The U.S. has officially accused a prominent Lebanese businessman of money laundering and drug trafficking along with five other individuals and 11 companies. According to the U.S. Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control, four Lebanese, two German nationals and 11 firms were accused of Specially Designated Narcotics Traffickers pursuant to the Foreign Narcotics Kingpin Designation Act.

Among them was renowned Lebanese businessman Merhi Abou Merhi for his alleged ties to a maritime network tied To “Joumaa Criminal Organization.”

The Treasury said the Lebanese and German individuals provide support for narcotics trafficking and money laundering activities conducted by Lebanese-Colombian drug trafficker and money launderer Ayman Saied Joumaa, key Joumaa associate Hassan Ayash, and the Joumaa criminal organization, which has ties to Hezbollah.

BEIRUT, Lebanon, Oct 2 (UNHCR) – Tasnim, a 12-year-old refugee girl from Aleppo, Syria, is excitedly preparing to return to school.

"I want to become a dentist. I have always been intrigued by the tools and materials dentists use in their neat clinics. Every time I visited my dentist in Syria, I learned something new," she said.

In 2013, a shell hit her home in Aleppo and Tasnim lost her left hand. Nevertheless, she is determined to pursue her dreams and overcome the obstacles war and flight into exile suddenly threw across her path."I want to keep learning. I want to help children have beautiful smiles," she explained.

  BEIRUT — The U.S. ambassador to Lebanon says Washington is more than doubling the baseline amount of U.S. military assistance to the Lebanese army compared to the previous year. Ambassador David Hale told reporters after meeting Lebanese Prime Minister Tammam Salam on Friday that America is committing $150 million of U.S. assistance funds to the […]

Pamela Engel

One day after launching a campaign of airstrikes in Syria, Russia announced that it was considering going into Iraq.

A foreign ministry representative said Thursday that Russia would consider any request from Iraq to conduct anti-ISIS airstrikes in the country, and Iraqi President Haider al-Abadi told Western news outlets that Russian airstrikes were "a possibility" and that Iraq would "welcome it."

"Our message to the Russians — I met with Putin — please join this fight against Daesh," Abadi told PBS NewsHour, referring to Russian President Vladimir Putin. Daesh, as well as the Islamic State, is another name for the ISIS militant group.

Pamela Engel

Russian President Vladimir Putin’s spokesman has given an explanation for how the government is deciding where it conducts airstrikes in Syria.

Dmitry Peskov said Russia was targeting ISIS and "other groups," telling reporters: "These organizations are well known and the targets are chosen in coordination with the armed forces of Syria."

The "armed forces of Syria" fight on behalf of Syrian President Bashar Assad, who the US has said must step aside if the militant group ISIS (also known as the Islamic State) is to be defeated.

And as the Associated Press notes, the Assad regime considers all of the president’s opponents to be terrorists.

Experts have said Russia’s prime concern is propping up the Assad regime against nationalist rebels and maintaining its influence in the region rather than stomping out extremists.

Russia started bombing targets on Wednesday, avoiding ISIS strongholds and instead going after areas held by other rebels who are fighting the Assad regime. Airstrikes hit areas near Homs and Hama.

By: Julian Pecquet, Congressional Correspondent for Al-Monitor
Al-Monitor

Tiny Lebanon is seeing its fortunes surge on Capitol Hill as fear of the Islamic State (IS) supplants any lingering concerns about Hezbollah.

Congress over the past year has approved more than $1 billion in proposed arms sales for the Lebanese armed forces, including attack aircraft and helicopters. And lawmakers on Sept. 29 cemented Beirut’s status as a key ally with the release of a compromise annual defense bill that puts Lebanon on equal footing with longtime partner Jordan.

30 September 2015 – Holding up a photograph at the podium of the General Assembly of three-year old Aylan lying face down on a Turkish beach – the Syrian boy who drowned at the beginning of the month along with his mother and brother – the President of the Council of Ministers of Lebanon reiterated his country’s call to all powers in the world to “end the ongoing massacres.”

“The whole world contemplated with horror his 3-year-old body washed ashore to his eternal rest,” Prime Minister Tammam Salam told world leaders. “His tragedy sums up the prevailing fundamental human rights in our region.”

He said the picture describes the story of “tormented people, drifting in the seas to nowhere, jam packed on the sidewalks in cities and train stations, waiting for a permission, a visa or simply a meal.”

By Catholic Online (NEWS CONSORTIUM),

LOS ANGELES, CA (Catholic Online) – Inquisitr reported Todenhöfer, a former MP with Angela Merkel’s CDU party, spent 10 harrowing days on the ISIS frontline. He "dodged bullets" while being chauffeured by the notorious video executioner "Jihadi John," also known as Mohammed Emwazi.

"The terrorists plan on killing several hundred million people," he wrote. "The west is drastically underestimating the power of ISIS." Todenhöfer was reportedly only allowed to get close to ISIS because of his reputation as an outspoken critic of U.S. policy in Iraq and Afghanistan.

"This project was opposed by my family for seven months. My son ultimately accompanied me – against my will. He meant to protect me. And he filmed there."

AP, By ZEINA KARAM and DAN PERRY

BEIRUT (AP) — Syria has already been shattered by more than four years of civil war, and with no solution in sight, some players on the ground and observers outside have concluded its fate will be to break up along sectarian or regional lines — in a best-case scenario, tenuously held together by a less centralized state.

A true partition would risk yet more mayhem, including ethnic or sectarian cleansing and battle over every bend in the border. But so spectacular is Syria’s disaster that many wonder whether its disparate groups can share a unifying national sentiment again.