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Lebanon Suspends Flights Over Mediterranean Due to Russian Drills

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1029690477All existing air corridors for civilian aircraft over Lebanon will be closed for the three consecutive days from Friday night due to the Russian naval drills in the Mediterranean, a source in the airport of Beirut said.

BEIRUT (Sputnik) — Earlier on Friday, Lebanese Transport Minister Ghazi Zeaiter said Lebanon was unable to satisfy Moscow’s request to reroute civilian aircraft flying over a coastal region over the three-day Russian military drills planned in the Mediterranean, as the country’s civil aviation had no alternative routes.

“Tonight and until Monday we will close the airspace over the Mediterranean Sea, where there are three Lebanese air corridors. It was decided to open a previously not used corridor along the border with Israel. Only this corridor could be used in such conditions…,” the source told RIA Novosti.

Multiple cancellations and delays to flights to and from Beirut are expected in this regard, the source added.

According to Zeaiter, Russia has notified authorities of Lebanon, Turkey and Cyprus that its navy would begin exercises in the Mediterranean Sea at midnight on Friday. Russian officials have not commented on the issue yet.

Lebanon charges Saudi prince with drug trafficking

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Saudi-LibanonA Saudi prince, who was arrested with two tonnes of amphetamines in Lebanon’s capital Beirut, has been charged with drug trafficking, a judicial source says.

The judicial source told AFP on Monday that Lebanese authorities “charged 10 people, including five arrested individuals — a Saudi prince and four Saudi nationals… with smuggling and selling the drug Captagon.”

The source also noted that the other five individuals are from Lebanon and Saudi Arabia and are still at large.

Saudi prince Abdel Mohsen Bin Walid Bin Abdulaziz Al Saud was arrested with four others at the Rafik Hariri International Airport in the Lebanese capital, Beirut, on October 26, after security officials found  two tonnes of pills branded as Captagon, which were due to be loaded onto a private jet.

The drugs were packed in 40 suitcases and the plane was to head to the Saudi capital, Riyadh.

The judicial source also said that the case was sent to an investigative judge.

The Lebanese officials said they managed to foil the largest drug smuggling operation in Lebanon’s history.

The confiscated drugs are of the type mainly used by Takfiri militants in Syria.

Some other members of Saudi royal family have also faced legal problems in other countries, though they managed to escape prosecutions.

In September, Saudi prince Majed Abdulaziz Al-Saud was arrested at a compound near Beverly Hills in Los Angles on accusation of trying to force a worker to perform a sex act.

The 28-year-old Saudi prince, however, was freed later on a USD 300,000 bail. The US authorities later said they would not pursue the charge due to a lack of evidence.

Also in September, Saudi diplomat Majed Hassan Ashoor sparked outrage by leaving India without facing justice over alleged sex crimes. He was accused of involvement in the rape, assault, torture and starvation of two Nepalese women held captive for over three months.

In 2013, a Saudi princess was also accused of enslaving a Kenyan woman as a housemaid in her house in Los Angeles. Her charges were later dropped.

Source: presstv

Armenia ready to send more troops to help the United Nations in Lebanon

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arton115440-480x270Armenia is ready to increase the number of its soldiers serving in the mission of the United Nations peacekeeping in Lebanon, announced yesterday Ohanian, the defense minister. The mission is led at present by the Italian army.
Ohanian has offered the deployment of additional troops at a meeting with the Italian Ambassador to Armenia, Giovanni Ricciulli and his military attaché based in Moscow, Brigadier General Massimo Fogari. In a statement

Lebanon PM country faces a political crisis and that there is no money to pay the salaries

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Protests show now sign of subsiding

Protests show now sign of subsiding

Lebanese PM Tammam Salam has promised to take action against police who used force to disperse demonstrations against piles of uncollected rubbish.

He has warned that the country faces a political crisis and that there is no money to pay the salaries of a large number of public sector employees.

Police again fired water cannon at protesters in Beirut on Sunday after dozens were wounded on Saturday.

Lebanon does not have a president and parliament remains in a stalemate. report BBC

Saturday’s protest was attended by thousands and the biggest to date over uncollected rubbish.

Mr Salam said that those security forces guilty of injuring demonstrators would be held accountable.

He told a news conference on Sunday that the right to demonstrate was protected by the constitution.

On Saturday police fired tear gas, rubber bullets and water cannon against thousands of protesters in downtown Beirut. Gunfire echoed through the streets into the night.

At the same time Mr Salam has warned that the lack of a parliament may preclude the government from selling bonds, affecting the country’s credit rating.

“The garbage crisis is what broke the camel’s back, but the story is much bigger than this,” Mr Salam was quoted by Bloomberg as saying.

“Did you know that because of the failure to take decisions, we may not be able to pay the salaries of a large number of public sector employees?”

He warned that Lebanon’s inability to service the public debt through bond sales could result in the country’s credit rating falling down to the ranks of the “failed states”.

Protesters blame political paralysis and corruption for the failure to resolve the rubbish crisis.

It started after the closure of Beirut’s main landfill site last month, and has spread to other parts of the country.

In recent weeks – during hot summer weather – piles of rubbish have grown so large that some residents resorted to burning rubbish on the streets, releasing toxic fumes.

Lebanon has been without a president for more than 450 days.

MPs have been unable to decide on a president, a mainly ceremonial role, reserved for a Christian in a sectarian power-sharing system.

They have extended their own terms twice, dismissing calls for elections and legitimate representation.

 

Israel bombs Lebanon to destroy own downed drone – reports

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FILE PHOTO: An Israeli drone (Reuters / Ronen Zvulun)

FILE PHOTO: An Israeli drone (Reuters / Ronen Zvulun)

A blast has been reported near the town of Saghbein in a remote area of Lebanon’s western Bekaa, sources told agencies. Hezbollah-run Al Manar TV said, an Israeli drone was downed in the area and the airstrike was Israel’s attempt to destroy it.

A Lebanese security source told Reuters that the cause of the blast “is still not 100 percent clear but most probably it was an Israeli airstrike to destroy their drone.”


No comment has so far been issued by Israeli authorities.
Last year, Israel remotely detonated a surveillance device in Lebanon, the blast killing one member of Hezbollah. The device was concealed to look like a rock, but was nevertheless discovered, which prompted the demolition. The group responded by blowing up a bomb near the Israeli border, wounding two soldiers.

Israel is believed to have delivered several air strikes in neighboring Syria since the start of the civil conflict there. Those mostly targeted weaponry that Israeli sources said were destined for Lebanon’s Shiite militia Hezbollah. Hezbollah and Israel fought a 34-day war in 2006 in which hundreds of people were killed.

April 24 declared a non-working day for Lebanon schools

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Lebanon-dayOn the occasion of the 100th anniversary of Armenian Genocide, Friday, April 24—the day of the Genocide centennial—is declared a non-working day in all schools in Lebanon.

The Lebanese Minister of Education and Higher Education, Elias Bou Saab, stated the aforesaid at the consecration ceremony of an Armenian cross-stone at the yard of an Armenian school in the country, reported Tayyar.org reported.

In the minister’s words, all public and private schools in Lebanon will be closed in commemoration of the one hundred-year-old tragic events.

Libanon: Armenian Protesters Trap Turkish Ambassador in Beirut Theater

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Turkey’s Ambassador to Lebanon, Suleiman Inan Oz Yildiz, inside. (Photo: AYF Lebanon)

Turkey’s Ambassador to Lebanon, Suleiman Inan Oz Yildiz, inside. (Photo: AYF Lebanon)

BEIRUT, Lebanon (A.W.)—Turkey’s Ambassador to Lebanon, Suleiman Inan Oz Yildiz, was temporarily trapped today inside a Beirut movie theater, as Armenian demonstrators held a protest outside, reported the Lebanese Daily Star newspaper.

Approximately 60 members of the Armenian Youth Federation of Lebanon and the Zavarian Student Association held a demonstration at the entrance of ABC Grand Cinema in Ashrafieh, where Yildiz was attending a screening of “Son Mektup.” The film, a Turkish love story, is set during the Battle of Gallipoli, and tells the story of the Ottoman Empire’s first pilot, Salih Ekrem.

According to the report, protestors yelled out slogans such as “Genocide,” “Truth will triumph” and “We remember,” and held banners reading “Recognize the crime of the century.” Security forces were brought in to block the entrance of the theater to prevent patrons from clashing with protesters.

The protest was organized as a result of Turkey’s efforts to sway public attention away from the anniversary of the Armenian Genocide by focusing on the Battle of Gallipoli.

Earlier this year, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan sent official invitations to more than 100 world leaders, including Armenian President Serge Sarkisian, to take part in the ceremonies. The date designated for these commemoration events—April 24—created uproar among Armenians worldwide, while Turkish human rights groups urged world leaders to boycott the Gallipoli events.

On Jan. 16, Sarkisian responded to Erdogan’s invitation to Turkey in a strongly worded letter. “Turkey continues its conventional denial policy and is perfecting its instrumentation for distorting history. This time, Turkey is marking the 100th anniversary of the Battle of Gallipoli on April 24, even though the battle began on March 18, 1915 and lasted until late January 1916, while the Allies’ operation started on April 25,” he wrote, adding, “What is the purpose [of this] if not to distract the world’s attention from the 100th anniversary of the Armenian Genocide?”

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Lena Kelekian takes Olympic art trophy for Lebanon

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Jimmy Dabbagh| The Daily Star
Lena Kelekian takes Olympic art trophy

Lena Kelekian takes Olympic art trophy

BEIRUT: Olympic trophies are typically associated with outstanding excellence in a particular sport. Unbeknown to many people, however, it is possible for one to receive an Olympic trophy for excellence in the arts. Since 1985, International Olympic Committee trophies have been awarded to a person or institution for achievements in a particular nonsporting field. The executive board selects a different theme each year, choosing “artistic expression” for 2014. The IOC delegated the Lebanese Olympic Committee to select one artist to receive the trophy for Lebanon.

“It was really very exciting for me to be awarded by my countrymen,” winning artist Lena Kelekian told The Daily Star after receiving the Olympic Trophy for “Art and Sport” from the Lebanese Olympic Committee Friday in a ceremony at the Hotel Padova in Sin al-Fil.

“I have three different styles that I work on. One is the abstract style, [which is] very colorful, the second one is ceramic work, which I do all over the city, such as the benches in Ain al-Mreisseh … and the third is my iconography, [which includes] the painting of icons and the restoration of icons.”

Kelekian is no stranger when it comes to recognition and accolades from the International Olympic Committee. Describing herself as the only artist from the Arab world to have received two gold medals in Olympic fine arts, she was awarded a 2008 Beijing Olympics gold medal and Olympic Torch for Olympic fine arts for work displayed in an exhibition organized by the IOC and affiliated with the sporting event, and another for the 2012 London Olympics, at which her husband, architect Hagop Sulahian, also won a gold medal for his artwork.

Kelekian is president of the Olympia Fine Arts Association, formed following the 2008 Olympics in Beijing by a group of the participating artists, all of whom had received an Olympic fine art medal. Kelekian stressed that the organization, described as “a self-governing and totally independent international society of artists,” was not related to the Lebanese Olympic Committee.

Hassan Rustom, secretary-general of the Lebanese Olympic Committee, explained that 2014 marked the first time that the organization has awarded a trophy for art. Rustom told The Daily Star that there were four contenders in the running for the trophy, adding that the executive board decided on Kelekian thanks to “her amazing CV.” The artist’s track record in previous Olympic games was one of the factors that merited her eligibility for the trophy.

Kelekian also hopes to take part in the exhibition affiliated with the Olympics in Rio next year. “It is a very difficult competition, and only seven of the Beijing Olympic artists were selected to be in the Olympics in London,” she explains. “There are seven committees that [have to approve your work] as an artist, if you are eligible and you send your work to be selected.”

Kelekian and the other artists hoping to take part in the 2016 Olympic exhibition are still waiting to hear back regarding this year’s selection, which is initially decided by the LOC before being submitted to the IOC.

“The selection has nothing to do with the previous Olympics,” she clarified. “We are hoping to receive an email that we are eligible to be in the competition for Rio, but until now we don’t know if we are going to receive that email.”

A version of this article appeared in the print edition of The Daily Star on March 17, 2015, on page 16.

Lebanon Army confirms arrest of key ISIS commander

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Lebanese soldiers are seen during raids in the Bekaa Valley,

Lebanese soldiers are seen during raids in the Bekaa Valley,

BEIRUT: A Syrian suspect who was being treated at a Bekaa Valley hospital for wounds sustained in recent clashes with the Lebanese Army in Ras Baalbek has emerged as a key ISIS commander, a Lebanese Army statement said Friday.

The statement said Hasan Ghorli, nicknamed Abu Hareth al-Ansari, “is one of the most dangerous detained terrorists.”

Ghorli was arrested March 3 for his role in the August battle against the Lebanese Army on the outskirts of the northeastern border town of Arsal and the Feb. 23 attack on an Army post in Talet al-Hamra on the outskirts of Ras Baalbek, which left him wounded after soldiers repelled the militants, according to the statement. report The Daily Star

The Army said Ghorli confessed he belonged to ISIS and that he had headed an armed group that pledged allegiance to ISIS in July 2014 and made a decision to attack military positions following the arrest of Imad Jomaa.

During interrogation, Ghorli also admitted that he would take the place of other guards protecting the kidnapped Lebanese servicemen and moving them from one place to another.

He also witnessed the murder of Lebanese Corp. Ali al-Ali and revealed the identity the ISIS militant who beheaded soldiers Ali al-Sayyed and Abbas Medlej, the statement added.

The Army said Ghorli had been referred to judicial authorities for further interrogation.

Conflicting reports had emerged Thursday over Ghorli’s arrest.

A Security source told The Daily Star Ghorli had been admitted to Al-Manara Hospital in Hasbaya, west Bekaa, about 10 days ago.

State-run National News Agency said Ghorli was arrested by a local police investigation unit, but did not say whether he had been placed under arrest at Al-Manara Hospital or moved to a police-protected wing at another hospital.

However, a Syrian rebel source told The Daily Star that Ghorli, a Syrian national, is a member of the Nusra Front, not ISIS.

The source said Ghorli was critically wounded in the head on Feb. 23 during clashes that broke out between ISIS and Nusra Front militants on the outskirts of Ras Baalbek.

Ghorli was first smuggled to the underdeveloped Hamed Farhat Hospital in the west Bekaa town of Kamed al-Loz before being moved to the more advanced Al-Manar Hospital, according to the source.

– See more at: http://www.dailystar.com.lb/News/Lebanon-News/2015/Mar-06/289870-lebanon-army-confirms-arrest-of-key-isis-commander.ashx?utm_medium=email&utm_source=transactional&utm_campaign=Newsletter#sthash.ZldoJIF6.dpuf