German Chancellor Angela Merkel telephoned President Michel Suleiman, lauding his role in preserving stability in Lebanon and hoping that a new cabinet would be formed soon, Baabda palace said Friday. A presidential statement said that Merkel also expressed support to Lebanon’s call for a U.N.-led international conference to discuss the issue of Syrian refugees. Their talks […]

  BEIRUT: Renowned musician Iman Homsi, known as the “the lady of the qanun”, passed away Wednesday at the age of 45, the National News Agency reported. The report added that Homsi, the most prominent Qanun player in Lebanon, died after struggling with an illness.Homsi graduated in 1991 from the High National Musical Institute in […]

Apart from hosting Hezbollah and bordering Israel, Lebanon has little international significance. But with the alarming rise of radical Sunni Islamism – from Mali to Pakistan – Lebanon stands as the last bastion of moderate Sunnis, something that Hezbollah might have realized. Lebanon’s moderate Sunnis, however, face the risk of extinction. Like their Arab peers […]

(Reuters) – A deadly explosion and fire tore through a fertilizer plant in a small Texas town late on Wednesday, injuring more than 100 people, leveling dozens of homes and spewing toxic fumes that forced evacuations of half the community, authorities said. They said an undetermined number of people had been killed, and that the […]

  Two bombs exploded in the crowded streets near the finish line of the Boston Marathon on Monday, killing at least three people and injuring more than 140 in a bloody scene of shattered glass and severed limbs that raised alarms that terrorists might have struck again in the U.S.   A White House official […]

    ردًا على تصريح الشيخ محمد علي الجوزو صدر عن النائب نعمة الله أبي نصر البيان التالي:        ليس غريبًا على الشيخ محمد علي الجوزو أن يصمت زمنًا لينطق كفرًا.        لقد شعر الشيخ الجوزو أنّ الشيخ أحمد الأسير خطف منه وهج التطرّف والشعبية فوجد أنّ أفضل السبل للبروز الإعلامي هو التهجّم على البطريرك […]

   أي معیار تنطلق منه عملیة تشكیل الحكومة یتوجب تطبیقه على جمیع المكونات السیاسیة ولیس على فریق دون الآخر رأى عضو تكتل "التغییر والإصلاح" النائب د. فرید الخازن أن شبه الإجماع الذي ناله الرئیس  لمكلف تم اّم سلام خلال الإستشارات النیابیة الملزمة، ناتج عن كون سلام شخصیة معتدلة ومنفتحة ولا تشكل تحدیا لأي من الفرقاء اللبنانیین، ناهیك […]

 U.S. Ambassador Maura Connelly considered on Friday the nomination of Prime Minister-designate Tammam Salam “a positive first step in efforts to form a new government.” During a meeting with Salam at his residence in al-Msaitbeh, Connelly stressed that the formation of the cabinet “must be a Lebanese process,” said a statement issued by the U.S. […]

  BEIRUT: President Michel Sleiman said Thursday that recent Syrian airstrikes on north Lebanon and the Bekaa Valley were unjustified as reports had shown the targets were nonmilitary, hours before a new round of strikes targeted areas near the town of Arsal. Arsal’s Deputy Mayor Ahmad al-Fliti told The Daily Star a Syrian aerial strike […]

KNOXVILLE, TN (Catholic Online) – In an endless cycle of meaningless violence, Muslims have attacked their Coptic Christian neighbors yet again. It seems there is no rhyme or reason in Egypt these days, only rumors and violence, shadows and blood born out of ignorance and hatred.  Of course, there are always explanations each time violence erupts. Some of the explanations for this latest round of violence are as follows: According to reports, it began around April 5 in the Khosous district just outside Cairo. Swastikas had been drawn on a mosque. Some Muslims blamed Christian children, but Mohamad Yousry, the local security force manager, said two Muslim children did it, and that the mosque Imam had confronted the Muslim children about it. Nevertheless, rumors about Christians defacing the mosque created a stir within the Muslim community.

As a result of the rumors, a mob of Muslims gathered near Saint George’s Coptic Church. Copts responded to the threatening mob by forming a human shield to protect the church. Then people heard the gunshots. When it was over, four Copts and one Muslim lay dead in front of the church. Security forces arrived about five hours later. Fighting could be heard throughout the night, and some Christian buildings were set on fire. Father Sourial Younan believes another reason may have sparked the violence. He said that some Muslims had sexually harassed some Coptic girls. A Coptic activist, Nader Shoukry, believes the incident was instigated by a neighboring Muslim religious institution in order to "purify the region of Christians."