by: catholicherald.co.uk

The two men who killed Fr Jacques Hamel in a French church filmed themselves and gave “a sort of sermon” in Arabic before murdering the 85-year-old, a nun who witnessed the atrocity has said.

Fr Hamel was celebrating Mass for three nuns and two parishioners on Tuesday morning in Saint-Etienne-du-Rouvray when the attackers burst in and forced the priest to his knees before slicing his throat, according to authorities and the nun who escaped.

Sister Danielle, speaking on BFM television, described seeing the attackers film themselves and give a sermon in Arabic around the altar before she fled. Paris prosecutor Francois Molins said the other hostages were used as human shields to block police from entering. One 86-year-old parishioner was wounded.“They forced (Fr Hamel) to his knees. He wanted to defend himself. And that’s when the tragedy happened,” said Sister Danielle.

She added that the attackers filmed themselves and “they did a sort of sermon around the altar, in Arabic. It’s a horror.”The two attackers were killed by police as they rushed from the building shouting “Allahu Akbar,” Molins said. One had three knives and a fake explosives belt; the other carried a kitchen timer wrapped in aluminum foil and had fake explosives in his backpack.

By Carine El Khazen Hadati : Link newsweekme.com/serving-up/

Article published in Newsweek

Eating disorders can be life threatening. In fact, they are the deadliest of all mental health disorders: 5 to 20 percent of anorexics will die from this illness. The causes of eating disorders are numerous and intertwined; they are usually an interplay of several factors: biological vulnerability, psychological traits, cultural and social pressures that usually act as triggers.

Among those triggers, dieting is the number one risk factor for developing an eating disorder. All eating disorders start with a diet and 35 percent of occasional dieters progress to pathological dieting (disordered eating) and as many as 25 percent progress to full-blown eating disorders.

Who can say that they have never attempted dieting? Perhaps no one! In our culture, dieting has become the norm. Up to 50 percent of women are on a diet at any given time. Up to 90 percent of teenagers diet regularly, and up to 50 percent of younger kids have tried a diet at some point. Each year, more and more adults are trying to lose weight: in 2000, 24 percent of American adults were dieting; in 2004, 33 percent were dieting and in 2015 roughly 50 percent of the American population is on a diet, with every adult making, in general, four dieting attempts per year.

By english.ahram.org.eg

Google’s famous doodle on Wednesday celebrates Ounsi el-Hajj, a famed Lebanese writer, poet and translator who was born in 27 July 1937 and passed away on 18 February 2014. El-Hajj was one of the most influential Lebanese poets of the second half of the twentieth century and a key contributor to Lebanon's cultural and poetic renaissance.

He also wrote columns for Annahar and Al-Akhbar daily newspapers. Ounsi translated several plays by Shakespeare, Ionesco, Camus and Brecht into the Arabic language.His first poetry collection, Lann (Not), was published in 1960 and sparked controversy because of its style.

Naharnet,

Prime Minister Tammam Salam and the Lebanese delegation attended the Arab League summit in the Mauritanian capital on Monday but were not expected to spend the night there, the Associated Press reported on Monday, shortly after Health Minister Wael Abu Faour questioned the impoverished African nation's ability to host top delegations.

The comments by Abu Faour on a local TV show triggered a spat between Lebanon and Mauritania, where Lebanese officials were attacked by journalists and on social media.

"They don't have the infrastructure and it's miserable," said Abu Faour. "The summit will be held inside a tent," he added, apparently comparing it to previous summits that were held in five-star hotels or luxury conference centers.

The minister later clarified on TV that his statements were not meant against the people of Mauritania and said he got his information from a Lebanese delegation that went to inspect where the summit will be held and where the official delegations will be staying.