Bombing at an Iraqi army base in Baghdad kills 12

Just five days after the United States declared the end of its combat mission in Iraq, U.S. soldiers opened fire Sunday morning on suicide bombers who snuck into an Iraqi army base in Baghdad, a U.S. military spokesman said. (more…)

Constitutional Civil Rights In Lebanon

By Ghassan Karam

Although the idea of personal liberty and freedom has preoccupied humans for millennia the notion as we presently know it was best clarified by the work of John Stuart Mill and later on Isaiah Berlin

Tension eases after Hezbollah, Lebanon PM vowed to end political bickering

Political aide to Hezbollah chief Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, Hussein Khalil, has contacted Prime Minister Saad Hariri to thank him on behalf of Nasrallah for committing to calm rhetoric, local media reported Sunday.
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Aoun attacks Lebanon government & president

Free Patriotic Movement leader MP Michel Aoun attacked the government in a televised speech on Sunday and called for resignations of several ministers.

He also criticized president Michel Suleiman .

“For some time we have been telling the government that it is violating the law, but it is as if they are not listening.” (more…)

Lebanon DM heads to spain for talks over military cooperation

Lebanon Defense Minister Elias Murr headed to Spain at the official invitation of his Spanish counterpart for talks on military cooperation between the two countries and assistance to the Lebanese Army, National News Agency reported.

NNA said talks would also tackle U.N. Security Council Resolution 1701. (more…)

Most UAE banks stop money transfers to Iran

Most banks in the United Arab Emirates, an important trading partner for Iran, have stopped money transfers there after the latest round of sanctions on the Islamic republic, bankers said on Sunday.

A Dubai-based Iranian businessman said that the latest sanctions have halved trade with Dubai, an important re-export centre for Iranian goods. (more…)

March 8 wants UN to abolish STL

According to local reports , a March 8 delegation visited UN Special Coordinator for Lebanon Michael Williams’ office on Saturday and delivered a memorandum asking UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon to abolish the Special Tribunal for Lebanon (STL). (more…)

Shoes, eggs tossed at Blair in Dublin

Protesters hurled shoes and eggs Saturday at Tony Blair, who held the first public signing of his memoir amid high security in Ireland’s capital. Hundreds more people lined up to have their books autographed — evidence that the divisions left by Blair’s decade as British leader have yet to heal.

Blair’s new book, “A Journey,” is a best-seller, but it has angered opponents of his policies, especially the 2003 invasion of Iraq. (more…)

one Palestinian killed in Israel’s raid on Gaza

At least one Palestinian was killed and two injured in an Israeli airstrike on smuggling tunnels in southern Gaza along the border with Egypt, medical sources at the hospital in the border town of Rafah said.

The sources said at least one Palestinian was still missing. (more…)

Hariri Murder reenactment on Sept. 28 in France, report

A re-enactment of the 2005 Beirut assassination of Lebanese ex-prime minister Rafiq Hariri is to be staged in France later this month as part of a UN-backed probe into his murder, a source confirmed Saturday.

The exercise is to take place at a military base in southwestern France on September 28, said the source. (more…)