Alex Thomson's View

Dear old UK. Looked at from Beirut you just have to laugh at the British going on about a refugee “crisis”. It seems like parochial angst, leaves on the railway lines or any other such Terribly British Concern. The chattering anxieties of island races with nothing much to worry about.
Not just the UK but the EU generally, talking of a refugee “crisis”. Here in Lebanon they shrug or laugh at this stuff.Why? Because officially Lebanon now has a little over 1.2 million Syrians living here according to the UNHCR. Most Lebanese insist the real figure is two million or more.  All that in a country of around five million.

It is as if Britain absorbed the populations of Birmingham, Greater Manchester, Tyneside, Bristol, the entire central belt of Scotland and many, many more. And all of that in one of the less stable, more politically fractured and long-time president-less countries of the world.

Photos of Russian jets and drones reportedly flying over Syria.l

The Telegraph

Russia is providing “serious” training and logistical support to the Syrian army, Vladimir Putin has said, in the first public confirmation of the depth of Russia’s involvement in Syria's civil war.

Commenting on reports that Russian combat troops have been deployed to Syria, the Russian president said discussion of direct military intervention is “so far premature,” but did not rule out that such a step could be taken in future.

“To say we're ready to do this today - so far it's premature to talk about this.

But we are already giving Syria quite serious help with equipment and training soldiers, with our weapons,” the state-owned RIA Novosti news agency quoted Mr Putin as saying when asked about Russian intervention in Syria during an economic forum in Vladivostok."We really want to create some kind of an international coalition to fight terrorism and extremism," Mr Putin said.

culinarybackstreets

An iconic Middle Eastern dessert, knefeh is to Lebanon what waffles are to Belgium. There are no records of its origins, but according to local legend the cheese-filled pastry comes from the Palestinian town of Nablus, and now it exists in different variations around the region, including in Lebanon. (In Turkey, it is known as künefe.)

When you walk into any local confectionery, you will find trays of Arab pastries, but the one with the fresh-baked, rich copper-brown cake steals the spotlight. Knefeh consists of a soft cheese baked in a semolina crust, topped with pistachios and doused with orange blossom syrup. While usually enjoyed for dessert, the cake also has a place at the Lebanese breakfast table, especially when it is sandwiched between the sesame seed bread known as kaak. It’s the kind of breakfast that you can take straight through dinner

#WhatAShame Help Identify the adults behind this cruelty!!! #AnimalRights. It was difficult for khazen.org to post this but we need to inform our readers to Make it Stop!!!

Lebaneseexaminer.com

(BEIRUT, LEBANON) — A Lebanese animal rights group has responded to a circulating video which showed a Lebanese boy throwing a live kitten to its death from a towering balcony.

The graphic video begins with an unidentified man offering the boy, who was identified as Mario, a $10 bet for throwing the kitten.

Animals Pride And Freedom, a Baabda-based organization, called for an immediate investigation into the “brutal act.”“Is this how we raise the men of tomorrow?” the group asked in a Sept. 3 statement on Facebook. “What can we expect from the future of a child who was raised on brutality and cruelty?”