Khazen

By Matt Hadro

.- As the number of displaced persons is at its highest worldwide, Catholics must remember that “extremely vulnerable” refugees often flee circumstances where their very lives are at risk, a bishop has said.

“People often forget that the Holy Family themselves were refugees fleeing into Egypt,” Bishop Eusebio Elizondo Almaguer, auxiliary bishop of Seattle, said in a Dec. 30 statement in advance of National Migration Week, which is observed Jan. 3-9.

“Likewise, refugees around the world, all of whom are extremely vulnerable, are fleeing for their lives,” added the chair of the U.S. bishops' committee on migration. “As Catholics, we are called to welcome and support these families who also need our help.”

 

5 January 2016 – United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has condemned yesterday’s attack against two Israel Defense Forces vehicles in the general area of the Sheba’a Farms south of the Blue Line, which was claimed by Hizbollah.

“The Secretary-General expresses his concern at the retaliatory strikes by the Israel Defense Forces across the Blue Line in southern Lebanon, in the area of operations of the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL),” said a statement issued today by his spokesperson in New York.

Saudi Arabia's growing international isolation and Iran's rising regional influence have led the kingdom to "double down" on protecting its interests, according to a new analysis of the world's top 2016 risks by Eurasia Group, the world's largest political-risk consultancy.

That at least partly explains the kingdom's decision to sever diplomatic ties with Iran on Sunday, after Iranian protesters ransacked and set fire to the Saudi embassy in Tehran over Saudi Arabia's execution of prominent Shiite cleric Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr.

On Monday, Saudi Arabia moved to cut off all commercial ties with Iran, according to Reuters, and bar its citizens from traveling there.

"Saudi Arabia is in serious trouble, and they know it," Ian Bremmer, president of Eurasia Group, told Business Insider on Sunday.

 

Hezbollah set off a bomb targeting Israeli forces at the Lebanese border on Monday in an apparent response to the killing in Syria last month of a prominent commander, triggering Israeli shelling of southern Lebanon.

Israel has struck its Iran-backed Shi'ite enemy Hezbollah in Syria several times, killing a number of fighters and destroying weapons it believes were destined for the group, whose support for President Bashar al-Assad has been crucial in the country's civil war.

Israel's army said Monday's blast, targeting military vehicles in the Shebaa farms area, prompted Israeli forces to respond with artillery fire. It made no mention of casualties.

Khazen History

Historical Feature:
Churches and Monasteries of the Khazen family