by AP

ISIS has claimed responsibility for a mass stabbing at a
Minnesota mall.

A knife-wielding suspect who was dressed in a private security
uniform and made references to Allah while attacking at least
eight people at a Minnesota shopping mall was shot dead by
an off-duty police officer, authorities said. St. Cloud Police Chief Blair Anderson said during a news
conference that eight people were taken to St. Cloud Hospital
with non-life-threatening injuries following the attack first
reported about 8:15 p.m. Saturday at the Crossroads Center. One
person was admitted. 

An ISIS statement claimed the man was responding to a call to
attack citizens. Anderson said an off-duty police officer from another
jurisdiction shot and killed the unidentified suspect, who was
armed with a knife and wearing a private security firm uniform at
the time of the attack. Anderson did not say where the off-duty
officer serves.

Anderson also said the suspect made at least one reference to
Allah during the attack and asked at least one person whether
they were Muslim.

By Pamela Engel

Most people know the world’s most barbaric terrorist group as
ISIS or the Islamic State.

Some world leaders have taken to calling
them “Daesh,” knowing the terror group hates the
name so much that its militant members have threatened
to “cut the tongue” out of anyone who used it. But some experts say there’s one moniker the terrorist group
hates even more than Daesh — and enemies of ISIS have been using
it to taunt the group.

Malcolm Nance, a terrorism expert and veteran
military-intelligence officer, made note of the name “Khawarij”
during a terrorism debate at the Comedy Cellar in New York City
last month. “They are the 7th century Islamic cult,” Nance explained in an
email to Business Insider. “[T]he reason they don’t like it is
because they are considered apostates in the Quran. The Prophet
Mohammed warned about them being false Muslims.”

Some Muslims — and even ISIS’ jihadi rivals — refer to ISIS
members as “Khawarij” or “Kharijites.” The leader of Al Qaeda,
Ayman al-Zawahiri, recently referred to the followers of ISIS
leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi by the name, according to Thomas
Joscelyn, a senior fellow at the Foundation for Defense of
Democracies and an expert on terrorist groups.

By Joseph A. Kechichian, Senior Writer

Beirut: Lebanon is witnessing the return of fresh political protests as unresolved political issues resurface. The
pro-Syrian Free Patriotic Movement Party has pledged fresh
demonstrations in the coming weeks to voice their anger over perceived
slights in the Cabinet and National Dialogue sessions.

FPM leader
Jibran Bassil, who also serves as Lebanon’s foreign minister, says the
National Charter, which guarantees equal power sharing between Muslims
and Christians, is not being applied properly. In a recent speech,
Bassil warned that “if they [meaning the Future Movement and most Sunni
deputies] do not elect Michel Aoun as president during [the next
scheduled parliamentary election session] on [September] 28, then we
will commence a series of escalatory measures. We will go down to the
streets and we will not leave until we achieve our objectives”, he
affirmed.

According to spokesman Habib Younus, the FPM planned to
demonstrate in front of “all the ministries and public institutions, not
to cripple them and cause people discomfort, but to show our numbers
and our strengths”.

On their part, the anti-Syrian Lebanese Forces (LF) staged a sit-in
on Thursday demanding the formal extradition of two Syrian officers
indicted in the deadly 2013 blasts on two mosques in the northern city
of Tripoli.

A week after Judge Ala’a Al Khatib indicted two Syrian
officers, Mohammad Ali Ali and Nasser Juban, no formal request was made
to Damascus to extradite the two men. Students demanded that Prime
Minister Tammam Salam and his Cabinet make such a request as a sign of
respect for the law.

By John Bell.

There
was once a Turkish tradition of shadow puppets that children and adults
would watch throughout the Ottoman Empire. The characters were called
Karagoz and Hacivat, the former meaning “Black Eye” in Turkish after the
character’s dark and haunting look. Over time, in Lebanon and
elsewhere, the term went on to mean a clown or joker, or Karagoz.

Today, politics in Lebanon reflect both meanings of that term: the
clown and the puppet show. Every evening, Lebanese are entertained on
the TV news by the splendiferous view of their politicians meeting and
greeting each other.

Nothing much gets done – there is no president and only a
transitional government. But, there they are, the well known cast
trading deals and whispers that, like the unrequited love of Victorian
novels, never transpire. It may be harsh to call them clowns, but the
charade, the endless soap opera, does go on and on.

By travelerstoday.com

For a lot of people who do not know Beirut, it is a city of chaos. But
for those who have had a taste of it, the city can be described as a
rebellious beauty with an eclectic mix that continues to inspire and
attract its people and those who have seen her. Evidence of that is the
upcoming Beirut Art Fair, which will take place on September 15 to 18 with 18 countries participating in the event.

This is only just the beginning because Beirut’s art scene is alive
and kicking. At the end of September, Beit Beirut, a center that holds
memories of conflict and chaos in the country, will open its doors to
the public. And there’s more to Beirut that would make any art
enthusiast cry out with glee. Here are a few places to go to and a few
things to do in Beirut:

Sursock Museum is the headliner of the art scene in Beirut. This
contemporary art gallery has a very colorful past being a sniper outpost
during the civil war. Headed by French architect Jean-Michel Wilmotte,
the building has been beautifully preserved together with the bullet
pockmarks that serve as a reminder to the city’s past turmoil.

By Tarek Ali Ahmad

What has been a growing fear in the minds of those who work in
Lebanon’s media industry is slowly becoming a reality. Journalists and
news presenters are being sent to the chopping block due to budget cuts,
the rise of online journalism and political factors.

Last
week, prominent Lebanese television host Dolly Ghanem was told to pack
up her belongings at the Lebanese Broadcasting Company International
(LBCI) after serving 31 faithful years with the station. Her dismissal
was not the first and it surely won’t be the last as more and more
employees across the media industry are fearing for their jobs – hoping
their names won’t be on the pink slip.

“We
are in a transitional phase. There is what is known as disruption and
innovation and [things are] constantly changing,” media analyst and
director of Media Unlimited Magda Abu-Fadil told Al Arabiya English.

By Joseph A. Kechichian, Gulf news Senior Writer

Beirut: “There are no channels of communication or any exchange of
words or greetings,” declared former commander of the Internal Security
Forces (ISF) Ashraf Rifi to the MTV television network as he confirmed
that ties with Future Movement leader, the former Prime Minister Sa‘ad
Hariri, had been “totally severed”.

“Hariri is finished,” said
Rifi in what was an unprecedented political bombshell, adding that
Lebanese Sunnis were “awaiting for a new Hariri”. These sharp
words from Rifi, who joined the March 14 coalition after he retired from
the powerful ISF and even accepted one of the most critical government
portfolios in the Tammam Salam Cabinet, shook the political
establishment.

Although accustomed to polarisation, the winner of
the early June 2016 Tripoli municipality elections — when he formed an
alternative list that defeated Lebanon’s three Sunni billionaires
(Hariri, Mohammad Safadi and Najib Mikati) — helped dejected Sunnis open
a new page in politics, and permitted him to claim that Hariri had lost
his influence in the community.

by Asharq Al-Awsat – Beirut-A seminar organized by Lebanon’s Maronite League is expected
to adopt several recommendations that encourage the return of Syrian
refugees to their country. The officials who participated in the seminar, which concluded on
Friday, are now working on issuing the recommendations early next week.
They include the importance of “finding practical solutions to the
refugee crisis and its repercussions, and coming up with decisions that
can be implemented.”

Among the participants were United Nations Special Coordinator for
Lebanon Sigrid Kaag, representatives of U.N. agencies, international law
experts and organizations that work on Syrian refugee affairs. During the seminar, there were converging viewpoints on the right of
the displaced Syrians to return home, particularly after the creation of
safe zones in Syria.

The head of the Maronite League, Antoine Klimos, told Asharq Al-Awsat
newspaper that the Lebanese “can no longer stand still as the refugee
crisis unfolds.”

They are the Debutante Girls: daughters of the wealthy, connected
families of Lebanese high society, college-educated women making an
entrance in a lavish evening event. “It’s a way to present yourself to society,” photographer Natalie
Naccache tells TIME. “But it’s also a way to be a princess for a night.”

Known as the Paris of the Middle East, Lebanon was the epicenter of
nightlife in the mid-1900s. And then the war hit, followed by an influx
of Syrian refugees and sectarian tension. Despite the tense political
climate, Naccache says it’s a culture that persists. “This ball is their
way of carrying on, no matter what is going on in their country,” she
says. “This was them retaining their little Paris of the Middle East.”

by Michael Karam

Where in Copenhagen can you park like that?” The fearsome
hi-viz-clad female traffic warden barked at my friend who was picking me
up from the airport in the Danish capital. The normal, well-oiled
machine that is Danish traffic had been thrown a curve ball by the
unannounced building works at the airport entrance and my friend, while
technically infringing the traffic law, had only pulled over momentarily
to get her bearings.

But
apparently that’s enough to incur the wrath of authority in this neck
of the woods. A card outlining how the temporary traffic flow worked was
thrust through the passenger window and we were sent on our way with a
warning.

I tried my best to mollify the situation by explaining to
my friend that the incident should be seen as an example of why Danish
society is so envied. “Take Lebanon for example,” I said cheerily. “The
government is only now trying to implement a plan to introduce proper
pavements and a public transport system. Imagine.”