Magda Abu-Fadil, Director of Media Unlimited in Lebanon

It’s tough being a satirist amid countless known and invisible threats, but that hasn’t deterred Maya Zankoul, Toni Yammine and their merry group from poking fun at all things Lebanese via Beirut+ TV. "My dream was for years to create an animated series like the Simpsons," Zankoul said, adding that an initial attempt to secure funding for it failed, so she decided to do it independently.

  BEIRUT: The families of Islamists in Roumieh Prison protested in Tripoli Friday over the alleged abuse of some prisoners during a police raid earlier this week, contradicting an official position that no one was harmed during the operation. The mother of one of the inmates told The Daily Star that she waited for five […]

  The Lebanese army has arrested the suicide bomber whose booby-trapped vehicle was seized in the northeastern border town of Arsal on Thursday, Voice of Lebanon radio (93.3) reported. The car, which was stolen, belongs to a man from al-Hujairi family who hails from Arsal, said VDL on Friday. The army said in a communique […]

  The Lebanese army said a suspect was injured in a clash after attacking a patrol in the northern city of Tripoli on Thursday night as the military announced a series of arrests it has made. The army said in its communique that the patrol came under fire by Khaled Zakaria al-Khaled when it interfered […]

  Health Minister Wael Abou Faour on Thursday ordered the closure of a number of beauty centers and blood drawing labs, as the judiciary jailed four Tripoli Port employees on suspicion of their involvement in the expired sugar case. “Following an authorization from acting North Prosecutor Wael Hassan, the Tripoli judicial police department arrested four […]

  BEIRUT: The Internal Security Forces warned Thursday about a new SMS-transmitted virus that has attacked more than 7,000 mobiles phones across Lebanon. The virus, according to an ISF statement, attacks Android OS smart phones and has compromised over 50,000 phones worldwide. The virus attacks the device once the user opens an SMS with a […]

  The army revealed Thursday that its Intelligence Directorate had thwarted a plot to carry out a “series of suicide attacks” in the wake of the deadly twin bombing that rocked Tripoli’s Jabal Mohsen. Military intelligence agents arrested “Bassam Hussam al-Naboush, Elie Tony al-Warraq, aka Abou Ali, and Syrian national Muhannad Ali Mohammed Abdul Qader, […]

by Franklin Lamb

Syrian Embassy, BEIRUT — On January 13, a minibus organized by Lebanese4Refugees (L4R) arrived through the snow-covered Bekaa Valley into Hamdanieh, a Syrian refugee camp in Al-Majr not far from the Syrian border. One volunteer gasped, “So this is how they live.”

Increasingly at odds with some of their political leaders, a growing number of Lebanese citizens are working to help Syrian refugees forced to seek temporary sanctuary in Lebanon. Mona Ayoub, social media coordinator for L4R explained that “These volunteers are not like those who say that we don’t want refugees in Lebanon. Most Lebanese people are caring, and they feel compassion about this issue.”