BEIRUT: Local and international officials expressed mixed reactions Monday to the news of Israel’s attack on a Hezbollah convoy in Syria a day earlier, as the party began to bury the first of six of its fighters killed in the airstrike. While some roundly condemned Israel’s attack as an act of terror and aggression, […]

Armin Rosen

The apparent Israeli strike inside of Syrian territory and near the Israeli-held Golan Heights on a group of commanders from Iran and Hezbollah, the Lebanese Shi’ite terrorist organization, raises the ante in a big way. Sunday’s strike killed at least 6, including Mohammad Abu Issa, one of Hezbollah’s leading commanders in Syria and someone senior enough to have met Syria Prsident Assad. The dead also included an Iranian general and Jihad Mugniyah, the 25-year-old son of Imad Mugniyah, Hezbollah’s longstanding operational mastermind. 

  Hezbollah officials vowed on Monday to avenge the latest Israeli attack on its high-level officials, sources close to the Lebanese Shi’ite organization are quoted as saying in various Arab-language media outlets north of the border.  One pro-Hezbollah source told the Lebanese daily A-Safir that the group “will not rush to decide what steps should […]

  Bkirki has been reportedly tasked by the Vatican to carry out direct negotiations for the return of Christians who were forced out of their homes in Syria and Iraq by the Islamic State group. Al-Liwaa daily said on Monday that a “major diplomatic breakthrough has been made by the leadership of the IS lately” after […]

  A man was injured after coming under gunfire from the Syrian side of the border in the northern district of Akkar, the state-run National News Agency reported on Monday. NNA said Khaled Fadel al-Salem was wounded in his right leg after coming under fire in the neighborhood of Bani Sakhr in the Wadi Khaled […]

By Ruth Sherlock, BBC

About a million refugees from the civil war in Syria are believed to be living in Lebanon. Many of them are surviving in flimsy camps amid freezing temperatures in the Bekaa Valley. Meanwhile Lebanese patience with the visitors is wearing thin.

The small stove at the centre of Um Abed’s tent burns rubbish that is collected from the street. Acrid smoke hangs in the air. It stings your throat. It burns your eyes.

Her three-year-old daughter, Mariam, has developed asthma from the poisonous fumes. But this, Um Abed knows, this was the best chance she had of protecting her from the sub-zero temperatures outside.

In this makeshift camp in Lebanon’s Bekaa Valley – and in thousands of others like it in the country – Syrian refugees are facing the same miserable conditions.

The shelters are pitiful. They are made of tarpaulin, plywood and potato sacks – no match for the most violent storm to hit the region for two decades.

By Mohamad Ali Harissi

Mejdalaya (Lebanon) (AFP) – When Lebanese authorities announced the arrest last week of three alleged jihadists planning suicide bomb attacks, Elie Warraq’s family was stunned to see his name among the accused.

Warraq, 22, would hardly be the only young man in Lebanon lured to the ranks of Sunni Muslim extremists — but he appears to be the first Christian.

Choking back tears at the family home in the northern Lebanon village of Mejdalaya, Warraq’s father Tony said his relatives were devastated.

"We were so shocked when we heard the news, I haven’t slept since. It’s my son!" Warraq’s father Tony told AFP, chain-smoking cigarettes as he sat near a Christmas tree and a table mounted with a small cross.

Warraq’s case appears to be the first time in Lebanon that a Christian has converted to Islam and joined a jihadist group.

Reuters and Michael B Kelley

An Israeli helicopter strike in Syria killed a commander from Lebanon‘s Hezbollah and the son of the group’s late military leader Imad Moughniyah, sources close to Hezbollah said, in a major blow that could lead to reprisal attacks.

The Daily Star reports that an Iranian field commander was also killed in the strike. Other reports claim that more than one Iranian officer died.

The strike hit a convoy carrying Jihad Moughniyah and other Hezbollah members including commander Abu Issa, in the Syrian province of Quneitra, near the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights, Lebanese sources said, killing five Hezbollah members in all.

It comes just days after Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah said frequent Israeli strikes in Syria were a major aggression, that the group was stronger than before and that Syria and its allies had the right to respond.

Miami (United States), 10/01/2015.- A handout picture released by the Miss Universe Organization shows (L-R) Sabrina Beneett, Miss Malaysia 2014, Ana Zubashvili, Miss Georgia 2014, Saly Greige, Miss Lebanon 2014, Aiday Issayeva, Miss Kazakhstan 2014, Lara Debbane, Miss Egypt 2014, Keiko Tsuji, Miss Japan 2014, and Elvira Devinamira, Miss Indonesia 2014, posing in Miami, Florida, USA, 1

REUTERS

BEIRUT – A Israeli beauty queen’s selfie has caused a stir in Lebanon, with some Lebanese saying their country’s contestant at the Miss Universe pageant should be stripped of her title for consorting with the enemy.

Miss Israel Doron Matalon posted a photo of herself and Miss Lebanon Saly Greige smiling together at pageant preparations in Miami, where the winner will be picked on January 25.

The two countries are technically at war, although the border has been largely quiet since their 2006 conflict. The Lebanese risk prison if they call or travel to Israel and all Israeli products are banned in Lebanon.

Some Lebanese have demanded on social media that Greige lose her title for contacts with a citizen of the enemy state.

Manila, Philippines, Jan 18, 2015 / 04:39 am (CNA/EWTN News).- The Vatican’s spokesman said that papal history was made Sunday during Pope Francis’ visit to the Philippines where an estimated 6-7 million people attended his closing Mass.