Prime Minister Tammam Salam is set to preside a meeting of the ministerial committee tasked with following up the case of Lebanese hostages as a last step before their expected release. Ministerial sources told An Nahar daily published on Monday that the Lebanese authorities have completed the file of the prisoner exchange. They confirmed […]

While the Israeli government does not tackle the Jewish, anti-Christian extremists in its own backyard, it frequently interferes with the territorial independence of Lebanon.

The Daily Star reports: "The Israeli army will show ‘no restraint’ in attacking civilian centers in south Lebanon and Beirut should another war break out with Hezbollah, [Israeli Air Force chief Major-General Amir Eshel] told the German Die Zeit newspaper."

This comes after similar comments by Israeli Brigadier General Moni Katz in April of this year.

• ELAINE GANLEY, ASSOCIATED PRESS,

Its imams preach austere piety, its tenets demand strict separation of sexes — and some of its most radical adherents are heeding the call of jihad.Salafism, an Islamic movement based on a literal reading of the Quran, is on the rise in France, Germany, and Britain, security officials say, with Salafis sharply increasing their influence in mosques and on the streets.

The trend worries European authorities, who see Salafism as one of the inspirational forces for young Europeans heading to Syria or Iraq to do battle for the Islamic State group. Experts, however, point out that the vast majority of Salafis are peace-loving.

There are currently about 7,000 Salafis in Germany — nearly double the 3,800 estimated four years ago, the Interior Ministry said last month

Jerusalem, Israel, Jun 19, 2015 / 11:45 am (CNA/EWTN News).- Catholic leaders have been joined by Israeli leaders in their concerned reaction to Thursday’s attack on a church located on the Sea of Galilee, which has hospitalized two persons and caused extensive damage. In the early hours of June 18, the attackers started a fire at the Church of the Multiplication in Tabgha, located 120 miles north of Jerusalem. The church is built on the site where Christ fed the 5,000 through the multiplication of loaves and fish, and is joined to a Benedictine monastery. As a result of the arson, a monk and a staff member were hospitalized and treated for smoke inhalation.

“There is a real escalation in anti-Christian violence: from a small fire which leaves little damage, to a bigger fire, and finally to an arson attack which is intended to produce major damage and even killing,” lamented Bishop William Shomali, Auxiliary Bishop of the Patriarchate of Jerusalem, in an interview with the Catholic pastoral charity Aid to the Church in Need. “We are allowed to ask: what will come next?”The attackers left Hebrew graffiti on the walls, reading “all idols will be smashed”, which suggests they were Jewish extremists. According to The Times of Israel, the graffiti is a quote from the “Aleinu” prayer, which is prayed three times each day in Jewish services.

Vatican City / 06:02 am (CNA/EWTN News).- Meeting with Syriac Orthodox leaders on Friday, Pope Francis decried the continuing martyrdom of Middle East Christians, and gave special mention to two Christian bishops kidnapped in Syria two years ago.

“The blood of the martyrs is the seed of unity in the Church and the instrument of the building up of the kingdom of God, which is a kingdom of peace and of justice,” the Pope said June 19.“Let us ask the Lord, too, for the grace of always being ready to forgive and of being workers of reconciliation and peace. This is what animates the witness of the martyrs.”

The Roman Pontiff encouraged prayers for the victims of violence in the Middle East. He particularly mentioned Syriac Orthodox Metropolitan Gregorios Ibrahim and Greek Orthodox Metropolitan Paul Yazigi, two archbishops of Aleppo, Syria who were kidnapped together in 2013.

The Pope’s comments came during a meeting with Syriac Orthodox Patriarch Ignatius Aphrem II of Antioch, who was accompanied by a delegation of his Church.

Jesse Rosenfeld

Lebanon used to be a magnet for regional and global powers to fight out their proxy wars, reducing the country to rubble and scarring its people. Now the coastal capital of Beirut is a business hub. Its cafes and bars bustle while, politically, the city is a soap box for a war of words about battles that are fought elsewhere.

From conflicts in Yemen to Syria, major players make their positions known through their local Lebanese allies. Speeches by Hizbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah that blame Saudi Arabia for aggression in Yemen routinely face retorts by former prime minister Saad Hariri citing Iranian backing of the Houthis as the cause of the violence.

Yet the miracle of Lebanon is that despite the spillover from the Syrian civil war, it has continued to stay above the fray. There is mutual interest in the country’s capital being a place for back channel negotiations and for business from all sides to make a profit. The weak central government, unable to decide on a president for the past year, levels the playing field and the strong factional divides give a voice to competing powers.

Raphael Satter, Maggie Michael, Associated Press

At the Saudi Embassy in Tehran, diplomats talked about airing the grievances of disenchanted local youth using Facebook and Twitter. At the embassy in Khartoum, they reported anxiously on Iran’s military aid to Sudan.

Meanwhile, the Saudi mission in Geneva got stuck dealing with a multi-million dollar limo bill racked up by a Saudi princess and her entourage.

The incidents are mentioned in diplomatic documents published Friday by WikiLeaks, only the first batch of what the transparency group says will be a much larger release. But they’ve already provided an unusual level of insight into day-to-day Saudi diplomacy — giving a snapshot of the lavish spending habits of senior royals and the political intrigue percolating across the Middle East.

MUNTINLUPA, PHILIPPINES (Catholic Online) – The 10-foot high statue overlooks the town of Maaloula, one of the world’s oldest Christian communities. A video where a statue of the Virgin Mary was demolished by a Muslim sheik went viral over the Internet in 2013, raising concern among Christian communities.

The former statue stood tall on the cliff until the war between the loyal forces of President Bashar Assad and the Nusra Front, an affiliate of Al Qaeda in Syria. With the battling forces finally out of the community, the new statue promises to bring peace to the people.

Now, the community, whose residents speak Aramaic, are trying to restore the religious artifacts previously taken down and destroyed, including some images of Jesus Christ.