By Guy Lodge

Modestly tucked away below a Dunkin’ Donuts in Beirut’s built-up Ain el-Rammaneh district, the Abraj multiplex does not often play host to international movie stars. Yet while gracing its linoleum-floored halls on Oct. 1 for the Middle Eastern premiere of her film “Clouds of Sils Maria,” Juliette Binoche seemed sufficiently overwhelmed by the reception to tear up visibly before leaving the stage, reappearing in a more jovial mood for the more elegantly appointed afterparty.

The occasion was the opening night of the Beirut Intl. Film Festival, and Binoche’s reaction seemed appropriate for an event that aims for a delicate balance of glamour and gravitas. Pushing liberal social ideals and freedom of expression in a vibrant country still culturally scarred by the Lebanese Civil War, it’s a more intimate affair than other fests in the region like Doha or Dubai, which is how festival director Colette Naufal likes it: Its bijou scale and political positioning allows her to be both selective and progressive in her programming. “We are able to bring movies others can’t,” she says. “We don’t auto-censor at all.”

(Reuters) – Lebanon is set to postpone next month’s parliamentary elections to 2017 because instability linked to the Syrian crisis has made it impossible to hold a nationwide poll, a government minister said on Monday.

The civil war in neighboring Syria has stoked sectarian tensions and aggravated long-standing rivalries in Lebanon. This would be the second postponement of the elections, which should have taken place in June 2013.

Now the 128-member parliament is set to delay them for another two years and seven months from November, the minister said.

"There is no longer a possibility of holding the elections because of the deteriorating security situation in the country," the minister told Reuters. He declined to be named because the parliament has not yet voted on the new postponement.

By Ann Schneible

Vatican City, Oct 11, 2014 / 12:20 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- The Catholic Church in Nigeria has been at the forefront in fighting discrimination towards persons with same-sex attraction, says Archbishop Ignatius Kaigama of Jos, who adds that media coverage of the Church has been imbalanced. In one of the strongest statements made about homosexuality during the first week of the Synod on the Family, the Nigerian prelate told the press on Oct. 8 that “the Catholic Church respects all human beings, and we believe we are all created in the image and likeness of God.”

Archbishop Kaigama said that the people of Africa believe marriage is only between a man and a woman, based on culture, biology, and religious belief. However, he stressed that this does not translate into support for the “the criminalizing of people with different sexual orientations.” “The Catholic Church is in the forefront of defending them,” he said, “and we would defend any person with a homosexual orientation who has been harassed, who has been imprisoned, who has been punished.”

The archbishop criticized the media for focusing on the Church’s defense of marriage between a man and a woman, while ignoring the Church’s advocacy against discrimination towards persons with same-sex attraction.

LOS ANGELES, CA (Catholic Online) – The dog, named Sheru along with Mangli were treated to a lavish wedding with more than 70 guests. The dog was brought to the wedding in a chauffeur-driven car and welcomed by the celebrants.  A local elder told Mangli’s parents that she possessed ill-luck and that marrying a man would bring destruction to the family and her community. 

Mangli is not happy with her current arrangement, but insisted that it will help change her fortunes. "I am marrying a dog because the village elders believe that my evil spell will be passed on to the dog. "After that is done, the man I will marry will have a long life."Mangli’s father Sri Amnmunda agreed and even found the dog as a match for his daughter. "The village elders told us that we should organize the wedding as soon as we can. We had to make sure that the evil spell is destroyed. "And marrying a dog is the only way to get rid of the bad luck."

LOS ANGELES, CA (Catholic Online) – "ISIS has plants in Baghdad. That’s why the archbishop wanted us gone. The other day, they discovered 150 bodies of people who had been shot. Nobody knows who did it, but we know that ISIS is already operating in Baghdad," White said in a recent interview.  White related how the Islamic State burst into the house of one of "his families" and offered the parents a choice: "Convert right now or we will kill your children in front of you."

Visiting a different family, White recalls, "The kids were told to convert or be killed. They refused. There were four of them from 15-years old and younger. They beheaded all of them," he related crying. "They were all our children. That is how evil these people are. So evil. They have no respect for anyone. The other day, they chopped a four-year old boy in half. He didn’t do anything. What can a four-year old boy do? He was just a boy ."

The 50-year-old Anglican vicar, from London is the president of the Foundation for Relief and Reconciliation in the Middle East, an aid and advocacy group that works for peace between different religious groups in the Middle East. The foundation, which has 260 centers around the world, has worked with Nigerian Christians and Muslims, Israelis and Palestinians and different groups in Germany.

"The Islamic Republic of Iran has specified the types of equipment it can present to the Lebanese army in a letter to the foreign ministry and the foreign ministry has submitted the letter to Moqbel," a report by al-Akhbar said on Saturday.

"Iran is ready to deliver a number of TOW (anti-tank) missiles and its special rockets, night goggles, 120-mm mortar rounds, and munitions, 60-mm artillery and its shells, munitions of T55 and T62 tanks, munitions of 155-mm cannon and DShK (Dushka) and its munitions," the letter said.

The newspaper also reported that the US has sent official and unofficial messages to Lebanon and threatened Beirut not to accept the military gift, or Washington would stop its aids to the Lebanese army.

Last week, Secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council (SNSC) Ali Shamkhani announced that Iran plans to gift a military tool or weapon to the Lebanese army in the near future.

Celebrating 50 years

The National Shrine of Our Lady of Lebanon, 2759 N. Lipkey Road, North Jackson, is celebrating its 50th anniversary and the elevation of the shrine as a minor basilica by Pope Francis. The shrine becomes just the second Maronite Catholic basilica in the world, the other being the original shrine in Lebanon. The observance began Aug. 15, recalling that date in 1964 when ground was broken for the shrine. The celebration will conclude Aug. 15, 2015, on the golden anniversary of the dedication. Aug. 15 is significant because that is the observance of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary into heaven. The shrine is a Maronite Catholic Church under the ecclesiastical jurisdiction of the Maronite Catholic Eparchy of Our Lady of Lebanon in St. Louis, Mo.

Celebration details: A Divine Liturgy will be celebrated at 5 p.m. today followed by a banquet, by reservation, to be attended by some 400 people. The shrine will be consecrated by the Most Rev. A. Elias Zaidan, Bishop of the Eparchy of Our Lady of Lebanon of Los Angeles. Also attending will be Bishop Gregory Mansour, Eparchy of St. Maron, Brooklyn; and Bishop Robert Shaheen, bishop emeritus. Assisting chorbishops, monsignori, priests, deacons and subdeacons also will attend.

In the beginning: In June 1960, Maronite priests of America met in Washington and proposed a Shrine of Our Lady of Lebanon. When the Rev. Peter Eid was returning to the Mahoning Valley, he suggested that the Maronites in the Youngstown and surrounding areas would buy land and build a shrine. He saw a sign for 75 acres for sale on Lipkey Road, but the owner did not want to sell to a Catholic. Father Eid enlisted fellow priests to pray a novena for the intention of the land, which the owner ended up selling to him. The shrine gave 10 acres and existing farmhouse to the Antonine Sisters, who established an adult day care.

  LONDON: Human rights lawyer Amal Alamuddin Clooney, fresh from her marriage to Hollywood heart-throb George Clooney last month, is heading to Athens to advise the Greek government in its battle to repatriate the ancient Elgin Marbles statues from Britain. The Lebanese-born Alamuddin, who married Clooney in a star-studded ceremony in Venice, will meet Greece’s […]

  After her mysterious death shocked the public opinion, investigations revealed Thursday that the toddler girl Celine Rakan had been murdered more than a week ago at the hands of the family’s Ethiopian maid, who was caught red-handed by the child while stealing house items. “The Ethiopian domestic worker confessed to the Msaitbeh police station […]

  MONROVIA, Liberia (AP) — Six U.S. military planes arrived in the Ebola hot zone Thursday with more Marines, as West Africa’s leaders pleaded for the world’s help in dealing with a crisis that one called "a tragedy unforeseen in modern times." "Our people are dying," Sierra Leone President Ernest Bai Koroma lamented by videoconference […]