worldfinance.com

Despite its location in a region of economic and political instability, Lebanon’s banking sector is a beacon of excellence and compliance. By offering a wide range of banking services and staying abreast of technological and regulatory changes within the international financial sphere, banking in Lebanon is among the world’s finest.

One financial institution that epitomises this reputation in particular is the Middle East & Africa Bank (MEAB) of Lebanon. Since it was established in 1991, MEAB has maintained strong growth and continues to demonstrate an impressive level of resilience in the face of domestic and external shocks. With a strong commitment to customer satisfaction and unrelenting adherence to banking standards, MEAB continues to go from strength to strength, expanding its network both in Lebanon and beyond. World Finance spoke to Ali Hejeij, Chairman of the Board at MEAB about the country’s robust banking industry and how it achieves growth in spite of regional challenges.

Alex Lockie

IHS Jane’s Terrorism and Insurgency Centre issued a report on October 22nd stating that ISIS attacks rose in the 3rd quarter of 2015 compared to the previous three-month period, both in terms of the number of non-militant casualties and the frequency of attacks.

Jane’s reported 1,086 separate attacks between July 1 and September 30 of this year, or a daily average of 11.8 daily. That’s up from 8.3 last quarter, representing an increase of 42%. 

The attacks killed 2,978 non-militants, a 65% increase from the previous quarter.

Jane’s concludes that the true number of attacks was likely "far higher," as the agency relies on open-source intelligence and only reports what can be confirmed definitively by governments, or attacks claimed by the ISIS militants themselves. 

Selina Denman

Retired Marine Col. Charles A. Dallachie

For Marines, great victories, great defeats and great sacrifices are never forgotten, but are remembered with battle streamers attached to unit colors. Unfortunately, there are no battle streamers to remember the ultimate sacrifice made in 1983 by Marines, sailors and soldiers in Beirut, Lebanon.

In the very early morning of Oct. 23, a building serving as the command post for 1st Battalion, 8th Marines, was hit by a suicide bomber driving a stake-bed truck loaded with compressed gas-enhanced explosives. The explosion and collapse of the building killed 241 Marines, sailors, and soldiers. Bomb experts who examined the blast site said the explosives, equivalent to 12,000 pounds of TNT, constituted the largest non-nuclear bomb in history. For the Marines it was the biggest loss of life in a single day since the Corps fought the Japanese on Iwo Jima in World War II.

dailystar.com.lb

General Security forces in its battle against terrorism, announcing Thursday the arrest of a prominent ISIS leader and other suspected militants who confessed to plotting bombings and assassinations in the country.

The statement said that General Security, in a surprise operation, arrested Palestinians Z.K., J.K. and A. Kh. over suspicion that they belonged to a terrorist group and were plotting attacks inside Lebanon.

Hezbollah’s Al-Manar TV identified J.K., as Jihad Fadl Kaawash.

Upon interrogation, J.K. confessed to being the “legitimate leader” of ISIS in the Palestinian refugee camp of Ain al-Hilweh.

Reuters Lebanon’s navy stopped a boat carrying 35 Palestinian refugees to Turkey on Friday, the second time this week it has moved in to stop people apparently trying to travel on to Europe. The boat, built for just 10 passengers, held 14 Palestinian refugees from Damascus, 21 from camps in Lebanon and a Lebanese citizen, […]

Washington D.C., Oct 22, 2015 / 03:12 am (CNA/EWTN News).- Although numerous countries and organizations are working together and putting billions of dollars into relief efforts, “the scale of suffering has outpaced their ability to respond,” said Catholic Relief Services COO Sean Callahan.“Despite these generous responses, the exodus to Europe cries out that so much more must be done,” Callahan told members of Congress on Tuesday.

Over the last three years, Catholic Relief Services and their partners have assisted nearly 800,000 people and spent over $110 million in response to the Syrian refugee crisis. Churches, NGOs, and neighboring countries such as Lebanon, Turkey, and Jordan have leant a helping hand to refugees.

Pamela Engel

Most of what’s reported about jihadist fighters in terrorist groups like ISIS and Al Qaeda focuses on their military activities, and it’s not often that we get a look behind the scenes at other aspect of these communities.

Thomas Hegghammer, an expert on violent Islamism at the Norwegian Defense Research Establishment, gave a lecture at the University of St. Andrews in April about what jihadis do in their spare time.

And Shadi Hamid, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution and a Middle East expert, tweeted that the transcript is one of the best things he’s read in months.

Hegghammer called downtime activities that knit jihadi communities together "one of the last major, unexplored frontiers of terrorism research" that could "shed important new light on how extremists think and behave."

"I can’t quantify it, but it seems most non-military activities were orthodox devotional practices: prayer, invocations, ablution (washing yourself), Quran recitation, and the like," Hegghammer said.

"I found no support for the claim you sometimes hear about jihadists being hypocritical opportunists who don’t really care about religion. Some of them may have been unobservant before they join, but once they’re in, they seem very meticulous about observance."

This is supported by ISIS members’ active presence on social media. Members discuss religious practices and make frequent references to Allah.