The United States pledged on Wednesday 76 million dollars to Lebanon to help it cope with the rising number of Syrian refugees escaping the war in their country, the state-run National News Agency reported. U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry told caretaker Premier Najib Miqati during a meeting they held in Kuwait that the U.S. […]

  BEIRUT/HERMEL: The Lebanese Army arrested Wednesday a commander in the Al-Qaeda-linked Abdullah Azzam Brigades after raiding a Bekaa Valley residence. During the raid the Army also shot and killed a second suspect allegedly involved in aiding the leader of the brigades. The raid came weeks after the military apprehended the group’s Saudi leader, Majid al-Majid, who […]

  Israeli Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon created a rift between the United States and his country when he attacked Secretary of State John Kerry as being “obsessive” and “messianic” in an Israeli tabloid. U.S. officials are reportedly now demanding that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu publicly denounce his defense minister over the comments in order […]

  Update: Israel Apologizes The state department shot back Tuesday after Israel’s defense minister branded Secretary of State John Kerry "messianic" just days before he is due to visit the country. "The remarks of the Defense Minister if accurate are offensive and inappropriate especially given all that the United States is doing to support Israel’s […]

  General Security chief Maj. Gen. Abbas Ibrahim on Monday said that officers from his directorate met with representatives of the kidnappers of the Maalula nuns, in the presence of a Qatari delegation, as part of efforts to release the abducted women.   In an interview with An Nahar newspaper, of which excerpts were published […]

  On Thursday, nearly nine years after a bomb killed former Prime Minister Rafiq Hariri and 21 others, four men accused of taking part in the assassination will be tried in absentia by an international court created in 2009 for that very purpose. NOW offers a guide about what to expect from the opening of the […]

  Lebanese woman Rima Najdi has come up with a unique way to protest the recent deadly bombings that have rocked Lebanon. She wrapped herself in a hoax suicide vest and roamed several Beirut streets on Sunday. The woman "wore a vest carrying fake sticks of TNT and wandered in Beirut’s streets on Sunday," the pan-Arab daily […]

  BEIRUT – Lebanese President Michel Suleiman on Friday said that the country’s political parties have ten days to reach a consensus on a unity cabinet, or he will move ahead with green-lighting a fait accompli cabinet. “If there is no agreement on an all-inclusive government within 10 days, there will be a new cabinet,” he […]

  Admired by some and reviled by others, former Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon bears a complicated legacy. Sharon, 85, died Saturday after spending eight years in a coma brought on by a massive stroke in 2006. A controversial figure in Middle East politics, Sharon earned several nicknames among Israelis and Palestinians during his decades-long military and […]