Security forces have arrested a Lebanese taxi driver in the South on charges of rape and attempted rape, the state-run National News Agency reported on Tuesday. NNA said Aa.Sh., who hails from the southern town of Tayr Felsay, was apprehended by security forces, after an unidentified girl filed a complaint at the Nabatiyeh police […]

WASHINGTON (AP) — Foreign fighters are streaming into Syria and Iraq in unprecedented numbers to join the Islamic State or other extremist groups, including at least 3,400 from Western nations among 20,000 from around the world, U.S. intelligence officials say in an updated estimate of a top terrorism concern.

Intelligence agencies now believe that as many as 150 Americans have tried and some have succeeded in reaching in the Syrian war zone, officials told the House Homeland Security Committee in testimony prepared for delivery on Wednesday. Some of those Americans were arrested en route, some died in the area and a small number are still fighting with extremists.

Lebanese MP Khaled Daher has apologized for saying Christian religious symbols should be removed from outside churches. (AP)

Lebanese MP Khaled Daher has apologized after being criticized by allies and opponents for saying Christian religious symbols should be removed from outside churches. He said his comments were abridged and taken out of context.

A recent agreement between the Future Movement and Hezbollah has seen the removal of political banners from Sidon to Tripoli.

However, controversy began among certain factions in the northern city of Tripoli when black flags containing the word “there is no God but God” in Arabic were removed from Abdel Hamid Karami Square.

  Khazen.org will not allow itself to answer sectarian and disrespectful speeches towards Christians and Muslims in Lebanon but there’s a very important matter that needs to be clarified in regards to religious shrines and symbols in Lebanon, specially the ones mentioned yesterday.  Jesus the King shrine and Our Lady of Harissa shrines were both […]

  Maronite Patriarchal Vicar of Jounieh Bishop Antoine Nabil Andari lamented Sunday that “no one can understand why a new president has not been elected until the moment,” stressing that Maronism cannot be “confined” to the ambitions of “those who bowed their heads and knees for the sake of personal and foreign interests.” “After all […]

  BEIRUT: The U.N.’s special envoy to Syria arrived in Beirut early Monday and is expected to travel to Damascus for talks with officials, state media reported. The National News Agency said Staffan de Mistura flew into Beirut from Turkey and will travel overland to Damascus to follow up on his efforts at ending the […]

  The United States is reportedly reconsidering a decision to invite Israel to a conference expected to be held in Washington next week after Lebanon decided to boycott it over claims that it cannot take part in a meeting to confront terrorism with the Jewish state’s participation. According to As Safir newspaper published on Monday, […]

  BEIRUT: The situation along the Lebanon-Israel border is “under control” after the recent tit-for-tat attacks between Hezbollah and Israel, U.N. spokesman Andrea Tenenti said Monday. “The situation at the border is stable and under control,” Tenenti told local daily As-Safir. He said U.N. peacekeepers were exerting “maximum efforts” along the Lebanese-Israeli border. (Link)

The Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) is running its own Shariah court in the northeastern Lebanese border town of Arsal, Lebanon’s The Daily Star reported Saturday. It cited the case of Rawad Ezzedine, 21, who was reportedly kidnapped and beaten by dozens of militants and was later tried in the Shariah court after he used God’s name in vain during a verbal exchange with a Syrian adolescent.
Ezzedine’s trial was held on Jan. 30 in a bungalow-turned courthouse in the outskirts of the town that borders Syria, the daily said.

The environment makes all the difference, writes Tommy Weir, founder of the Emerging Markets Leadership Center.

For all practical purposes, Lebanon is still struggling from the effects of civil war that ended over two decades ago. Yet, today the country is without a president, shackled by continued corruption, weakening job prospects, and on-going strikes that are the only way for the working class voice to be heard. Roadblocks and tires burning in the streets are everyday forms of protest.

While it may not technically be a failed state, it certainly is a fragile state. It’s in a political stalemate, where opposing parties simply boycott votes they disagree with rather than represent the people who voted them into office.