The United States has expressed concern over a decision for Syrians to obtain visas that sharply limit the time they can stay in Lebanon but Social Affairs Minister Rashid Derbas reiterated that no Syrian would be deported from the country under the new rules. “We are very concerned new visa requirements for Syrians entering […]

  BEIRUT: ISIS and Nusra Front militants holed up in Syria’s Qalamoun area on the border with Lebanon do not exceed 3,000 and are too weak to wage a large-scale assault on the country, a report said Tuesday. “The efforts of the terrorists are currently focused on surviving (winter) storms and snow, a matter that […]

• Nicholas Blanford, Christian Science Monitor

A slump in global oil prices and nuclear-tied sanctions are squeezing the group’s patron Iran, which is already funneling billions of dollars to the Syrian regime.

As Iran tightens its belt, Hezbollah has had to impose salary cuts on personnel, defer payments to suppliers and reduce monthly stipends to its political allies in Lebanon, according to a wide range of political and diplomatic sources in Beirut, including friends and foes of the powerful Shiite party.

The financial difficulties do not pose an immediate threat to Hezbollah’s political and popular standing in Lebanon. Moreover, the flow of Iranian largesse is controlled by Ayatollah Ali Khameini, Iran’s supreme leader, and isn’t part of the government’s oil-dependent budget.

But the belt-tightening underlines just how reliant Hezbollah is on Iranian largesse to pay its ever increasing army of fighters, as well as to bankroll its massive social welfare network of schools and hospitals upon which much of its Shiite support base depends.

In the summer of 216 BC, during the Second Punic War, the Carthaginian military leader Hannibal, after his epic crossing of the Alps, led his numerically inferior army into a battle that would end with 50,000 Roman infantry killed.  The Battle of Cannae effectively destroyed the Roman army as a fighting force.

• Rishi Iyengar @iyengarrishi

The human-rights lawyer, who married Hollywood actor George Clooney last year, said the incident that led to an arrest warning from Egyptian authorities had nothing to do with her representation of Mohamed Famy

Amal Clooney, the international human-rights lawyer currently representing jailed al-Jazeera journalist Mohamed Famy, called for his release in an op-ed on Sunday, while also clearing up a recent report that she was threatened with arrest by authorities in Egypt, where Famy is currently detained.

The op-ed, published by the Huffington Post and co-authored by Famy’s other counsel Mark Wassouf, expresses reservations against the proposed retrial of Famy following the cancellation of his and two colleagues’ jail sentences. “A re-trial process is lengthy and its outcome is uncertain,” the op-ed reads. “It is also not clear how a new process would fix any of the deficiencies in the original trial.”

by Matthew Olson – via: commdiginews.com FORT SMITH, Ark., January 4, 2015 – Lebanon, where Christians have concrete power in government, is America’s greatest friend in the Middle East. Under the Lebanese system, Maronite Catholic Christians control the presidency and the armed forces, while the Prime Minister is Sunni and leadership of the parliament belongs […]

  Social Affairs Minister Rashid Derbas has said new regulations to impose visa restrictions on Syrians are aimed at differentiating between refugees and visitors. The authorities are compelled to “organize the entry and exit of Syrians as part of the implementation of the new security strategy,” Derbas told pan-Arab daily Asharq al-Awsat in remarks published […]

  BEIRUT: Officials and the families of the 25 Lebanese captives expressed cautious optimism over the weekend that the five-month-long hostage ordeal may soon be taking a positive turn. “There is progress in this case, but I will not announce it today, awaiting the final word on it,” Interior Minister Nouhad Machnouk told reporters after […]

  A woman was found dead Sunday at the cemetery of the Bekaa town of Nahle, the National News Agency reported. “Diba F., in her thirties, was found dead at Nahle’s graveyard,” NNA said. “The victim was on her way back from a visit to a friend in the town while carrying four million Lebanese […]

By Abigail James (NEWS CONSORTIUM)

LOS ANGELES, CA (Catholic Online) – According to the guide titled, Sister’s Role in Jihad, it is the mothers job to create the "Caliphate cubs." Training is recommended to begin with newborns; the older the child is the less susceptible he will be to the message. "Don’t underestimate the lasting effect of what those little ears and eyes take in during the first few years of life," states the guide.

Immediately the mother should cut out all television, singing and dancing. The horrific guide insists the mothers show their innocent children pictures and websites glorifying ISIS’ movements, tell them tales of jihad battles and train them with toy guns and darts to prepare for their future in ISIS.