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?”

By Sam Dagher

BEIRUT—Monthlong street demonstrations in Beirut over uncollected trash are fast turning into a broad grass-roots movement aimed at what was unthinkable here just weeks before: fixing a political system long viewed as corrupt by most Lebanese.

“I can no longer stand them,” Ghada Merhi said of the country’s current political leaders. The 48-year-old homemaker traveled from the southern city of Sidon to Beirut last weekend to join the protests.

Nearby, George Batruni, a 24-year-old graffiti artist, was busy spraying “freedom” in Arabic on temporary walls encircling a construction site. “We need to free ourselves from sectarianism, parties and this old way of thinking,” he said.

CBS news

A glass Phoenician pendant dating from 600 BC has been returned to Lebanon after being seized by Canadian border officers in Montreal a decade ago. (Canadian Heritage)

By Dean Beeby, CBC News

Canada has returned an ancient glass pendant to its home in the Middle East, a decade after it was seized from an antiquities dealer in Montreal.

The tiny Phoenician pendant, dating from circa 600 BC, was seized by Canadian border officers in 2006, and the artifact has spent 10 years in limbo while art experts, politicians, diplomats and the courts sorted out its rightful home.A Federal Court judge finally ruled in May this year that the pendant should be returned to the government of Lebanon, its country of origin, under a 1970 UNESCO convention that requires cultural property to be repatriated if it was exported illegally.

The newly elected head of the Free Patriotic Movement and Lebanese Foreign Minister Gibran Bassil

AFP and Naharnet: Thousands of supporters of a Lebanese Christian leader staged a protest in downtown Beirut on Friday, demanding a new electoral law and parliament and presidential elections.

Michel Aoun, leader of the Free Patriotic Movement, has urged a heavy turnout at the demonstration, which is separate from recent anti-government protests over the country’s ongoing trash crisis.

Foreign Minister Jebran Bassil announced Friday during a mass rally in Beirut’s Martyrs Square that the Free Patriotic Movement wants “a free president elected by his people” and “a parliament elected through a proportional representation law.” “We want a free president elected by his people with decisions emanating from his popular and constitutional strength. We want a parliament that does not extend its own term or violate its powers, a parliament elected through a proportional representation law, which can give youths a chance,” said Bassil.

Lucien Bourjeily, a founder of the "You Stink" movement, which has been the driver of anti-government protests the past two weeks, said it was "absurd" that Aoun was protesting against the government which he is part of.

Date of publication: 4 September,

Al Araby- Al Jadeed

AFP

The civil campaign that has organised protests against Lebanese politicians in Beirut called on Friday for a nationwide mobilisation against a government they say is too corrupt to function.

"The people’s outrage at this corrupt system continues… The protests will go on today and tomorrow in all Lebanese regions," the "You Stink" campaign wrote on its Facebook page.

The collective has called for demonstrations on Friday at 6:00 pm (1500 GMT) in the coastal city of Tyre and in Zrariyeh, both in southern Lebanon.

And on Saturday, activists have called on supporters to protest in the eastern city of Chtaura, the historic town of Beiteddine and Nabatiyeh and Marjayoun in the south.

By Barnini Chakraborty

WASHINGTON –  The surge of refugees fleeing Syria and other war-torn regions is putting immense pressure not only on Europe but also the United States, as the Obama administration faces calls to take a more active role in the humanitarian crisis. 

At the same time, some lawmakers on Capitol Hill are warning that loosening immigration rules to take them in would pose a serious security risk. For the Obama administration – and the one that succeeds it – there are no easy answers.