Khazen – Page 877

Lebanese army readies final assault on Islamists

adminAugust 28, 2007UncategorisedComments are off for this post

NAHR AL-BARED, Lebanon (AFP) – Lebanese troops prepared on Sunday to launch a final assault on Islamists holed up for months in Nahr al-Bared camp from where the last women and children have now been evacuated. As Palestinian Ulemas, or clerics, sought a way out for wounded fighters in last-minute negotiations, an army spokesman forecast: "The strikes against the militants will become more intense."

The wives and children of the remaining Fatah al-Islam militants were evacuated on Friday and there had since been some "close quarter combat," the army spokesman said, forecasting an unhindered all-out attack."Before we were more cautious because of the presence of women and children. That will no longer be the case," he said.Sunday also saw heightened sniper fire directed at the soldiers, an AFP correspondent on the scene reported.One of the clerics, requesting anonymity, said the Rally of Palestinian Ulemas had been contacted by the militants’ spokesman, Abu Salim Taha, to negotiate the evacuation of the wounded "who number eight or nine."

"We are on the point of reaching an agreement," the cleric said. "It’s a matter of finalising the last details on time and method of evacuation."It was Taha who, after several unsuccessful efforts at mediation between the Islamists and the army, contacted the clerics over securing safe passage out of the camp for the Islamists’ wives and children — a total of 63 people.

Lebanese cabinet considers disabling phone network of Hezbollah

adminAugust 28, 2007UncategorisedComments are off for this post

Lebanese government was mulling over severing private Hezbollah phone network connections that started in southern Lebanon and ended up in Beirut and its suburbs, local Naharnet news website reported on Tuesday."We agreed to draw a plan of action for a peaceful resolution of this issue, but we are serious about resolving it because it is a dangerous matter," Lebanese Information Minister Ghazi Aridi was quoted as saying.

Aridi said after a lengthy cabinet session on Monday that the government has formed a committee to draft a report on recent information that Hezbollah had installed its own communication infrastructure in southern Lebanon.He said initial reports have shown that the Hezbollah communication networks "went beyond (the southern village of) Zawtar Sharqiyeh … to reach Beirut and the suburbs of Beirut which are outside the security areas of the leadership of the resistance (Hezbollah)."

DNA khazen family

adminAugust 20, 2007UncategorisedComments are off for this post

Three months on, Lebanese army still battling Islamists

adminAugust 18, 2007UncategorisedComments are off for this post

Sylvie Groult, AFP, August 17, 2007, NAHR AL BARED, Lebanon — Three months into the deadly standoff between the Lebanese army and Islamist guerrillas holed up in a refugee camp, troops are still battling to crush an unexpectedly well-armed and well-organized enemy. Located along the Mediterranean coast near the northern city of Tripoli, the Nahr Al Bared camp, today, is but an apocalyptic scene of twisted steel and ruins. The red-and-white Lebanese flag flutters here and there as a sign of the army’s advance.

Black-and-white smoke hangs over the skeletal buildings that heave at the impact of each mortar round, or from the explosion of mines spread by the Fatah Al Islam fighters all over the sprawling camp. The army, in the last week, has resorted to air attacks in a bid to flush out the estimated 70 militants thought to be still hiding in subterranean shelters, along with some 100 women and children.

"We are using airstrikes, as shelling them with tank fire is no longer effective or sufficient," said an army spokesman. "We are trying to clear the small area around where the Islamists are holed up, so that our tanks and military equipment can get through." The drawn-out battle, which has claimed the lives of more than 200 people, including 136 soldiers, has taken even the war-hardened Lebanese by surprise.

Defense minister Elias Murr mistakenly announced an end to the fighting at the end of June, but has, since, kept a low profile, refusing to make a prognosis as to when the standoff may end. On the battle front, troops continue to slowly clear the camp’s sinuous streets of booby-traps and mines, as they try to seize the last, tiny area still controlled by the Islamists. The camp’s 31,000 Palestinian refugees fled at the start of the fighting May 20, leaving behind the Al Qaeda-inspired militants who infiltrated into Lebanon and took up positions inside Nahr Al Bared last year.

Lebanese vote to replace killed leaders

adminAugust 7, 2007UncategorisedComments are off for this post

By ZEINA KARAM, Associated Press Writer 9 PM ET BIKFAYA, Lebanon – Despite fears of violence, tens of thousands of Lebanese voted peacefully Sunday to replace two assassinated lawmakers

Polls in divided Lebanon test for presidential vote

adminAugust 3, 2007UncategorisedComments are off for this post

BEIRUT — Rival Lebanese factions face off this weekend in disputed elections to replace two slain MPs, in a showdown seen as a test for the country’s divided Christian factions ahead of presidential polls. Sunday’s by-elections are being held to replace two MPs killed earlier this year in attacks blamed by the Western-backed ruling majority on former powerbroker Damascus, which backs the Lebanese opposition.

The campaign leading up to the polls has exacerbated tensions within the Christian camp, which has been divided since the November resignation of six pro-Syrian cabinet ministers. The polls also come amid an 11-week standoff at a Palestinian refugee camp between the army and Islamists.

The two MPs being replaced are industry minister Pierre Gemayel, a Christian member of parliament who was gunned down in a Beirut suburb November 21, and Sunni Muslim MP Walid Eido, killed in a car bombing in the capital June 13. Although the elections to replace Eido in Beirut are virtually guaranteed to be won by the candidate of the ruling majority, the vote in the Metn region, a Christian stronghold northeast of the capital, has the country in suspense. Former president Amine Gemayel is vying to replace his son, Pierre, while the Free Patriotic Movement (FPM) of Christian opposition leader Michel Aoun has presented Camille Khoury, a doctor, as its candidate.

Observers say that the election outcome will be an indicator as to which way the Christian camp is leaning ahead of presidential elections to replace pro-Syrian President Emile Lahoud by a November 25 deadline.
Parliament elects the president, traditionally a Maronite Christian, while the prime minister is a Sunni Muslim and the speaker of parliament a Shiite Muslim. "Aoun wants to prove that he is the only representative of the Christians and therefore the candidate for the presidential elections," Joseph Abu Khalil, an aid to Gemayel, said.

But Antoine Nasrallah, spokesman for the FPM, said that the vote will set the record straight as to which leader is more popular and where the presidential elections are headed. "If Gemayel fails, he will lose any chance for the presidential elections … and if Gemayel wins, he will kill any ambition for Aoun to become president," Nasrallah said. He added that he was confident that his camp will win Sunday "by a good margin."

Bush orders asset freeze

adminAugust 3, 2007UncategorisedComments are off for this post

WASHINGTON (AFP) – The United States on Thursday moved to freeze US assets of anyone considered a threat to the Lebanese government, saying the country’s sovereignty and democratic institutions "are increasingly under attack." President George W Bush included in the freeze order announced Thursday anyone pushing to reassert Syrian control in Lebanon. and anyone judged contributing to the breakdown of the rule of law in the country.

"The president signed this executive order because Lebanon’s sovereignty and democratic institutions are increasingly under attack," said US National Security Council spokesman Gordon Johndroe.Johndroe cited recent assaults by "extremist" armed groups on the Lebanese army, the June 13 assassination of Judge Walid Eido, and reports that Syria’s allies and proxies in Lebanon may be preparing an alternate government, as signs of the threat.

The executive order to freeze the assets, dated August 1, said that threats against Lebanese stability and moves to restore Syria’s former dominant influence in Lebanon would "contribute to political and economic instability in (Lebanon) and the region and constitute an unusual and extraordinary threat to the national security and foreign policy of the United States."

Fierce fighting between Lebanese army and Islamists

adminAugust 3, 2007UncategorisedComments are off for this post

Aug 3, NAHR AL-BARED, Lebanon (AFP) – Lebanese soldiers fought fierce battles on Friday with Islamists holed up inside a Palestinian refugee camp with eyewitnesses reporting fires raging in a small area still controlled by the militants. An AFP correspondent saw two Katyusha rockets being fired from within Nahr al-Bared camp north of Tripoli by the militants, with one projectile hitting a nearby power station.

Deir Ammar, one of the main power stations in northern Lebanon, had already been hit by several rockets on Thursday, causing damage and forcing the facility to shut down."The station is still out of service and a new rocket hit the facility today," Marie Tawk, a spokeswoman for the state-owned electricity company, told AFP.

جمعية”مبادرات لل

adminAugust 3, 2007UncategorisedComments are off for this post

جمعية"مبادرات للانماء"اطلقت موقعها الالكتروني من بيت عنيا-حريصا

النائب الخازن:تهدف الى المساهمة في التنمية الاجتماعية والاقتصادية

وطنية-1/8/2007(متفرقات) عقدت "جمعية مبادرات للانماء" مؤتمرا صحافيا في مركز بيت عنيا-حريصا,أطلقت خلاله الموقع الالكتروني للجمعية، وتولى الدكتور شارل رزق الله ادارة الندوة بمشاركة ممثلين عن الوكالة الاميركية للتنمية الدولية ومؤسسة اميديست وحشد من المهتمين بالتنمية الاجتماعية والاقتصادية.

افتتح المؤتمر بالنشيد الوطني اللبناني، ثم القى النائب الدكتور فريد الخازن كلمة بصفته رئيسا للجمعية قال فيها:" ليس بالسياسة وحدها يحيا الانسان في لبنان ولا بالانتخابات ولا بالمواقف الوطنية من اي طرف اتت. وليس بالسياسة وحدها يزدهر ويتقدم الانسان في هذه المنطقة بالذات، في كسروان الفتوح وجبيل، وهي من المناطق المحرومة فعلا على رغمك الانطباع الخاطىء السائد عند البعض وفي اوساط المؤسسات الدولية المانحة ان المنطقة تعيش في نعيم الازدهار الدائم والبحبوحة المفرطة, فالقطاعات الاساسية في كسروان الفتوح وجبيل من شبكات الطرقات الى الصرف الصحي الى المدرسة الرسمية الى البيئة الى القطاع السياحي تعاني ازمات كبيرة وكبيرة جدا ومنذ زمن طويل".

اضاف:"ان فكرة انشاء مبادرات للانماء وهي جمعية غير حكومية لا تتوخى الربح، تأسست بعلم وخبر صادر عن وزارة الداخلية في 2006، راودتني منذ زمن طويل، اي قبل دخولي المجلس النيابي في انتخابات 2005, الا ان اهتماماتي الاكاديمية والبحثية، فضلا عن متابعتي لقضايا الشأن العام لا سيما على المستوى الوطني، حالت دون اهتمامي المباشر والمركز بقضايا الانماء في هذه المنطقة العزيزة. الا ان حاجات المنطقة ومراجعات الناس في شتى الشؤون الحياتية والخدماتية والانمائية وتشجيع عدد كبير من المهتمين من ابناء المنطقة باعتماد مقاربة جديدة للعمل في الشأن العام بشفافية وبتخطيط وبمثابرة، ساهمت في انجاز هذا المشروع ومن عناصره الحيوية الموقع الالكتروني للجمعية الذي نطلقه اليوم, في حضور اعضاء الجميعة والاصدقاء ووسائل الاعلام".

Lebanon festival still on the cards but fewer stars

adminJuly 28, 2007UncategorisedComments are off for this post

BEIRUT (AFP) – Lebanon’s Byblos Festival will still go ahead this weekend despite continuing political tensions and security worries in the country, the organisers said on Friday. The Mediterranean country’s usually vibrant cultural scene has been massively curtailed since last year’s devastating war

But in Byblos, the show will go on, albeit with fewer stars on the bill than originally planned."We have decided to go ahead with the festival, having considered cancelling it like the other festivals, because of the uncertain atmosphere," festival communications director Mona Hakim told AFP.Festivities kick off on Saturday with a concert by French rockers Nouvelle Vague in the ancient Phoenecian fortress of Jbail, 38 kilometres (24 miles) north of Beirut Italian tenor Alessandro Safina will give two recitals on August 2 and 3, while a Lebanese opera about Zenobie, the legendary queen of Palmyria, will be shown from August 15 to 19.