President Obama sent seemingly conflicting signals Wednesday about his ultimate goal in the fight against the Islamic State, saying at a press conference in Europe that the aim is to "degrade and destroy" the terror group — but moments later, claiming he wants to make it a "manageable problem."    The president spoke as […]

  Copenhagen police on Wednesday raided four addresses with ties to a charity suspected of selling stickers to raise funds for the Islamic State.   A 35-year-old stateless man born in Libya, a 30-year-old Danish woman of Lebanese origin and a 50-year old Danish woman were questioned over the sale of stickers that appeared to […]

BEIRUT: Lebanon’s General Security is disrupting migrant workers’ right to family life with a recently issued directive that restricts the renewal of residency permits. It has resulted in the deportation of some migrants’ children and their mothers, Human Rights Watch said Wednesday.   “A recent decision by General Security, Lebanon’s security agency in charge of […]

  France and Saudi Arabia are close to signing a $3 billion arms deal for Lebanon, the Elysee Palace said late Monday following talks between President Francois Hollande and the Saudi crown prince. The deal ‘is being finalised’, according an aide to the president. The deal is for military equipment and arms to be supplied to […]

  The Islamic State released a video on Tuesday purporting to show the beheading of American hostage Steven Sotloff, raising the stakes in its confrontation with Washington over U.S. air strikes on its insurgents in Iraq. A masked figure in the video seen by Reuters also issued a threat against a British hostage, a man the […]

  BEIRUT: The Military Hospital in Badaro Monday received the body of the Lebanese Army soldier who was beheaded by ISIS militants last week, with the military confirming that it was Ali Sayyed as initially reported. An Army statement said: “Around 16:00 today, the Army Intelligence was handed over the body of one of the missing […]

  In the crosshairs of the burgeoning Caliphate, and its brutal conquest, the Middle East’s Christian minority finds itself in the existential balance, facing the all-but-imminent threat of complete annihilation. The Islamic State’s bloodlust will not be satisfied until it achieves a religiously homogeneous, monolithic society. A Middle East completely void of Christians is a […]

  BEIRUT: “Tell me where you are, visit me even once in the dream.” So begins Laila al-Shabab’s ode to her brother Antoine, or Tony, who went missing in Zahle during the Lebanese Civil War in 1986, and has never been found. “I’ve written a lot for him, and a lot of things haven’t been written,” […]

  Justice Minister Ashraf Rifi called on Sunday for an investigation to be carried out into the burning of crosses in the northern city of Tripoli. The crosses were allegedly burned on Saturday in retaliation to the burning of an Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant flag in Beirut’s Ashrafiyeh district also on Saturday. Supporters of […]