Khazen

Gunfire, Tear Gas as Lebanese Police Fight Beirut Protesters

By ZEINA KARAM Associated Press

 

 

 

Police firing tear gas and water cannons battled thousands of Lebanese protesters Saturday demonstrating against government corruption and political dysfunction amid a trash crisis, with the sound of gunfire echoing through the streets into the night.

Footage on local television showed at least one wounded protester among downtown Beirut’s Ottoman-era buildings and lavish apartment complexes. An Associated Press journalist saw riot police used batons to beat back protesters while others were carried away, overcome by tear gas. Private television station LBC reported police attacked one of its crew.

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Security Council extends UN peacekeeping force in Lebanon for another year

UN.org

21 August 2015 – Determining that the situation in Lebanon continues to constitute a threat to international peace and security, the Security Council today decided to extend the present mandate of the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) for one year, until 31 August 2016.

 

In a unanimously adopted resolution, the 15-member body “strongly” called upon all parties to respect the cessation of hostilities, to prevent any violation of the Blue Line and to respect it “in its entirety.”

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Lebanese Christian party addresses succession matters

By Joseph A. KechichianSenior Writer

 

Beirut: Lebanese media outlets have revealed that General Michel Aoun, the leader of the Free Patriotic Movement (FPM), has settled on his son-in-law Foreign Minister Jibran Bassil to succeed him.

According to the LBCI television network, Aoun apparently told his apparatchiks that he would also select the two party vice-presidents, one of whom was expected to be his nephew, Alain Aoun. Bassil is married to Chantale Aoun with whom he has three children.

Aoun told senior members gathered in his Rabieh home that “the agreement over the elections [scheduled for September 20, 2015] was based on the will of the majority,” and that he blessed it, even if the exercise prevented the party’s estimated 14,000 members from actually voting for any candidates.

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A yellow façade, a Beirut house and the memories that lie beneath

Roula Khalaf

I must have passed the yellow house on Sodeco square a thousand times, giving no more than a fleeting thought to its ravaged façade. I figured it was another desolate building bearing the scars of the 1975-1990 civil war that no one had bothered to fix up.

While much of Beirut was beautified with renovations over the past two decades and some old buildings were torn down to make way for modern constructions, others had remained stuck in time

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Lebanon’s mounting garbage problem sparks violent protests in Beirut

AFP – i24news

Police charge at demonstrators with batons after they gather outside seat of government

Police in Beirut used force on Wednesday in order to disperse demonstrators who were angry at the Lebanese city’s failure to collect huge amounts of trash.

Tensions boiled over as protesters gathered outside the seat of government in Beirut and police, armed with batons, charged at them after scuffles broke out earlier in the day.

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Negotiations with Daesh over Lebanese hostages resume after six months: report

 albawaba.com

Negotiations between General Security chief Maj. Gen. Abbas Ibrahim and Daesh (ISIS) have resumed to reach a deal on the release of the captive servicemen, al-Joumhouria newspaper reported Thursday.

The daily said the talks resumed around two weeks ago through a mediator after more than six months of freeze in the negotiations aimed at agreeing on a prisoner swap.

Ibrahim is waiting for the mediator’s return from abroad to hear an answer on his demands from Daesh, al-Joumhouria added.

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ISIS In Nigeria: Buhari Probes How Lebanese Radical Muslim Cleric Ahmed Al-Assir Obtained Nigerian Visa To Visit West African Country

By

Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari is ordering a probe into how an extremist Lebanese Muslim cleric, Ahmed al-Assir, got a visa to visit the country. The suspected terrorist was arrested Saturday by authorities at Beirut’s airport while trying to flee to Nigeria via Cairo, Lebanese media reported.

Buhari, “furious” over the incident, has ordered his Foreign Ministry to investigate how a valid visa was issued to the Sunni Muslim extremist, who has been on the run for more than two years. Nigeria’s National Intelligence Agency and the embassy in Lebanon were also directed to explain what happened, a Foreign Ministry official told Vanguard Newspapers.

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Qatar is letting 2 notorious terror financiers operate in the open
 

The US Treasury Department imposed sanctions on August 5 against two Qatari nationals accused of providing funding to al Qaeda in Pakistan, as well as to Al Nusrah Front in Syria and extremists in Sudan. The Treasury Department described the two men as “major facilitators” and “financiers responsible for supporting terrorists throughout the Middle East.”

This follows indications that Qatar shut down a fundraising network linked to one of the two men, Sa’d bin Sa’d al-Ka’bi, last year.However, a closer examination of how Qatar dealt with the case of Ka’bi and the other individual, ‘Abd al-Latif bin ‘Abdallah al-Kawari, provides new confirmation that Doha has been inexcusably negligent when it comes to cracking down on private terror finance. For example, a senior Obama administration official reportedly indicated this month that “Qatar has not arrested the two men.”

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Lebanon: 9 Palestinians From Syria Drown En Route to Turkey

AP Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency says a boat carrying about 40 Palestinians from a refugee camp in Syria capsized en route to Turkey and that at least nine migrants drowned. Wednesday’s report says the vessel left the northern Lebanese port of Tripoli on Monday and capsized after entering Turkish territorial waters. It says those […]

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