by aawsat.com — Lebanon has for decades struggled with daily power cuts, AP reported. Last week, Lebanon received its third floating power station — the 235-megawatt Esra Sultan, built and operated by the privately owned Turkish Karadeniz Energy Group. Lebanese Energy and Water Minister Cesar Abi Khalil billed it as a temporary but thrifty measure […]

by gulfnews.com — Beirut: The UAE Embassy in Beirut has categorically denied what was published in Saturday’s issue of Al Akhbar Newspaper concerning an “Emirates Leaks” dossier, headlined as “Bin Zayed wants to subjugate Muscat,” which included reports attributed by the Newspaper to diplomatic documents and correspondences leaked from the UAE Embassy in Muscat, while […]

by nypost.com Bob Fredericks— President Donald Trump has been publicly vague about what he and Vladimir Putin agreed to in their two-plus-hour private chat in Helsinki — but the Russians have been filling in some gaps, including a plan announced Friday to return 1.7 million Syrian refugees to their homeland. Russia’s Defense Ministry said it […]

by Courtney Grogan  (CNA).– The U.S. State Department is set to host the largest and highest-level global meeting on religious liberty next week. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo told EWTN he is prepared to talk with countries with whom the U.S. government has “deep disagreements.” The Ministerial to Advance Religious Freedom will be held on July 24-26 and include foreign ministers, religious leaders, and civil society representatives to discuss concrete ways to combat religious persecution in different parts of the world. A Ministerial is a high-level international gathering of senior-rank government officials and experts. “It’s truly historic. It’s the first time the State Department has led such a discussion. We’ll have over 80 delegations from countries around the world, many, many religious organizations, NGOs,” Secretary Pompeo told Lauren Ashburn of EWTN News Nightly on Thursday.

During the three-day event, survivors of religious persecution will share their stories, senior U.S. government officials will provide an overview of religious freedom policy goals, and foreign delegations will announce new initiatives to promote freedom of religion. The State Department announced earlier this week that U.S. Vice President Mike Pence will address attendees on the importance of international religious freedom on July 26. Ahead of the ministerial, some have criticized Secretary Pompeo’s prior announcement that the event will be a meeting of “like-minded” countries. “When I said like-minded, I meant those countries that are prepared to begin their walk towards the religious freedom that we have enshrined in our Constitution and that our nation so values and cherishes,” Pompeo told Ashburn. “I’m sure there’ll be countries here that we have deep disagreements with,” said Pompeo.

Lebanon’s Foreign Minister, Gebran Bassil, is expected to attend the ministerial. On July 19, the American Mideast Coalition for Democracy wrote to the U.S. secretary of state urging him to confront Bassil over the arrest and interrogation of two Maronite Christians in Lebanon earlier this month. AMCD reports that the Maronite Christians were targeted for their contacts with Israeli Christians made at an American conference on reviving the Aramaic language and culture. Pompeo, who met with North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un earlier this year, has said repeatedly that he raises the issue of human rights when meeting with so-called bad actors, although sometimes privately. “The State Department takes this issue of religious freedom very seriously. In conversations with countries that don’t live up to the standards of religious freedom that they ought to have, we raise that issue, sometimes privately if we think that’s the most effective way to achieve the change that we’re looking for, and sometimes publicly if we think that will accomplish our goal,” Pompeo told EWTN.

by bytheeast.com –Amid the economic turmoils of Lebanon, foreign investors like Majid Al Futtaim Group, continue to eye Lebanon’s opportunities. As a result, the group is going to ramp up its Lebanese investments to “$2 billion by 2030”, revealed an “integrated plan”. The Majid Al Futtaim Group is into retail investments through its Carrefour stores […]

by Asisa news – BEIRUT: The words of the great Mufti Abdel Latif Derian are “more than courageous”, they are a “valuable” act that fits “with the spirit” of the Apostolic Exhortation A hope for Lebanon by John Paul II of 1997, said Mgr Maroun-Nasser Gemayel, bishop of the Maronite Catholic Eparchy of Our Lady of […]

by zawya.com— For the first time, Forbes measures the success of globally-recognized Arab celebrities Mohamad Salah, the Egyptian king tops the sports category. Karim Kharbouch, known as French Montana from Morocco is the best singer in the Arab world. Nadine Labaki who hails from Lebanon is one of the famous filmmakers in the Arab World. […]

Muammar Gaddafi with wife Safia and sons: Saif al-Arab, Khamis and Muotasim Bellah (Getty Images) by aawsat.com — Cairo – Jamal Jawhar A recent court order banning Hannibal, son of late Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi, from leaving Lebanon for a year, brought back the discussion of the “mysterious fate” of Gaddafi’s family. Some want Hannibal released […]

by ncregister.com — Doreen Abi Raad — BEIRUT — For the fifth consecutive year, Lebanon and all of the Middle East has been consecrated to the Immaculate Heart of Mary. The consecrations were in response to a request of the Synod of Bishops for the Middle East held in the Vatican in October 2012 under Pope Benedict XVI. Building up momentum for the first consecration in June 2013, the “Mother of Light” statue toured Lebanon, visiting 333 Lebanese villages and cities over 40 days. Since then, Lebanon has grappled with crises, including the ominous threat of the conflict in neighboring Syria spilling over; the strain of hosting some 1.5 million Syrian refugees; and a presidential vacuum that dragged on for more than two years. Meanwhile, the country suffers from a continuous economic downslide and severe unemployment.

Still, Cardinal Bechara Rai attested in his homily at the new consecration this year, which took place June 3, how, “for all these five years, Mary, with her invisible hand, has kept our homeland safe from collapse, every time it reached the brink.” “With this need for mercy in our homeland and in the countries of the Middle East, we have come to renew our devotion and consecration to the Immaculate Heart of Mary,” he said. Despite the instability in the region, there is hope that the fruits of the consecration of Lebanon and the entire Middle East to the Immaculate Heart of Mary will prevail. “We believe that with the intercession of the Virgin Mary, wars can stop,” Maronite Bishop of Tyre Shukrallah Nabil El-Hajj, who heads the patriarchal committee for the consecration, told the Register. “We don’t always know how the Virgin Mary works and protects, but surely there are graces for all the Middle East, and she is saving souls. We won’t know to what extent until we reach heaven.” In his homily for this year’s consecration, Cardinal Rai also reiterated how the Virgin Mary appeared to the three shepherd children in the Portuguese village of Fatima and told them, “In the end, my Immaculate Heart will triumph.” Last year, the consecration occurred in Fatima, commemorating the centennial of the apparitions.

Cardinal Rai and Syriac Catholic Patriarch Ignace Joseph III Younan led a delegation of bishops and some 30 priests. Thousands of faithful from the Middle East as well as the Lebanese diaspora from around the world also made the pilgrimage for the June 25, 2017, consecration, which was preceded the evening before with the recitation of the Rosary and a candlelit procession. In his homily at Fatima, Cardinal Rai said, “We have come to ask for the intercession of Our Lady of Fatima for peace in the Middle East region and for stability in Lebanon, to preserve our country’s mission and model of coexistence among religions and cultures, especially among Christians and Muslims.” About 40% of the approximate 4 million Lebanese citizens residing in Lebanon are Christian. “We have come to renew the dedication of Lebanon and the countries of the Middle East to the Immaculate Heart of Mary, according to her wishes. This dedication is to repent, to stop wars and to consolidate peace,” Cardinal Rai added.

by AFP — The Lebanese parliament will soon review legislation to legalize medicinal marijuana, Speaker Nabih Berri announced on Wednesday, as authorities seek ways to jumpstart the country’s struggling economy. With public debt at 150% of GDP, the third highest rate in the world, Lebanon charged consulting firm McKinsey & Company with setting out a […]