BEIRUT, April 8 (Xinhua) — Clashes at south Lebanon’s Palestinian refugee camp of Ain el-Hilweh in Sidon, continued on Saturday between the Joint Palestinian Security Forces and the hardline Islamist Bilal Badr group, the National News Agency (NNA) reported. According to the NNA, Fatah commander Munir Maqdah said in a statement that “the situation at […]

by  Bryan Logan and Alex Lockie

The United States launched a salvo of more than missiles on
Shayrat airfield and nearby military infrastructure controlled by
Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, in response to a chemical
attack that killed at least 80 people in the northwestern part of
the country on Monday. The Tomahawk missiles, launched from the USS Ross and the USS
Porter at dawn local time, represent the first US strikes on the
Assad regime, according to a statement from the Pentagon. US President Donald Trump, initially resistant to the idea
of becoming involved in Syria, said it was in the vital
national security interest of the US to prevent the use of
chemical weapons. “No child of god should suffer such horror,” Trump said in a
televised address after the cruise missile strikes. “It is in
this vital national security interest of the United States to
prevent and deter the spread and use of deadly chemical weapons.”

Autopsies have confirmed that the attack
involved chemical weapons, and Secretary of State Rex Tillerson
said there can be “no doubt” that Assad’s forces carried out the
attack. Both Syrian and Russian forces have denied responsibility
for the attack, with Russian forces claiming a conventional
airstrike hit a cache of chemical weapons owned by rebels in
Syria. International experts have dismissed this as an “infantile argument.” Though the US strike targeted infrastructure and
runways, a large volley of cruise missiles carries the risk of
collateral damage to troops stationed nearby. Initial reports
from Syrian military sources say the strikes “led to losses,” as Reuters notes.

by ansamed.info – BRUSSELS – Lebanon is a ”ticking time bomb”, Prime Minister
Saad Hariri said Wednesday, due to consequences of the Syrian war and
huge refugee community resulting. ”Lebanon cannot and won’t
continue to sustain the consequences of hosting 1.5 million displaced on
its territory unless a new plan is put in place,” Hariri said,
addressing the Brussels Conference on Supporting the Future of Syria and
the Region. He noted that there are 4 million Lebanese in the
country, alongside 1.5 million Syrians and over half a million
Palestinians, comparing the situation to if 500 million EU citizens had
to deal with 250 million people ”arriving in a single night” and
having to deal with them even if the EU was already experiencing
difficulties. Hariri called on countries at the conference to ”invest
in hope”, warning that otherwise desperation and radicalization would
grow. Given worsening economic conditions of the country, he said that
this would lead many Lebanese and Syrians to ”seek another home”. © Copyright ANSA – All rights reserved

The daily Star Lebanon – A leading international tourism agency
said the sector in Lebanon is expected to generate a revenue of $3.4
billion in 2017. “The World Travel & Tourism Council estimated that
the travel & tourism industry would directly contribute $3.4 billion
to the Lebanese economy in 2017, equivalent to about 7.1 percent of
GDP, down from more than 10 percent of GDP in 2010,” the report said. The
WTTC said the direct contribution of Travel & Tourism to GDP in
2015 was LL5.436 trillion (8.1 percent of GDP) and forecast that the
sector would rise by 4.8 percent in 2016. There
are no official figures on the revenues generated from tourism sector
in 2016 but all experts agree that the hospitality industry did not
perform well due to the decline in the number of tourists.

Tourism was once viewed as one of the main sources of revenue for the Lebanese economy. However,
officials hope that Arab tourists and especially Arab Gulf nationals
will return to Lebanon in great number this summer after the thaw in
relations with Saudi Arabia, UAE, Kuwait and Qatar. WTTC also
anticipated that direct industry employment will reach 123,800 persons
in 2017, representing 6.9 percent of total employment. It expected that the tourism sector’s contribution to the Lebanese economy to expand by 2.9 percent in real terms in 2017. “The
decline in the sector’s contribution to economic activity since 2010
cannot be attributed only to domestic and regional political and
security developments. It is part of the decline in the Lebanese
economy’s overall competitiveness, especially the weakening state of the
infrastructure and the deterioration in public service delivery,”
Nassib Ghobril, chief economist at Byblos Bank, said.

Slaughtered migratory birds in Lebanon © Georges Hareb

By Luca Bonaccorsi – Lebanon’s President, Michel Aoun, has made a heartfelt pledge to prevent the annual slaughter of the thousands of migratory birds who fly over the small Middle Eastern state twice a year. Dozens of storks lie dead on the ground, neatly lined up. Behind them, the men smile at the camera, holding up by their long, silent beaks yet more dead birds. It’s been a good hunt, one worthy of sharing with friends on Twitter or Facebook.

Welcome to Lebanon, where hundreds of such macabre photos offer testimony to what conservationists have been denouncing for years. The little Mediterranean state is a black hole where some 2.6 million birds disappear every year, shot or trapped illegally (http://www.birdlife.org/sites/default/files/attachments/01-28_low.pdf ). The wealth and diversity of birds packed into this relatively small country (at least 399 species of birds have been recorded here), is the pride and joy of local people, and a massive concern for local conservationists, such as those who work at the Society for the Protection of Nature in Lebanon (BirdLife Partner). The country lies on the west side of the African Eurasian Flyway (Red Sea – Rift Valley Flyway) which is considered one of the most important flyways in the world for bird migration. The long perilous journey from Europe and Asia to Africa, via the Sinai and the Red Sea, ends here, in this small stretch of land, for million of birds. In terms of “intensity”- birds killed per square kilometre – Lebanon ranks third, trailing only Malta and Cyprus.

But Lebanon’s days as a high-flyer in the chart no-one wants to top could be numbered, because a new, bird-friendly era has been announced. The announcement came straight from the Lebanese President, Michel Aoun, last Saturday with a heartfelt appeal to put the country’s nature first: “It is a shame to turn Lebanon into a wasteland without plants, trees, birds and sea animals, and cutting off trees to erect buildings is a major crime” he said. “ There should be a peace treaty between Man and the tree as well as Man and birds, because we continue to transgress upon them”. A “peace treaty”, in a country that has paid an immense price for numerous conflicts: words do not get stronger than that in Lebanon. The issue of course is illegal hunting, rife in many areas. According to the President, “There should be a hunting season assigned from September to December, with the State exercising strictness in its execution”.

Staggered floor plates and set-back glazing create large planted terraces around this 119-metre tower by Swiss architects Herzog & de Meuron, which overlooks Beirut‘s marina.

Jacques Herzog and Pierre de Meuron designed Beirut Terraces as part of a new masterplan
developing around the St Georges Hotel. This area of the Lebanese
capital is gradually being regenerated following a devastating car bomb
attack that killed prime minister Rafik Hariri in 2005.

The residential tower is made up of irregularly sized floor slabs
that give it an indefinite outline, not dissimilar to the firm’s Jenga-like 56 Leonard skyscraper in New York.

Five modular floors are repeated in different combinations to create
the staggered arrangement. The white slabs overhang the double-glazed
walls by at least 60 centimetres to provide shade and to create
terraces.