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ADP official sentenced to life in prison

  BEIRUT: Rifaat Eid, a leading member of the pro-Assad Arab Democratic Party was sentenced in absentia to life imprisonment Monday for inciting clashes in the northern city of Tripoli, judicial sources said. According to the source, Lebanon’s Military Court sentenced the fugitive to life in prison and hard labor after he was convicted of […]

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STL Amends Rules of Procedure Pertaining to Excusal of Judges

  The judges of the U.N.-backed Special Tribunal for Lebanon have approved at a plenary meeting amendments to the tribunal’s Rules of Procedure and Evidence, the court said in a statement on Monday. “The amendments are designed to improve and streamline the Tribunal’s procedures,” the statement said. “Specifically, they address the excusal and disqualification of […]

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Here’s what Islamic State really believes and why it matters

 
 

What is the Islamic State? Where did it come from, and what are its intentions?

The simplicity of these questions can be deceiving, and few Western leaders seem to know the answers. In December, The New York Times published confidential comments by Major General Michael K. Nagata, the Special Operations commander for the United States in the Middle East, admitting that he had hardly begun figuring out the Islamic State’s appeal.

“We have not defeated the idea,” he said. “We do not even understand the idea.” In the past year, President Obama has referred to the Islamic State, variously, as “not Islamic” and as al-Qaeda’s “jayvee team,” statements that reflected confusion about the group, and may have contributed to significant strategic errors.

The group seized Mosul, Iraq, last June, and already rules an area larger than the United Kingdom. Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi has been its leader since May 2010, but until last summer, his most recent known appearance on film was a grainy mug shot from a stay in U.S. captivity at Camp Bucca during the occupation of Iraq.

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Maronite Bishops Hope Dialogue Resolves Presidential Crisis, Urge Backing for the State

  The Council of Maronite bishops welcomed on Friday the dialogue among the country’s different factions, hoping that it would lead to the election of a new president, and urged the Lebanese to back the state at this critical stage. The bishops hoped in a statement following their monthly meeting in Bkirki that “talks among […]

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Lebanon storm dies down; roads icy

  BEIRUT: Snowstorm Windy died down overnight Saturday, but schools and nurseries remained closed as icy mountain roads and fear of mudslides persisted. Sunshine brought a welcomed change to two days of heavy blizzards that buried villages across the country over Thursday and Friday. But roads in high altitude regions remained blocked, and others were […]

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Lebanon hosting more than 1,500 street children: study

(Reuters) – More than 1,500 children are living or working on Lebanon’s streets, nearly three-quarters of them Syrian and most scraping a living by begging or roadside vending, a study published on Monday showed.

The number of children begging in Lebanese cities is one of the most visible signs of the country’s refugee crisis. Lebanon hosts more than 1.5 million Syrians from the civil war next door, the highest refugee population in the world per capita.

A total of 1,510 children were found to be living or working on the streets according to the study from the International Labour Organisation, the U.N. Children’s Fund UNICEF and charity Save the Children International.

These children earned an average of less than $12 per day and more than half of them were aged between 10 and 14 years old, it said.

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Al-Rahi Says Not Only Christians Impeding Presidential Election

  Bkirki spokesman Walid Ghayad stressed on Friday that the Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi informed a French diplomat, who is following up the presidential deadlock, that the crisis is not only linked to the Christians. Ghayad said that al-Rahi stressed during a recent meeting with Jean-François Girault, Director of the Department of the Middle East […]

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Lebanon blizzard blocks mountain roads; schools shut

  BEIRUT: Snow continued to fall on mountainous areas across Lebanon Friday, blocking roads, closing schools and leaving thousands stranded in their homes. Dozens of villages in the eastern, northern and southern parts of the country were cut off by the blizzard. Schools across Lebanon abided by Education Minister Elias Bou Saab’s decision to shut […]

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