Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi urged on Wednesday the March 8 and 14 alliances to make “brave initiatives” to resolve the country’s crises, saying the failure to elect a president is a violation of the Constitution.   At the start of the synod of Maronite bishops in Bkirki, al-Rahi prayed for the immediate election of […]

  Anthony Keedi is a psychologist who works for Abaad (Arabic for "dimensions"), a gender equality NGO in Lebanon. He runs the engaging men and boys programme. He has also worked in conflict resolution, and with Iraqi and Syrian refugees to raising awareness of gender-based violence. "The overbearing dominant abusive stereotype as the archetype of […]

  BEIRUT: The world’s “first floating island,” currently under construction and destined for Jounieh Bay, has been rejected by municipality officials as incompatible with the seaside resort town. “There is no place for the island in Jounieh,” Mayor Antoine Frem told The Daily Star, adding that the municipality did not have the capacity to accommodate […]

BEIRUT: The security forces detained Monday night a man driving a motorcycle after 7 p.m., the first step in enforcing a recent ban on motorcycles at some specific times. The man was arrested in the Beirut neighborhood of Verdun, prompting angry citizens to block the Verdun-Tallet al-Khayyat road with burning tires in protest. The protesters […]

 Francis says Shimon Peres and Mahmoud Abbas must respond to yearning for peace, after joint prayer meeting at Vatican. Pope Francis has told the Israeli and Palestinian presidents that they "must respond" to their people’s yearning for peace in the Middle East and find "the strength to persevere in undaunted dialogue". The pope made his […]

  The French embassy in Beirut has reportedly asked for a copy of a speech made last week by Hizbullah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, who accused Paris of suggesting a “power triangle” in Lebanon. An Nahar newspaper said Monday that the mission contacted Hizbullah official Ammar al-Moussawi to ask for the copy of the official […]

  BEIRUT: A senior Hezbollah officials said the party would uphold an agreement over disputed land with the Maronite church in the Jbeil village of Lasa, saying last week’s controversy was aimed at sowing division between the party and its Christian allies. "What you have heard from some about Lasa is slander," said Ghaleb Abou […]

  A staggering 35 percent of Lebanon’s youth are currently unemployed, the Lebanese industry minister told a crowd at a seminar in Beirut Friday.   “[These are great levels of unemployment,” Industry Minister Hussein Hajj Hasan told the audience that was gathered at the Gefinor Hotel in Clemeanceau where the National Council for Scientific Research […]

  Two Orthodox bishops kidnapped in Syria in April 2013 are currently in the northern city of Raqqa and held captive by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL). According to a report published in al-Akhbar newspaper on Saturday, the two bishops are “in good health” and are currently detained in the region of […]