The following is a press release from the Lebanese Swimming Federation:

Nadia Nabhan of Nation’s Capital Swim Club and member of the Lebanese National Team has announced her verbal commitment to swim for Rutgers University under head coach Petra Martin.

Nadia holds six Lebanese Nationals records in LCM: 400 IM and 200 backstroke and SCM: 100 back, 200 back and 100 butterfly. Additionally she is the fastest 5k Lebanese open water swimmer achieving a 1:08.52 in the 2014 East Coast Open Water Championships and participating in the USA Swimming 5k open water age group championships finishing 5th in 2015 with a 1:12.33. In addition to her national records, Nadia holds over 20 Lebanese Age group records in LCM and SCM and has represented Lebanon in the Arena Grand Prix and Pro Swim Series, the 2014 Toronto Jr. National Swimming Championships, 2013 Jr. World Swimming Championships, Asian Age Group Championships and Jr. Arab Championships.

Pamela Engel

ISIS is one of the best-funded militant groups on the planet, but it could run into problems long-term if it doesn’t keep seizing more territory.

Much of ISIS’ money comes from extortion and pillaging — essentially ripping off the people and institutions in conquered territory — and while the group’s tactics might bring it windfalls of cash every time it moves into a new city, funding operations requires a constant flow of cash.

"Confiscation makes up a huge part of [ISIS’] revenue picture," J.M. Berger, a Brookings Institution fellow who cowrote the recent book "ISIS: The State of Terror," told Business Insider in an email.

By Matt Hadro

Reuters, The Lebanese army said on Wednesday its naval forces returned to shore a boat carrying 53 people trying to leave the country illegally from the northern coastal city of Tripoli.

More than half the people returned were Palestinians, as well as 14 Syrians and eight Lebanese.

"There were 53 people on a boat that fits 15 people. The boat has been returned – with all people on board – to the Lebanese shore and an investigation has been opened," the army said in a statement.

By Christine Petré wagingnonviolence.org . A black-and-white mural with the text “Salam,” peace in Arabic, with a hand wrapped in barbed wire making the peace sign, covers a wall in one of Tripoli’s more troubled areas. Its artist, Hayat Chaaban, who has lived in Lebanon’s second largest city her whole life wants to put art to the battered facades of Tripoli and defy the violence. By doing so she is not only challenging the city’s rough reputation, but also the perception that graffiti is a male-oriented activity.

AFP Washington: A day trip to a crowded State Department office full of unfamiliar faces and smells might have upset some dogs, but then Astra’s day job is itself pretty terrifying.

The seven-year-old German Shepherd mine-clearance expert ignored the defused weaponry arrayed on the conference table, but perked up when a box of donuts was opened.

Over the past five years she and her handler, Lebanese army sergeant Ahmad Solh, have scoured the battlefields of Lebanon for land-mines and unexploded bombs.

Named by anti-landmine group the Marshall Legacy Institute as the champion mine-clearers of the year, they came to the US capital to promote their work.

International Business Times

TRIPOLI, Lebanon — For the first time in her three short years, Hanan didn’t wake up in a country at war. The night before, on Saturday evening, Hanan’s parents bundled her up to execute their escape from the ruins of Aleppo in northwestern Syria. The little girl took only what she considered essentials: white, gemstone-encrusted shoes, earphones and purple polka-dotted sunglasses. By the morning, she was listening to music with her parents, sitting at a pink plastic table at a makeshift cafe outside the port in Lebanon’s second city, Tripoli.

Many Syrians have fled war-torn cities before them. But unlike the 1.7 million Syrians who have settled in for a long stay in Lebanon, Hanan’s family is just stopping in Tripoli for one day before joining the mass exodus of refugees taking ferry boats to Turkey, hoping to reach northern Europe.

Since January, more than 640,000 refugees and migrants have arrived in Europe, more than half of whom are Syrians “moving from host countries in the region or from Syria transiting through host countries in the region,” with a “spike” in refugees coming from Syria directly, according to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees.

Doug Bandow 

Forbes BEIRUT—Lebanon’s destructive civil war ended a quarter century ago. The capital has been rebuilt. New buildings are rising and shoppers throng luxury shops. Trendy young Lebanese fill restaurants and bars at night. Lebanon is the Middle East’s only melting pot. Never has the region more needed a peaceful oasis.

However, the country is a sectarian volcano. Barely a generation ago Lebanon was torn apart in a bloody civil war which drew in America for a short time. Today cars race by buildings damaged still. Bullet pockmarks subtly mark many structures, including where I stayed.

thenational.ae/

By Michael Karam