Internal Security Forces Intelligence Branch detained on Thursday three women in the southern port city of Sidon linked to the smuggling of Lebanese and Palestinian people to Italy on a ferry traveling from Libya. Two Lebanese women identified as Ghinwa Z. and Rita R., who own a traveling agency, and a Palestinian female Hasibay […]

  BEIRUT: Investigators intensified efforts Wednesday to determine reasons behind the death of a university student whose body was found in an empty lot in the capital’s Hamra district, a security source said. Speaking to The Daily Star, the source said authorities were trying to establish if the death of Nicole Assaf, 21, was the […]

  The government announced on Thursday that it has appointed the members of the Banking Control Commission of Lebanon (BCCL). Information Minister Ramzi Jreij said after a cabinet session at the Grand Serail that the commission would be chaired by Samir Hammoud. The other members are Ahmed Safa, Munir Elyan, Joseph Sarkis, and Sami Azar, […]

LOS ANGELES (Catholic Online) – The Islamic State has been referred to as "al Qaeda’s JV team" by President Obama and they are widely viewed as the angry little brother of al Qaeda, or as just another terrorist organization bent on hatred of Israel and the West. However, these off-the-cuff, and frankly, cavalier assessments are absolutely wrong.  Instead, the Islamic State could be regarded as a genuinely "evil" organization by western standards. Their leadership is seeking nothing less than the apocalypse and they have a very specific vision of how to trigger that event.
Here are some need-to-know facts about that Islamic State that may shock you.

Chris Wright – Forbes

As an investor, one has to say there was a lot of downside. Lebanon is unable to elect a President; it hasn’t had one for about 10 months now. It is digesting more than a million Syrian refugees whose arrival has dramatically strained every possible resource in a country which has a population of 4.4 million. And it is fighting off the threat of both ISIS and Hizbollah at the same time. Yet despite these headwinds, Lebanon raised $2.2 billion of debt, including $1.4 billion of 15-year paper, paying just 6.65% (and a lower-still 6.2% on a 10-year tranche), about three per cent tighter than most other countries with the same credit rating.

How?

  The Change and Reform bloc welcomed on Tuesday the resumption of cabinet sessions, hoping that normal operations would resume at other constitutional institutions. Former Minister Salim Jreissati said: “The vacancy in the presidency should not hinder state institutions from functioning.” He made his remarks after the parliamentary bloc’s weekly meeting. Speaker Nabih Berri had […]

  BEIRUT: A Lebanese Army colonel convicted of spying for Israel is set to be released in the coming weeks after a court reduced his sentence Tuesday, a judicial source said. Col. Antoine Abu Jaoude, who was convicted of providing Israel with sensitive information on Lebanese Army and Hezbollah positions, was initially sentenced to seven […]

  The Beirut criminal court approved on Tuesday a request to release on bail former Higher Relief Council chief Ibrahim Bashir. The court agreed to release him on bail of L.L. 1 billion. The case has been referred to the financial general prosecution for its approval. Bashir, his wife Rajaa, her brother Mohammed Younes, Ghassan […]

Pamela Engel

A woman who writes for a news magazine in Paris went undercover as a young Muslim convert to infiltrate the Islamic State’s online network of jihadists looking for brides. "Anna Erelle" (not her real name) talked to The Sunday Times of London about how she got involved with a top ISIS militant. It’s unclear whether the Times independently verified her story.

Erelle told the Times that she created fake social media accounts and posed as "Melodie" online to find out first-hand how young girls are lured to join ISIS’ ranks in the Middle East as "jihadi brides." She said she had previously interviewed some of these girls during her work as a journalist.

"They knew very little about religion. They had hardly read a book and they learnt jihad before religion," Erelle told the Times. "They’d tell me, ‘You think with your head, we think with our hearts.’ They had a romantic view of radicalism. I wondered how that happened."

  The Lebanese army has arrested an Australian citizen in the northern Koura district on suspicion of having ties with terrorist groups, the state-run National News Agency reported. T.H. was apprehended by the army intelligence at his house in the area of Dahr al-Ain on Sunday night, it said. The agency did not give further […]