Reuters

Lebanese security forces arrested 40 Palestinians on Wednesday as they tried to leave by boat from the northern city of Tripoli for a journey toward Europe, the National News Agency said.

The group, which included men and women, was aiming to reach Germany and had come from the large, long-established Ain al-Hilweh Palestinian refugee camp in Lebanon’s south, NNA said. The boat’s owner was also detained.

There was no immediate comment from Lebanese justice authorities, but it is an offense to enter Tripoli’s port area without a security clearance or ferry ticket.

By Habib Toumi, Bureau Chief Gulf News, Manama: Lebanon’s cabinet has distanced itself from statements by Hassan Nasrallah, the Secretary General of Hezbollah, that Bahrain condemned as blatant interference in its domestic affairs. Prime Minister, Tammam Salam, stressed on “Lebanon’s commitment to better bilateral relations with Bahrain, and all states in the Gulf Cooperation Council”, […]

Associated Press, BEIRUT –  A special U.N.-backed tribunal on the assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri has fined the manager of a local TV station for not removing information about identities of confidential witnesses in the long-running probe. The Netherlands-based court ruled in August that Al-Jadeed TV’s deputy director, Karma Khayat, was guilty […]

By The Associated Press

UNITED NATIONS (AP) – Latest developments at the United Nations summit on the adoption of an ambitious blueprint to eradicate extreme poverty and other global goals. (All times local).

8:30 p.m.

Yemen’s foreign minister says that less than a year of fighting in his country has wiped out decades of development, while the U.N. chief in a meeting with Saudi Arabia’s foreign minister has called for an immediate cease-fire in the Yemen conflict.

Yemeni Foreign Minister Riad Yassin told at U.N. gathering of world leaders that Houthi rebels who seized large parts of the Arab world’s poorest country have not abided by U.N. Security Council resolutions adopted earlier this year. One resolution demanded that the Houthis immediately give up control of government institutions.

Elias Muhanna

In the spring of 2010, three Lebanese comic-book artists were ordered to come to the Beirut headquarters of the Directorate of General Security, where the country’s censorship authorities are located. Omar Khouri, Hatem Imam, and Fadi (the Fdz) Baki were in their early thirties, and had known one another since they were kids. (I’ve known Khouri and Baki since then as well.) In 2007, they founded Samandal, a trilingual comic magazine based in Beirut, which became an important platform for Middle Eastern comic artists. “When we were first called in, we had no idea what was going on,” Khouri said. “We assumed that there was a problem with our publishing license or some missing paperwork.”

By: Emily Holman

Two days after my arrival in Lebanon in mid-July, and almost one month after the publication of Pope Francis’s most recent papal encyclical, Laudato Si’, collection of the nation’s rubbish reached a standstill. Activists and residents of environs surrounding the Naameh landfill, in mountains south-east of Beirut, refused to accept any more rubbish following a planned closure for the site scheduled for July 17^th, which had already been postponed since January. When the government tried to continue to use the site, residents took matters into their own hands, and blocked the roads to the Naameh landfill. With nowhere to go, the rubbish could not be collected. Garbage piled up. People marched on the streets and threw eggs in protest at government inability both to respond to the situation, and to take the preventive measures that became necessary long ago.

By Joseph Kechichian, Senior Writer

Beirut: A few days after Moscow deployed several warplanes to a Syrian airbase near Latakia, presumably to prop up the regime of Bashar Al Assad which lost significant ground to rebel forces since the beginning of the year, Washington reiterated its ongoing support to the Lebanese Armed Forces (LAF), as it announced the disbursement of fresh funds to acquire defensive weapons.

“I am very pleased to announce today that my government is allotting an additional $59 million for border security equipment for the army,” declared US Ambassador David Hale after meeting Prime Minister Tammam Salam at the Grand Serail [Government House] on Wednesday.

Except for the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, which offered a $3 billion grant to Beirut in late December 2013 to purchase weapons from France—another $1 billion was added in August 2014 to boost the country’s counter-terrorism forces—the United States was one of the few countries that stood by Lebanon, and for so long.

BEIRUT | iloubnan.info –

The 15th edition of the Beirut International Film Festival (BIFF) will open on October 7 with The Little Prince, an animation movie by Amercian director Mark Osborne, based on Antoine de Saint-Exupéry’s famous novel. The festival will close on October 15 with He named me Malala, by Amercian director Davis Guggenheim, an intimate portrait of Nobel Peace Prize laureate Malala Yousafzai, to be released in the United States on October 2, and internationally on November 5.

BIFF Director Colette Naufal held a press conference at downtown Beirut’s Le Gray Hotel on Wednesday, saying: “The current situation in Lebanon and the image generated by foreign media coverage have had a negative effect on BIFF. This has had an impact on the presence of guests, many of whom have decided against coming to Beirut.” However, “the jury should be co-presided by French-Argentinan writer and director Santiago Amigorena and Brazilian-American director Jonathan Nossiter", she said. Jury members are: American writer Michael Greenberg, Austrian Film critic and journalist Alexandra Zawia, and Tunisian-Russian director and actress Doria-Svetlana Achour. However, the presence of all these figures now hinges on the developments.”

catholicherald.co.uk

We have all been overwhelmed by the harrowing pictures and tragic stories of the refugee crisis affecting Europe, individuals no less than governments. I heard on the World Service in the early hours of this morning that the EU, which has met again to discuss the problem, is proposing a quota system, more aid for the refugee camps in Turkey and Lebanon and an attempt to formally distinguish between economic migrants and Syrians fleeing civil war. Will this “plan” work? To me it sounds like more words rather than a solution.

Another aspect not addressed in UK newspapers has been raised in the parish bulletin for 20th September, of Fr George Rutler at the Church of St Michael, New York. He comments that “especially prudent is the counsel of bishops in places like Hungary and Slovakia, who know from long experience the consequences of confusing naivety with mercy. Ninety per cent of the current refugees are Muslim and the situation is complicated by the fact that ISIS boasts that there are many of their own people among them.”

Korin Miller

They may have walked five miles — uphill, in the snow — to school, but Baby Boomers had at least one thing easier than Millennials do: shedding pounds. (Gif: Getty/Priscilla De Castro for Yahoo)

Next time you hear your parents complain that you have it easy, mention this: Scientists have discovered that it’s harder for millennials to lose weight than it was for their parents at the same age.

The findings were part of a new study published in the journal Obesity Research & Clinical Practice. For the study, researchers analyzed dietary data from the National Health and Nutrition Survey, which was collected from 1971 to 2008 from more than 36,000 U.S. adults. They also analyzed physical activity data between 1988 and 2006.

What they discovered: People were about 10 percent heavier in 2008 than in 1971 and five percent heavier, despite eating the same amount of food and doing the same exercise.