Hasan LakkisAntoine Ghattas Saab| The Daily Star BEIRUT: Free Patriotic Movement leader MP Michel Aoun will launch an initiative to help break the monthlong presidential deadlock, Education Minister Elias Bou Saab said Sunday, as chances of electing a president at this week’s Parliament session appeared to be slim. Maronite Patriarch Beshara Rai, meanwhile, was reported… اقرأ المزيد
At a farewell dinner for Israeli President Shimon Peres in Washington Wednesday night, several of the American guests appeared to approach him with tears in their eyes. This emotional display was a sign of Peres’ personal impact on the U.S.-Israel relationship, and the way his departure marks the passing of an era. Peres, at 90,… اقرأ المزيد
U.S. President Barack Obama’s latest request to Congress to provide $500 million in equipment and training to “appropriately vetted” moderate Syrian opposition forces will provoke lively debate on two issues: First, on whether this is too little, too late to influence events inside Syria; and second, what exactly defines a “moderate” opposition force. These are… اقرأ المزيد
Hussein Dakroub| The Daily Star BEIRUT: Security forces are still on the hunt for would-be suicide bombers along with two explosives-rigged vehicles, a security source said Friday. The Army, meanwhile, said that it had seized material used to make explosive belts during a raid in north Lebanon in the military’s latest crackdown on terror groups… اقرأ المزيد
BEIRUT: Hotels in Beirut’s touristic Raouche neighborhood were on lockdown Thursday, with managers upping security measures to reassure guests amid a continued search for potential suicide bombers. Just down the road from the Duroy Hotel, where a Saudi suicide bomber blew himself up in his room Wednesday evening to avoid being detained during a… اقرأ المزيد
A glimpse of the passionate loyalty inspired by Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the leader of the insurgent group known as the Islamic State of Iraq and Greater Syria, comes in a recent video made by a 20-year-old Muslim recruit from the British city of Cardiff, Wales. “We understand no borders,” says the young man, identified… اقرأ المزيد