Raphael Satter, Maggie Michael, Associated Press

At the Saudi Embassy in Tehran, diplomats talked about airing the grievances of disenchanted local youth using Facebook and Twitter. At the embassy in Khartoum, they reported anxiously on Iran’s military aid to Sudan.

Meanwhile, the Saudi mission in Geneva got stuck dealing with a multi-million dollar limo bill racked up by a Saudi princess and her entourage.

The incidents are mentioned in diplomatic documents published Friday by WikiLeaks, only the first batch of what the transparency group says will be a much larger release. But they’ve already provided an unusual level of insight into day-to-day Saudi diplomacy — giving a snapshot of the lavish spending habits of senior royals and the political intrigue percolating across the Middle East.

MUNTINLUPA, PHILIPPINES (Catholic Online) – The 10-foot high statue overlooks the town of Maaloula, one of the world’s oldest Christian communities. A video where a statue of the Virgin Mary was demolished by a Muslim sheik went viral over the Internet in 2013, raising concern among Christian communities.

The former statue stood tall on the cliff until the war between the loyal forces of President Bashar Assad and the Nusra Front, an affiliate of Al Qaeda in Syria. With the battling forces finally out of the community, the new statue promises to bring peace to the people.

Now, the community, whose residents speak Aramaic, are trying to restore the religious artifacts previously taken down and destroyed, including some images of Jesus Christ.

  Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi is scheduled to travel to the Iraqi Kurdish region of Erbil on Friday to follow up the situation of Christians who have been displaced as a result of the Islamic State group’s onslaught. Al-Joumhouria daily said that al-Rahi will be accompanied during the one-day visit by the Archbishop of Milan, […]

  BEIRUT: A plume of black smoke covered a Sin al-Fil neighborhood Thursday after a fire erupted in one of the area’s local markets, a security source told The Daily Star. The fire erupted in Souq al-Khoudar, facing Souk al-Ahad- a giant, open-air weekly flea market is located under the flyover by Jisr al-Wati. Civil […]

  BEIRUT: Lebanon’s Health Ministry ordered a dairy factory shut Thursday after seizing large quantities of expired dairy products in the Bekaa Valley Thursday. Health Ministry inspectors seized 25 tons of expired dairy products from the Al-Marahi Al-Thahabiya factory in the town of Zahle, according to a statement released by the ministry’s press office. Thursday’s […]

  Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi stressed on Monday that it was unacceptable for the presidential vacuum to last more than a year, hoping for a divine “interference” in the country’s blood-stained history. “We continue to pray for the election of a president, for stability and for a comprehensive reconciliation,” al-Rahi said at the opening of […]

  SIDON, Lebanon: The Internal Security Forces arrested 13 wanted criminals in the southern city of Sidon Tuesday, for the possession and sale of illegal narcotics, a security source told The Daily Star. Judicial police, in addition to members of the Central Narcotics Bureau and the ISF’s Information Branch, carried out raids in Sidon’s old […]

  BEIRUT: U.S Ambassador David Hale said Monday the Lebanese Army and state security bodies were the only legitimate protectors of Lebanon against extremism. Speaking during a ceremony to mark America’s 239th year of independence, Hale urged the Lebanese to remain committed to their state institutions, “which are so much stronger than the false ideology […]