The cabinet on Thursday endorsed a plan aimed at halting the flow of Syrian refugees into the country, except for “humanitarian cases,” noting that any displaced person who visits Syria after the decision will be stripped of the refugee status. “The cabinet endorsed the paper related to restricting the entry of refugees across the […]

  Pope Francis lamented the terrors faced by Christian persecution in Iraq and Syria, on Monday morning, during Public Consistory of the College of Cardinals. He also called on all other Christian communities to stand in solidarity with those being persecuted.  He opened the consistory, held in the New Synod Hall, by remarking that the […]

  BEIRUT: The United Kingdom has delivered military defense equipment to the Lebanese Army to deal with the jihadist threat on its eastern border with Syria, the British embassy announced Wednesday. The donation, worth $16 million, includes 164 Land Rovers, 1,500 sets of body armor, a secure radio communication network, border watchtowers, and HESCO bastions […]

  Unknown assailants tossed a grenade near an army checkpoint in the northern city of Tripoli, without causing casualties, the state-run National News Agency reported on Wednesday. The attack in the early hours of Wednesday took place in the area of al-Mankoubine in Beddawi, it said. It was followed by retaliatory gunfire from the army, […]

  BEIRUT: The Parliament is likely to extend its mandate before voting on the wage hike, Future bloc head Fouad Siniora said after discussing the issue with Speaker Nabih Berri Tuesday, in a meeting that came after MPs briefly met to renew committee assignments. “We are more hurried [to approve] the Parliamentary extension than [to […]

  Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi reiterated on Tuesday his rejection of the proposed extension of parliament’s term, noting that it would violate the constitution and the will of the people. He said upon his return from Rome: “I told Mustaqbal Movement leader MP Saad Hariri that he would be violating the constitution by seeking the […]

 Foreign Affairs Minister Gebran Bassil on Monday met with the International Compound for Proximity of Islamic Sects Ayatollah Sheikh Mohsen Araki in the presence of Ambassador of Iran, Mohammad Fathali.  Sheikh Araki said Lebanon is an exemplary model of peaceful conviviality between different religions. Bassil also met with Vice President of the Subcommittee of the […]

  BEIRUT: Just 1 percent of Lebanon’s Sunni population has a positive opinion of ISIS, according to new poll commissioned by the Washington Institute for Near East Policy. Still, that means there are probably “a few thousand” ISIS sympathizers in Lebanon, according to David Pollock, the director of the Washington Institute’s Fikra Forum, who designed […]

  The Qaida-linked al-Nusra Front released Monday a video in which Lebanese soldier Omar Khaled Shamtiyeh announces his defection from the army. Shamtiyeh accused the military of being “subordinate to” Hizbullah and of “killing the Sunni youths” in the North without any valid justification. “I announce my defection from this tyrant army and joining the […]

  BEIRUT: Members of the Hujeiri family blocked Taalbaya’s road Monday to demand the release of two relatives abducted from their home Saturday. While the kidnappers have yet to be identified, relatives of Mustapha Hujeiri, 32, and Khaled Hujeiri, 23, have accused the Hamieh family of being behind the crime. (Link)