Spotlight
Prime Minister Najib Miqati stated on Tuesday that the developments in the region “are very complicated and exceptional,” noting that no one can predict their outcomes.
He said during a Ramadan gathering: “Lebanon cannot for one second support the violence and bloodshed. It’s only position should be against the Israeli enemy.”
Full StoryParliament failed to approve on Wednesday a draft law on electricity that was suggested by Free Patriotic Movement leader MP Michel Aoun.
The draft law allows Energy Minister Jebran Bassil to receive $1,200,000,000 to implement a project on producing 700 Megawatts of electricity.
Full StoryAs Syria's crackdown on protesters gets bloodier, it is having repercussions for one of Damascus' most crucial allies, eroding the reputation of Hizbullah.
At recent protests, Syrians demonstrating against President Bashar Assad have also unleashed their anger at Hizbullah over its blunt support for the regime. Some protesters have set fire to the yellow flag of Hizbullah and pictures of the group's leader, Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah.
Full StorySpecial Tribunal for Lebanon spokesman Martin Youssef said Lebanon is compelled by U.N. Security Council resolution 1757 to arrest the four suspects in ex-Premier Rafik Hariri’s murder and transfer them to The Hague.
Youssef told An Nahar daily published Wednesday that Tribunal President Judge Antonio Cassese will take his decision in the next few days on whether Lebanon has done enough in its search for the four suspects against whom the STL had issued arrest warrants.
Full StoryInvestigators probing the alleged smuggling of weapons from Lebanon to Syria have discovered that several suspects held in the case have previously carried out similar operations, As Safir newspaper reported on Wednesday.
The military prosecutor general charged during the weekend two Lebanese men with allegedly smuggling weapons from the Beirut Marina to Syria.
Full StoryGeneral Prosecutor Saeed Mirza has said the submission of a report to the Special Tribunal for Lebanon that none of the four people accused in ex-Premier Rafik Hariri’s murder have been detained doesn’t mean that the mission of Lebanese judicial authorities was over.
In remarks to al-Mustaqbal daily published Wednesday, Mirza said: “Our response to the tribunal doesn’t mean that our mission ended. There are international arrest warrants and red notices against these people.”
Full StoryLebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea advised former Premier Saad Hariri to remain abroad over security fears and described Progressive Socialist Party leader Walid Jumblat as Master Sergeant Hans Georg Schultz of an American TV sitcom.
Schultz was known in the Hogan's Heroes sitcom of simply looking the other way, repeating "I hear nothing, I see nothing, I know nothing!"
Full StoryThe cabinet session that is expected to be held on Thursday will be a standard meeting, as it is expected to be brief and followed by the Iftar held by President Michel Suleiman at Baabda Palace.
A governmental source told al-Liwaa newspaper on Wednesday that the appointments in public institutions will not be on the cabinet’s agenda anytime soon.
Full StoryA group of suspects arrested for having ties with the Fatah al-Islam terrorist network was released on Tuesday and several more will be set free in the next few days to reach their number to 16, An Nahar newspaper reported.
The daily said that three Lebanese – Khodr Merhi, Samir Daoud and Bilal al-Masri – arrived in the southern port city of Tripoli at around 8:30 pm Tuesday accompanied by their lawyer Osama Shaaban.
Full StoryDozens of residents of several Bekaa Valley towns staged a demonstration Tuesday after the evening Tarawih prayers at the Masnaa border crossing between Lebanon and Syria to “voice solidarity with the Syrian people and condemn the repression” of Syrian protesters at the hands of their country’s regime, Voice of Lebanon radio network (100.5) reported.
The demonstrators stood a few meters away from the border crossing, carrying banners and shouting slogans against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s regime, amid a heavy security deployment, the radio network said.
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