March 14 sources told NOW on Wednesday that President Michel Suleiman has proposed for the upcoming cabinet to include Hezbollah representatives without providing them with veto-power. According to the sources, Suleiman’s proposal would offer eight ministries to the March 14 alliance, eight to the March 8, including Hezbollah representatives, and eight to representatives of the […]

U.K. Prime Minister David Cameron’s failure to win parliamentary approval for military strikes against Syria complicates a decision by U.S. President Barack Obama on how to hold the Syrian government accountable for an alleged chemical weapons attack on civilians. With the House of Commons rejection of a plan from Cameron for use of military force, […]

With all eyes on Syria, ABC News has announced plans to reopen a bureau in Beirut, Lebanon. The network’s first bureau there was opened in 1968 by Peter Jennings and closed in the 1990s. “Beirut was a city Peter Jennings made his own. So it’s fitting – and timely – that ABC News is returning […]

    by Michael Kelly – Business Insider – There are three primary reasons, as illustrated by this report by Krishnadev Calamur of NPR.  1) Strategic: Syria’s port of Tartus hosts the only remaining international military base outside of the former Soviet Union. 2) Financial: As of June 2012, Russia’s economic interests in Syria total approximately $20 billion, about […]

ALEPPO, Syria — Aleppo is basically “Little Syria,” a melting pot, representative of the diverse ethnic and religious groups that make up the nation. Christians in Aleppo have tended to live together in close-knit communities in neighborhoods usually clustered around churches.  It would be very accurate to describe some areas of Aleppo as “Christian,” although […]

Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi on Monday reiterated his call for political parties to close ranks in the wake of the deadly bombings that rocked Tripoli and Dahieh. After offering condolences at the headquarters of the Higher Islamic Shiite Council on Dahieh’s outskirts over the victims of the Rweiss blast, al-Rahi said "what happened on August […]

The Obama administration was inching closer to a decision on how and whether to strike Syria, after Secretary of State John Kerry and the White House both declared that the evidence showing chemical weapons were used in a deadly attack last week is "undeniable." "What is before us today is real, and it is compelling," […]

  A pinch of coarse sea salt. A dash of rosemary. A bit of olive, almond, and coconut oil. Blend together, put over fire, and stirred for about two hours. Sound like a recipe? It is, but it’s one used for soap. At Khan el Saboun in Daher el Aayn, Tripoli, the Bader Hassoun family […]