Washington D.C., Oct 22, 2015 / 03:12 am (CNA/EWTN News).- Although numerous countries and organizations are working together and putting billions of dollars into relief efforts, “the scale of suffering has outpaced their ability to respond,” said Catholic Relief Services COO Sean Callahan.“Despite these generous responses, the exodus to Europe cries out that so much more must be done,” Callahan told members of Congress on Tuesday.

Over the last three years, Catholic Relief Services and their partners have assisted nearly 800,000 people and spent over $110 million in response to the Syrian refugee crisis. Churches, NGOs, and neighboring countries such as Lebanon, Turkey, and Jordan have leant a helping hand to refugees.

Pamela Engel

Most of what’s reported about jihadist fighters in terrorist groups like ISIS and Al Qaeda focuses on their military activities, and it’s not often that we get a look behind the scenes at other aspect of these communities.

Thomas Hegghammer, an expert on violent Islamism at the Norwegian Defense Research Establishment, gave a lecture at the University of St. Andrews in April about what jihadis do in their spare time.

And Shadi Hamid, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution and a Middle East expert, tweeted that the transcript is one of the best things he’s read in months.

Hegghammer called downtime activities that knit jihadi communities together "one of the last major, unexplored frontiers of terrorism research" that could "shed important new light on how extremists think and behave."

"I can’t quantify it, but it seems most non-military activities were orthodox devotional practices: prayer, invocations, ablution (washing yourself), Quran recitation, and the like," Hegghammer said.

"I found no support for the claim you sometimes hear about jihadists being hypocritical opportunists who don’t really care about religion. Some of them may have been unobservant before they join, but once they’re in, they seem very meticulous about observance."

This is supported by ISIS members’ active presence on social media. Members discuss religious practices and make frequent references to Allah.

The following is a press release from the Lebanese Swimming Federation:

Nadia Nabhan of Nation’s Capital Swim Club and member of the Lebanese National Team has announced her verbal commitment to swim for Rutgers University under head coach Petra Martin.

Nadia holds six Lebanese Nationals records in LCM: 400 IM and 200 backstroke and SCM: 100 back, 200 back and 100 butterfly. Additionally she is the fastest 5k Lebanese open water swimmer achieving a 1:08.52 in the 2014 East Coast Open Water Championships and participating in the USA Swimming 5k open water age group championships finishing 5th in 2015 with a 1:12.33. In addition to her national records, Nadia holds over 20 Lebanese Age group records in LCM and SCM and has represented Lebanon in the Arena Grand Prix and Pro Swim Series, the 2014 Toronto Jr. National Swimming Championships, 2013 Jr. World Swimming Championships, Asian Age Group Championships and Jr. Arab Championships.

Pamela Engel

ISIS is one of the best-funded militant groups on the planet, but it could run into problems long-term if it doesn’t keep seizing more territory.

Much of ISIS’ money comes from extortion and pillaging — essentially ripping off the people and institutions in conquered territory — and while the group’s tactics might bring it windfalls of cash every time it moves into a new city, funding operations requires a constant flow of cash.

"Confiscation makes up a huge part of [ISIS’] revenue picture," J.M. Berger, a Brookings Institution fellow who cowrote the recent book "ISIS: The State of Terror," told Business Insider in an email.

By Matt Hadro

Reuters, The Lebanese army said on Wednesday its naval forces returned to shore a boat carrying 53 people trying to leave the country illegally from the northern coastal city of Tripoli.

More than half the people returned were Palestinians, as well as 14 Syrians and eight Lebanese.

"There were 53 people on a boat that fits 15 people. The boat has been returned – with all people on board – to the Lebanese shore and an investigation has been opened," the army said in a statement.

By Christine Petré wagingnonviolence.org . A black-and-white mural with the text “Salam,” peace in Arabic, with a hand wrapped in barbed wire making the peace sign, covers a wall in one of Tripoli’s more troubled areas. Its artist, Hayat Chaaban, who has lived in Lebanon’s second largest city her whole life wants to put art to the battered facades of Tripoli and defy the violence. By doing so she is not only challenging the city’s rough reputation, but also the perception that graffiti is a male-oriented activity.

AFP Washington: A day trip to a crowded State Department office full of unfamiliar faces and smells might have upset some dogs, but then Astra’s day job is itself pretty terrifying.

The seven-year-old German Shepherd mine-clearance expert ignored the defused weaponry arrayed on the conference table, but perked up when a box of donuts was opened.

Over the past five years she and her handler, Lebanese army sergeant Ahmad Solh, have scoured the battlefields of Lebanon for land-mines and unexploded bombs.

Named by anti-landmine group the Marshall Legacy Institute as the champion mine-clearers of the year, they came to the US capital to promote their work.

International Business Times

TRIPOLI, Lebanon — For the first time in her three short years, Hanan didn’t wake up in a country at war. The night before, on Saturday evening, Hanan’s parents bundled her up to execute their escape from the ruins of Aleppo in northwestern Syria. The little girl took only what she considered essentials: white, gemstone-encrusted shoes, earphones and purple polka-dotted sunglasses. By the morning, she was listening to music with her parents, sitting at a pink plastic table at a makeshift cafe outside the port in Lebanon’s second city, Tripoli.

Many Syrians have fled war-torn cities before them. But unlike the 1.7 million Syrians who have settled in for a long stay in Lebanon, Hanan’s family is just stopping in Tripoli for one day before joining the mass exodus of refugees taking ferry boats to Turkey, hoping to reach northern Europe.

Since January, more than 640,000 refugees and migrants have arrived in Europe, more than half of whom are Syrians “moving from host countries in the region or from Syria transiting through host countries in the region,” with a “spike” in refugees coming from Syria directly, according to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees.