 24-year-old Swedish-Lebanese man, Hossam Taleb Yaacoub, to four years in prison for helping […]
Thinking beyond the top “papabili,” some have cited Cardinal Bechara al-Rahi, the Patriarch of Antioch. For the Church, the plight of Christians in the Middle East is a key issue of our times.
In recent days, U.S. and Mideast officials have reported that Iran and Hezbollah, the Lebanese Shiite group, are making military preparations for the sectarian chaos likely to engulf a post-Assad Syria. Counterterrorism expert Matthew Levitt says that Hezbollah has closely aligned itself with Iran’s Quds Force, an elite paramilitary group linked directly to Ayatollah Ali […]
BBC, JERUSALEM POST (Israel), THE NEW YORK TIMES, VOA (U.S.), REUTERS Worldcrunch DAMASCUS– Russia has expressed its concern at an alleged Israeli airstrike in Syria that left four dead and two injured says the BBC. Various reports about the airstrike differ in details, while Israel remains silent about its action. Sources told Reuters on Wednesday […]
PLANS FOR CEASEFIRE IN ALEPPOSyrian Foreign Minister Walid Muallem announced at joint press conference with his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov that Syria had given Russia plans for a ceasefire in the northern city of Aleppo, RT reports. He also said that, if successful, the plan could be implemented in other cities and that the government […]
AP, BBC NEWS (UK), AL JAZEERA (Qatar) Worldcrunch BEIRUT – Overnight clashes in Lebanon have killed at least three people in the northern city of Tripoli and left dozens injured, following the funeral of senior intelligence official Wissam al-Hassan. Al Jazeera reports that violence erupted after protesters tried to storm the offices of Lebanese Prime […]
AKRUN – Far beyond the brown plain and the shimmering blue waters of Qatinnah Lake, the outlines of a city can just barely be made out. “That’s Homs, that’s where there’s war,” says a refugee turning away from the empty window opening. Then there’s the sound of an explosion at some distance behind him. “And […]
BBC NEWS (UK), AL JAZEERA (Qatar), LE MONDE (France), THE AUSTRALIAN, THE SYDNEY MORNING HERALD (Australia) Worldcrunch BEIRUT – Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah, the leader of Lebanon’s Shiite Muslim movement Hezbollah, has called for new protests over the controversial anti-Islam film which has sparked furor in the Muslim world. The religious and political leader called the […]
VATICAN CITY – Three years ago, on the eve of Pope Benedict XVI’s departure for the Mediterranean island of Cyprus, it was the murder of Luigi Padovese, the vicar apostolic of Turkey, which loomed over the trip. This time it is the killing of four U.S. diplomats in Benghazi and the uprising across the region […]
BEIRUT – Sheikh Hani Fahs lives by the old route to the airport, near the entrance of Beirut’s Dahieh (“southern suburb”). This a Hezbollah stronghold. The Lebanese cleric has had a ringside seat over this main axis, which has often been blocked by angry demonstrators these past few months. Down the street, walls are covered […]
It is hard to dispute that Iran’s geopolitical importance, both internationally and regionally, has been on the rise over the past decade. With the Arab Spring, the Islamic Republic saw a new opportunity. For Tehran, the Arab uprisings meant “the awakening of Islam,” the rise of Islamist political parties sympathetic to Iran’s plight, and a […]
BEIRUT – Elias, a 42-year-old Syrian, is chain smoking under the silent gaze of his children. This Christian farmer abandoned his lands, near the Lebanese border, leaving behind conflicts he felt had nothing to do with him, but tormented by the future of Syria and the fate of his minority religion there. Together with 20 […]
REUTERS, SKY NEWS, BBC (UK), AL JAZEERA (UAE) Worldcrunch Sectarian violence in Lebanon escalated Tuesday night, claiming at least 10 lives, Reuters reports, as the Syrian crisis spills over to its neighbors. Old tensions between Sunni Muslims and Alawites in Lebanon’s second city Tripoli have flared up due to the continuing Syrian conflict, which has […]
AFP (France), THE NEW YORK TIMES, BLOOMBERG NEWS (U.S.), AL JAZEERA (Qatar) Worldcrunch LEBANON – Persian Gulf states urged their citizens to leave Lebanon on Thursday after more than 30 members of the Syrian opposition movement were abducted by a Lebanese Muslim Shiite clan, in retaliation for the kidnapping of one of its members in […]
Few know the Lebanese capital has been a destination for immigrants in recent years. But now a group of Sudanese men are on a hunger strike, demanding that the UN resettle recognized refugees and grant temporary status to those waiting for their papers.
In the Lebanese city of Tripoli, the Sunni Bab al-Tebbaneh neighborhood and the Alawite Djebel Mohsen neighborhood are at war. On one side supporters of the Syrian revolution, on the other side supporters of the Syrian regime.
NGO’s and activists are denouncing the way police officers strip and examine “suspects” to determine if they are homosexual, which is illegal in what many consider the Arab world’s most open society.
MTV (Lebanon) BEIRUT – After having earlier stood by Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, Lebanon’s Maronite Patriarch has now declared that the fall of what he calls the “dictatorship” of the current regime would not affect Christians in Syria, reported Lebanon’s MTV television (not affiliated with the American music broadcaster) Still Patriarch Bishara al-Rai, whose followers […]
L’ORIENT LE JOUR (Lebanon) BEIRUT – “Bring Candles & Lebanese Flags only..” pleads the message on Facebook. A group of young Lebanese activists have organized a meeting Monday night on Martyrs Square, in Beirut, under the slogan “Say no to War… we want Peace in Lebanon.” Sunday, two anti-Syrian Sunni Muslim clerics were killed at […]
Too closely tied to its larger neighbor, Lebanon can’t help but worry about the consequences of the war spreading in Syria. The two countries have tight political links and share a porous border. Is Beirut set to be the next Arab Spring hot spot?
Lebanon’s recent history has long been inextricably linked to its northern neighbor. In the face of Damascus’ crackdown on a popular uprising, the current pro-Hezbollah government has been loathed to criticize the Syrian regime. But the
Manola Rajaonarison thought she was going to Lebanon to work as a housekeeper. That’s what the agency said. What she didn’t know was that she would repeatedly be humiliated, beaten and raped.
Essay: Hamzah al-Khatib, the 13-year-old boy who was tortured and killed by Bashar Al-Assad’s regime, has become a potent symbol of the revolution. Moroccan writer Tahar Ben Jelloun meditation on how the victim’s soul holds the power to bring dow
The spectre of strife looms ahead of UN indictments in 2005 Hariri murder Monuments have risen to honor slain leader Rafiq Hariri (Steven Damron) EYES INSIDE – THE MIDDLE EAST Lebanon is an edgy place these days, as a UN-backed special tribunal prepares to charge suspects in the February 2005 bombing assassination of ex-Prime Minister […]