By Elise Harris

(CNA/EWTN News).- While the days of the Muslim Brotherhood are over, one expert says the February murder of 21 Egyptian Coptic Christians by ISIS has opened the door to an even wider persecution – one that’s gaining steam under new forms of Islamic authoritarianism.

Mariz Tadros, author and scholar on persecution in the Arab world, spoke at a conference last week in Rome, calling the gruesome beheadings “just the beginning.”

The murders, she said, have unleashed a new wave of both physical and economic persecutions against the country’s Christian minority.

“Following the beheading of the 21 Christians there were more assaults, physical assaults (and) murders of Ethiopians that didn’t appear as visibly in the press, but that basically showed a strategy of targeting Christians.”

Increased persecutions have also taken on an economic aspect, she said, explaining that Christians have begun to be exploited for economic interests.

At a time when everyone – Christians and non-Christians included – are suffering from a large “security vacuum,” the lack of a national condemnation for the beheadings and the absence of a zero-tolerance message for such acts “is very disconcerting,” Tadros told CNA.

catholicherald.co.uk

Catholic patriarchs from the Middle East have encouraged their troubled people to find inner peace at Christmas and urged the world to remember them.

“In Iraq, we will celebrate the birth of Christ who comes into our hearts in silence and tears,” said Chaldean Catholic Patriarch Louis Sako of Baghdad. However, he said, “We remain sustained by (an) inner peace that perpetuates the joy of faith and hope that we will, despite the trials, work toward a fairer country and a better future.”

“This year, Iraqi Christians will celebrate Christmas in deplorable conditions,” he said, citing “the deteriorating situation at all levels in our country” and “what they experienced as Christians, victims of segregation and exclusion.”

ISIS still occupies Mosul and the cities of the Ninevah Plain, the patriarch said.

“No one, except those who have planned this religious purification, could have imagined such a catastrophe,” Patriarch Sako said, noting that, since the summer of 2014, many Christians have been forced to live in camps, in which their needs are being provided for only by the church or civil society.

Beirut (AFP) – More than two-thirds of Syrian refugees in Lebanon live in extreme poverty, according to a United Nations study published Wednesday, up nearly 50 percent from last year.

Based on an assessment of more than 4,000 refugee households, the report found that an estimated 70 percent of them are living below the Lebanese extreme poverty line of $3.84 (3.52 euros) per day.

"This is a striking increase from 49 per cent in 2014," said Mireille Girard, head of the UN refugee agency’s Lebanon office.

The inter-agency study was conducted by the World Food Programme, the refugee agency and the UN’s children’s fund.

Refugees are facing a dire situation as their savings dry up, work opportunities are increasingly rare and humanitarian aid packages grow smaller.

According to the study, the refugees are borrowing to cover even their most basic needs, including rent, food, and healthcare, putting nearly 90 percent of them in debt.

Household spending dropped to $493 per month from $762 in 2014, reflecting reduced quality of food consumed and a heightened reliance on debt and humanitarian aid.

By: icrc.org

In preparation for the coming winter, which is expected to be particularly harsh, the ICRC recently delivered 10 tons of olive husk fuel to heat the Al Rahma health clinic in the mountainous area of Chebaa in the south-east of Lebanon.

Chebaa is squeezed between the Syrian and Israeli borders and has long been directly or indirectly exposed to conflicts and their effects. Over the past few years, its population has grown considerably because of the presence of refugees from neighbouring Syria, which has put a significant strain on the already fragile local infrastructure.

By Kareem Chehayeb: middleeastmonitor.com/

The Lebanese government’s mix-up with the Saudi-led anti-terror coalition isn’t just another example of its political chaos. It is a sign of how the country is more disjointed than ever; the empty presidential chair is just the tip of the iceberg.

Like Indonesia, Pakistan and Malaysia, Lebanon’s government wasn’t entirely aware of the fact that it was included in Riyadh’s counter-terrorism initiative, which many have been calling a coalition of Islamic nations. Prime Minister Tammam Salam, who leans towards the pro-West March 14 Alliance, welcomed Lebanon’s inclusion in the 34-state coalition, and believes that his country has a big role to play. Things got more interesting once the foreign ministry, under Foreign Minister Gebran Bassil of the Freedom Patriotic Movement (FPM), the largest Christian party of the pro-Assad and Iran March 8 Alliance, released a statement of its own. The foreign ministry wasn’t aware of Lebanon’s inclusion; it condemned the prime minister for making his statement without notifying officials, stating that the incident “impinges on the ministry’s prerogatives and its constitutional role in dealing with foreign policy.” This alone foreshadows some terrible consequences if Lebanon does commit to the coalition, and it’s only one of many reasons why it shouldn’t.

by Jamie Nimmo

The company behind pioneering heart-monitoring technology praised by President Obama has landed in London as part of a scheme to nurture start-ups from troubled Lebanon. 

CardioDiagnostics, founded in the US in 2012 by Lebanese entrepreneur Ziad Sankari, is behind LifeSense, the world’s first cloud-based cardiac monitor — a wearable device that evaluates heart activity and can alert the hospital in case of emergency.

At a White House event in May, Obama told Sankari: “You are the face of change. You have the power to drive creative solutions to our pressing challenges.”

CardioDiagnostics is one of 15 start-ups on a six-month programme in London called the UK-Lebanon Tech Hub, a joint scheme by the Government and Lebanon’s central bank. 

The aim is to break into European markets before the entrepreneurs return to conflict-strewn Lebanon to grow their businesses.

FILE – In this undated file photo made available Sept. 25, 2011, Hannibal Gadhafi, son of the recently ousted Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi

By HWAIDA SAAD and RICK GLADSTONE

BEIRUT, Lebanon — When the youngest son of the former Libyan leader, Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi, was arrested in Lebanon last week in connection with the unsolved disappearance of Moussa al-Sadr, an exalted Lebanese Shiite cleric who vanished while visiting Libya in 1978, speculation sprouted about new information concerning one of the biggest whodunits in the treacherous politics of the Middle East.

On Monday, the mystery deepened with news that the son, Hannibal Qaddafi, may have been forcibly — and illegally — brought to Lebanon against his will in a plot involving the son of a colleague of Mr. Sadr’s, Sheikh Mohammad Yacoub, who disappeared along with Mr. Sadr and a third companion in Libya nearly four decades ago.

Israeli artillery has fired on areas of south Lebanon after two rockets were shot into Israel, the Israeli army has said. "The Israel Defence Forces have responded with targeted artillery fire following the rockets that hit Israel earlier today from southern Lebanon," the army said in a statement on Sunday. Two Katyusha-type rockets were fired from south Lebanon into Israel, a Lebanese security source said.

"Two Katyusha rockets were fired from a Lebanese village 5km from the border with Israel," the Lebanese source told the AFP news agency. Israeli military sources told AFP that one rocket crashed into the Galilee region and the impact of another was heard. No casualties were reported. The Lebanese national news agency NNA said Israel fired nine rounds of artillery at the south. The rocket fire from the Hezbollah heartland of south Lebanon followed the killing of Samir Kantar, a militant in the Shia group notorious for the 1979 murder of three Israelis, including a four-year-old girl.

By philip issa, associated press

Lebanon’s trash collection crisis which set off huge protests this summer is entering its sixth month, but you would hardly know it in Beirut.

Not only are the capital’s streets kept relatively garbage-free, but the country’s politicians appear in no hurry to resolve the catastrophe.

Instead, trash is pushed to the periphery, piled in hills near the mouth of the city’s river, attracting a fly infestation that has plagued Beirut’s easternmost residents since early November.

On the other side of the river, trash mounds along the bank reach the height of roadway overpasses.

"The situation is disastrous," said Rachid Rahme, a physician at Lebanon’s Sacre Coeur Hospital. "I don’t like to get involved in politics, but I’m sure they could find a way to deal with it rather than dealing with it in this way."

By: cyprus-mail.com/

It is estimated that the number of tourists from Lebanon will exceed 35,000 this year, with most arrivals having involved short breaks throughout the year, according to the Cyprus Tourism Organisation (CTO).

“Wedding tourism from this country has increased by 30 per cent and we are optimistic about further growth,” the CTO said in a news release on Monday.

With Lebanon a priority market among the Arab countries, CTO organised a workshop with a focus on wedding tourism and short breaks in Beirut in early December.

The workshop involved 18 Cypriot companies (hotels and tour operators), more than 55 Lebanese travel agents and over 100 tourism professionals and other agents from Lebanon.

CTO aimed to contact and get to know new companies and further develop existing partnerships, as well as creating new ones, with the aim of increasing the flow of tourists from that market, according to the statement.