BEIRUT: From Mexican actress Salma Hayek, to Lebanese-Colombian singer-songwriter Shakira, to Anglo-Lebanese vocalist MIKA, a slew of artists have achieved international fame overseas. The latest is 28-year-old Lebanese-American screenwriter and actor James Jurdi. Having written and acted in several short films, Jurdi broke through Hollywood’s celluloid ceiling this year with two feature-length movies packaged […]

By Laila Bassam and Sylvia Westall

BEIRUT (Reuters) – The Lebanese army detained a wife and daughter of Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi as they crossed from Syria nine days ago, security officials said on Tuesday, in a move seen as likely to put pressure on the Islamist chief.

The woman was identified as Saja al-Dulaimi, an Iraqi, by a Lebanese security official and a senior political source.

The Lebanese newspaper As-Safir reported she had been detained in coordination with "foreign intelligence".

A Lebanese security source said the arrest was “a powerful card to apply pressure” in negotiations to secure the release of 27 members of the Lebanese security forces captured by Islamic militants – a view shared by other Lebanese officials who confirmed the arrest.

However, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry dismissed any suggestion that Washington might also try to use similar tactics to free prisoners. "We do not engage in that type of negotiation. Period," he told a news conference in Brussels.

Conflicting Report from Iraq:

By Avaneesh Pandey

Who Is Saja Abdul al-Dulaimi? Confusion Prevails Over Identity Of Woman Detained By Lebanese Military

In a statement released by the Iraqi interior ministry, a government spokesperson said that the woman who was reportedly detained by Lebanese security forces about 10 days ago, is the sister of Omar Abdul Hamid al-Dulaimi — an Iraqi national who has been sentenced to death on a number of terror related charges.

“The wives of the terrorist al-Baghdadi are Asmaa Fawzi Mohammed al-Dulaimi and Esraa Rajab Mahel al-Qaisi,” the Iraqi government spokesperson said, in the statement. “There is no wife named of Saja al-Dulaimi.”

The statement contradicted earlier media reports, which suggested that the woman was possibly one of al-Baghdadi’s wives or one of his ex-wives.

Meanwhile, CNN contested the Iraqi government’s statement on Wednesday, citing “regional sources” to report that the woman is in fact one of his two wives. The report also claimed that al-Dulaimi is a “powerful figure” within the Islamic State group and is “very active” within the organization. Some other reports claim al-Baghdadi has three wives.

The mother of Mohammed Suleiman, one of at least six Lebanese soldiers who was killed during an ambush by gunmen in Ras Baalbek, carries her son’s military clothes during his funeral in Jabal Mohsen, Tripoli December 3, 2014.

Lebanese military soldiers man a checkpoint, near the site of an ambush where gunmen killed at least six Lebanese soldiers, in the mountainous border town of Ras Baalbek December 3, 2014

Friends and family members carry the coffin of Mohammed Suleiman, one of at least six Lebanese soldiers who was killed during an ambush by gunmen in Ras Baalbek, during his funeral in Jabal Mohsen, Tripoli December 3, 2014

BEIRUT (Reuters) – Gunmen killed at least six Lebanese soldiers when they attacked an army patrol near the border with Syria on Tuesday, the army and a Lebanese security source said.

The source said the gunmen crossed from Syria to the mountainous border town of Ras Baalbek after dark and ambushed the patrol. Clashes between gunmen and a special army unit erupted after the attack and the army was able to retrieve the bodies of six of its soldiers.

"Six bodies just arrived at the local hospital of the town of Ras Baalbek," he told Reuters.

The army said in a statement that a "terrorist" group had attacked a patrol on a surveillance mission and killed six of the soldiers. The army had sent immediate reinforcement to the area and "took appropriate field procedures".

  The funeral service for poet and writer Said Akl was held on Tuesday at Saint George Cathedral in downtown Beirut. He passed away on Friday at the age of 102. Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi led the prayers. “Akl loved Lebanon and raised its name high,” al-Rahi said, adding that the poet “considered Lebanon an […]

  BEIRUT: Residents across Tripoli, Sidon, Beirut and Tyre gathered near Lebanon’s coast Sunday as an NGO that calls itself Beirut Celebrations attempted to form a human chain stretching from the northern city of Tripoli down to the southern city of Tyre. In Beirut, a mass of people gathered near the Al Hammam Al Aaskary […]

  BEIRUT: Police arrested Tuesday a gang operating in the southern city of Sidon that steals mobile phone SIMs from shops, the Internal Security Forces announced in a statement. Based on information about people selling extraordinarily cheap phone lines in Sidon, police arrested a 14-year-old Palestinian boy who admitted to stealing and selling SIMs and […]

By Marta Jiménez

Istanbul, Turkey, Dec 1, 2014 / 02:10 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- Living as a Catholic in the majority Muslim country of Turkey can be difficult, but it can also be a blessing and a call to witness, says Mexican priest Father Ruben Tierrablanca Gonzalez. A Franciscan friar who has served for 11 years at St. Mary Draperis Parish in Istanbul, Fr. Tierrablanca spoke with CNA Nov. 27. “Living as a Christian in Turkey is a huge challenge and a grace,” Fr. Tierrablanca said. “A grace because we live where the Church has its roots and the presence of Christians is important, since God himself wanted his Church to expand here. And a challenge because it has become de-Christianized, in terms of population. We are very few.”

“We are a minority within a religious minority,” the priest explained. “Of the 100,000 Christians in Turkey, 65 percent are Armenians and Catholics number only 25,000.” Christians came to Turkey 2,000 years ago, centuries before the birth of Islam. The early Christian communities in Asia Minor were founded largely as the result of St. John’s preaching in Ephesus, St. Philip’s in Hierapolis, and St. Andrew, who is considered the evangelizer of the region. Today, however, Christians are the minority in Turkey, where some 98 percent of the country is Muslim.

By Paul Wood, BBC

The Lebanese army’s Brig Gen Ali Mourad got a WhatsApp message from the Islamic State (IS). It was short and to the point. "We are the heroes of Qalamoun," it said, referring to the mountains on Syria’s border with Lebanon, "and we’re going to kill you."

Gen Mourad has a robust attitude to this threat.

"We want them to come, these terrorists," he told me, at one of the heavily fortified positions paid for by the British government.

"We are waiting for them [here].

"When we see them, we shoot them, all the time."

We were at Tango Ten, the 10th of 12 new posts built so far with UK money and expertise along Lebanon’s border with Syria. It looked down over a dusty plain to the snow-covered mountain that is controlled by various jihadist groups and used by them as a base to launch attacks.

The Lebanese soldiers at Tango Ten say they come under fire almost every night. They used to crouch behind a few tyres filled with concrete, "eyes like saucers, gripping the 50-cal [heavy machine gun," said one of the former British army officers advising the Lebanese. Now they have proper defences, and morale is good.

Tango Ten had shades of Northern Ireland in the guard tower and Afghanistan in the Hesco barriers – which are earth-filled defensive walls. There was even a fleet of Land Rovers parked inside. The UK has spent some £20m to stop the jihadists from invading Lebanon.

  BEIRUT: The Maharat Foundation, a media watchdog, slammed Monday a policy that forces detained bloggers and Internet activists to sign a “promise of silence” before being releases, saying such documents violated freedom of speech. Bloggers who are detained after a government official or a company file a complaint over comments on social media are […]

  BEIRUT: The biggest obstacle facing Lebanon’s economy lies in the fall of oil prices, which reduces the remittances it receives from Gulf countries, Central Bank Governor Riad Salameh said. But he said the bank is introducing measures to prevent a crisis from erupting. “The most notable of economic challenges that Lebanon and the Lebanese […]