Doug Bandow 

Forbes BEIRUT—Lebanon’s destructive civil war ended a quarter century ago. The capital has been rebuilt. New buildings are rising and shoppers throng luxury shops. Trendy young Lebanese fill restaurants and bars at night. Lebanon is the Middle East’s only melting pot. Never has the region more needed a peaceful oasis.

However, the country is a sectarian volcano. Barely a generation ago Lebanon was torn apart in a bloody civil war which drew in America for a short time. Today cars race by buildings damaged still. Bullet pockmarks subtly mark many structures, including where I stayed.

thenational.ae/

By Michael Karam

Daily star.com.lb

Lebanon came in behind Saudi Arabia for highest depositors’ penetration rate among Arab countries. (File photo)

Figures issued by the International Monetary Fund show that there were 294.2 borrowers per 1,000 adults at commercial banks in Lebanon at the end of 2014, constituting an increase of 4.8 percent from 280.7 in 2013 and compared to 179.1 in 2005. The borrowers’ penetration rate ranks Lebanon in 26th place globally among 88 countries with available figures for 2014, in 14th place among 29 upper-middle-income countries and in first place among nine Arab countries.

Globally, Lebanon had a higher penetration rate than Azerbaijan, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Paraguay, and a lower rate than Macedonia, mainland China and Thailand. It also had a lower rate than Turkey, Uruguay, Serbia, Chile, Brazil, Malaysia, Palau, Argentina, Latvia, Venezuela, Macedonia, mainland China and Thailand among UMICs.

By Soraya Dali-Balta, IFRC 

For the past weeks, many Lebanese citizens have been taking to the streets of the capital Beirut to protest the trash crisis and the living conditions in the country. But the sit-ins have frequently turned into clashes between some demonstrators and state forces, leaving dozens of people from both sides with minor to severe injuries.

Through it all, the Lebanese Red Cross has been present on ground, deploying numerous teams of Emergency Medical Technicians, headquarter staff, dispatchers, along with a fleet of several ambulances, a Mobile Command Vehicle, and a Mobile Dispatch Unit. The National Society also placed several additional teams and ambulances on standby, in case the situation on ground unexpectedly escalated.

Mr Abdullah Zgheib, the head of emergency teams at the Lebanese Red Cross, said of the intervention: “In addition to the teams present on ground, a field hospital was set up to treat all people injured during the protests.”

Al Bawaba: Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)

Valerie Abou Chacra is not only a "Queen" in Lebanon’s eyes, but she’s a queen in her doting boyfriend Rabee’ Moqbel’s eyes as well.

The 23-year-old was crowned Miss Lebanon 2015 on Tuesday, beating beauties Jocelyne Mosleh, Cynthia Samuel, Nour Nasrallah and Maria Tannous to the title.

MODERN Syria is dead. Russia’s intervention into the bloody four-year conflict cements that reality. Now U.S. policymakers must plan for what comes next. And it’s not pretty.

Officially, the Russians say they entered Syria to fight the radical Islamic State. But they come at the invitation of Syria’s besieged president, Bashar al-Assad, and Russian bombing runs targeting U.S.-backed rebel forces underscore the fact that Russian President Vladimir Putin’s intervention is really about propping up the Assad regime, Moscow’s only ally in the region.

That pits Washington, D.C., and Moscow in a proxy war reminiscent of conflicts in Southeast Asia and Africa during the Cold War, and it limits the West’s military options in supporting the anti-Assad rebellion and forcing Assad to step down.

Russian forces sent out a warning to the Israeli Air Force after Israeli jets were detected near Russian controlled airspace near the Syrian–Lebanese border, Lebanese media outlet As Safir reported Friday. The warning was issued after a Russian radar system spotted Israeli jets approaching Russian-controlled airspace two weeks ago, a Lebanese diplomatic official said, according […]

by Salah Takieddine

 BEIRUT, Oct. 17 (Xinhua) — The wave of illegal immigration to the European Union (EU) countries witnessed a remarkable increase during the past few weeks as Lebanese started to follow the steps of the displaced Syrians who decided to take a dangerous adventure that may lead to a better life.

 Lebanese security sources confirmed to Xinhua on condition of anonymity that about 1500 citizens in Tripoli, the largest city in the north, left during the past two months for Turkey, where they would board small ships to transport them to the Greek shores before they start their adventure towards the northern European countries, particularly Germany.

 The sources added that this illegal and dangerous adventure cost last week the lives of a Lebanese family of nine people when the small ship they were on sank before reaching the Greek shores.

By Kenya Sinclair (CALIFORNIA NETWORK)

LOS ANGELES, CA (Catholic Online) – Father Jacques Mourad is a Syrian priest who was captured in May. He believed he would die for his faith and told Italian TV 2000 "This is the miracle the Good Lord gave me: while I was a prisoner I was waiting for the day I would die, but with a great inner peace. I had no problem dying for the name of Our Lord; I wouldn’t be the first or the last, just one of the thousands of the martyrs for Christ"
He was one of two men captured on May 21 when militants entered the Monastery of Mar Elian in Al Qaryatayn. Mourad described his captivity, saying, "The first four days we were in the mountains, locked up in the monastery’s car we were captured in. On Aug. 11 we were taken to near Palmyra, where there are 250 other Christian prisoners from the city of Al Qaryatayn."