Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi urged on Sunday the Syndicate Coordination Committee to stop taking the future of students hostage. Al-Rahi called on …

Congratulation from the khazen Family to the new Grand Mufti Sheikh Abdel Latif Derian

BEIRUT: Consensus among Sunni leaders led Sunday to the election of Sheikh Abdel-Latif Derian as Lebanon’s new grand mufti, while former Prime Minister Saad Hariri praised the move and called on Derian to safeguard Muslim unity and fight extremism. “What happened today is an expression of the strong will of all Muslims in Lebanon, to face the problems and reiterate the role of Dar al-Fatwa,” Derian said in his speech after the results were announced.

Of the 93 votes cast in the election, the new mufti, whose term will officially begin Sept. 15, received 74 votes, with nine for Sheikh Ahmad Kurdi, eight blank ballots and two eliminated. After the election, former Prime Minister Hariri invited the electoral crowd to a lunch in the new mufti's honor at his Downtown residence in Beirut. [Link]

  Une députée irakienne, Vianne Dakhil, a évoqué mardi, le sort de la communauté yazidite et des autres minorités en Irak. En …

by Joe Concha | 5:55 pm, August 9th, 2014

It’s safe to say that President Obama’s sixth year in office has easily been his most forgettable, especially on the international stage.

The president who figured the world outside the U.S. would simply behave to allow him to transform the country without distraction clearly didn’t anticipate the chaos increasingly unfolding overseas and at the border. Ukraine, Gaza, Syria, Libya, Iraq. It’s all falling apart, or as uber-liberal Daily Beast columnist Michael Tomasky put it in the title of a recent column: “Is It Just Me or Is the World Exploding? So Why Isn’t Obama Doing More?”

The reason? Legacy, of course. In no particular order, Mr. Obama likely wants to be remembered for three things: bringing the country back from the great recession while creating a level playing field (redistribution of wealth) in the process, providing universal health care, and bringing all troops home from Iraq and Afghanistan, no matter the consequence or cost we’re now witnessing.

The results on all three are mixed at best. The country’s economy is treading water. Negative GDP growth one quarter, a four-percent rise the next. Jobs are being created, but many more people are leaving the workforce altogether as wages actually fall, while those who are employed are working more hours just to make ends meet. Meanwhile (and ironically), the gap between the rich and poor has never been wider. As a result, Americans give the president a 39.7 percent approval rating on the economy while 55.4 disapprove (Real Clear Politics average is applied to avoid accusations of cherry-picking of polls, which is all-too-common in opinion media today).