Ambassador Kristie Kenney was elaborating on an “emergency message” sent by the embassy to American citizens earlier Friday warning of a possible terrorist attack.

Thailand’s deputy prime minister later said a Lebanese suspect had been detained and that police had stepped up security.

“A Lebanese suspect from the Hezbollah group has been taken into custody by Thai officials and police are investigating further,” Chalerm Yumbumrung told Reuters.

“Following concern raised by the Israeli embassy about a possible attack by a group of Lebanese terrorists in Bangkok, Thai police officials had been coordinating with Israeli officials since before the new year.”

Earlier, the US embassy warned its citizens that “foreign terrorists” may be looking to launch attacks in tourist areas of Thailand’s capital.

“U.S. citizens are urged to exercise caution when visiting public areas where large groups of Western tourists gather in Bangkok,” the embassy said in a statement. “We also encourage you to keep a low profile in public areas, particularly areas frequented by foreign tourists.”

It also said Americans should “maintain a heightened awareness” in public, be alert for unattended packages and bags and report any suspicious behavior to law enforcement personnel.

It was the first U.S. warning of a foreign terror attack in Bangkok in recent memory.

Bangkok, a magnet for tourists with its vibrant nightlife and a transit point for those heading for Thailand’s beaches, has faced political turmoil in recent years but threats of foreign attacks are rare.

Embassy spokesman Walter Braunohler declined to release more details saying, “At this time we don’t have any further information to share.”

MSNBC / REUTERS

In what a magistrate has called an ”act of great bravery”, the girl sought a court order to stop her parents taking her out of Australia to marry a man she has met only once.

The girl, who cannot be named, approached the Legal Aid Commission in Sydney after her parents organised the wedding despite her saying she did not want to marry the man.

In the Federal Magistrates Court yesterday, magistrate Joe Harman granted an ex parte application and placed the girl on the PACE Alert system at all points of departure from Australia to prevent her parents spiriting her out of the country.

Mr Harman praised the girl’s bravery in using the legal system to challenge her parents’ authority. The girl, given the pseudonym Ms Madley by the court, was fearful of her mother’s reaction once she found out about her application, he said.

He ordered her parents not to assault, harass, threaten or intimidate her, or question her about the proceedings. ”Her actions in approaching the Legal Aid Commission, let alone this court, might be perceived as disrespectful of her parents and disobedient of there will,” he said.

He said the girl had displayed maturity not only by taking legal action to protect herself, but also in challenging part of the Lebanese Islamic culture in which she was brought up. ”It is not the right of any parent to cause their child to be married against their will, whether in accordance with the Australian law or otherwise.”

He said there was a psychological risk to Ms Madley if he did not make orders preventing her being forced into marriage she did not want, which he described as ”a principle that is contrary to all our legal processes hold dear and which would indeed, under Australian law, render the marriage void, as it is absent genuine consent.”

However, he said he was not criticising any culture that had arranged marriages. ”The arrangements proposed should not be judged or criticised from a Western perspective, but must be viewed through the eyes of those who live and appreciate that culture,” he said.

smh

The acquisition by Societe Generale de Banque au Liban (SGBL) was prompted by a U.S. decision to ban LCB from dealing in dollars because of accusations it was involved in money laundering and drug trafficking.

Central Bank Governor Riad Salameh said in March LCB would be merged with SGBL, but finalisation of the acquisition was subject to a review of accounts, SGBL said on Thursday.

“This process aimed at ensuring the strict conformity of the acquired assets and liabilities with international standards and compliance rules of SGBL and Societe Generale,” it said, adding the purchase was “fully self-financed by SGBL”.

The acquisition raises SGBL’s assets to $11 billion, its total deposits to $8.6 billion and its loans to $3 billion. It will operate a total of 101 branches after taking over 35 branches of LCB, which had assets of over $5 billion at the end of last year.

SGBL did not say how much it paid for the acquisition, which it said covered “certain assets and liabilities of LCB”.

The U.S. Treasury Department designated LCB a “primary money-laundering concern” in February, saying it was involved in a money-laundering and drug-trafficking operation with ties to Shi’ite militant group Hezbollah.

The bank denied the charges and the Central Bank governor said LCB was well managed and complied with international laws on money laundering. A month later however he announced LCB would be merged with SGBL in a move which analysts said aimed to protect the reputation of Lebanon’s banking sector.

Reuters

Detectives are searching for the motive that led to the killing of a blind Lebanese imam inside a mosque in north London.

Maimoun Zarzour, 39, an imam at Muslim Welfare House in Finsbury Park, north London, was found dead in his office at the mosque on Friday morning .

Mosque officials believe Zarzour may have been strangled. Police and mosque officials said they did not think the killing was a hate crime.

Shortly after Zarzour’s body was found, a man gave himself up to police and is the prime suspect. He is believed to be Muslim, and to have asked for an appointment to see Zarzour after early morning prayers, suggesting that he was known at the mosque.

Muslim Welfare House is one of two mosques in the Finsbury Park area. It is moderate and orchestrated the ousting of the firebrand Abu Hamza, who is now in jail.

Worshippers at the mosque, which is known for reaching out to other faiths, had celebrated Eid on Tuesday, one of the biggest Muslim festivals of the year.

A former mosque trustee, Mohamad Kozbar, paid tribute to Zarzour. “He was a well known imam, humble and kind,” he said. “To be killed in this way is a crime, and the person or people who did this should be brought to justice.”

Abdul Abdi, the project manager for Muslim Welfare House, which runs the mosque, said: “It’s tough for the community. He was someone who was dedicated and worked more than his scheduled hours. He accepted anyone to his office at any time, even if it wasn’t a convenient time.

“He was friendly and a man who united the community in this area. During his short time here he became well known and respected.”

In a statement the Metropolitan police said: “Police were called by London ambulance service at 1021hrs on Friday 2 September to reports of a man seriously injured at an Islamic bookshop and welfare centre in Seven Sisters Road.

“Police officers attended. A man – believed to be aged in his 30s – was pronounced dead at the scene. We await formal identification and confirmation that next of kin have been informed. A postmortem examination is yet to be arranged.

“A man – age not known at this stage – was arrested at the scene on suspicion of murder.

“Islington police officers are investigating alongside colleagues from the homicide and serious crime command.”

Guardian

State television showed the video of Chavez arriving about 2 a.m. local time (2:30 EDT; 0630 GMT). The station didn’t air the video until a little after five hours later.

“I’m fine. I’m happy,” he said after stepping off the plane. “A perfect landing.”

He hugged his vice president, Elias Jaua, and his elder brother, Adan.

In a telephone interview later, the president told state television he was having breakfast. “I’m devouring everything,” Chavez said.

Chavez said he spent “very difficult days” in Cuba but that his recovery is going well. “It’s the beginning of my return!”

President Raul Castro saw him the Venezuelan on the tarmac as he departed during the night from Havana. From the door of the airplane, Chavez saluted, raised a fist, and then waved.

Chavez arrived a day before the 200th anniversary of Venezuela’s declaration of independence from Spain.

He had been in Cuba since June 8 for what ostensibly was a previously scheduled visit. Doctors said he underwent an initial surgery on June 11 to have a pelvic abscess removed and then a follow-up surgery to remove a cancerous “abscessed tumor” from his pelvic region.

Chavez announced the second surgery Thursday after 18 days out of sight. Neither he nor doctors gave details about what kind of cancer it is or what treatment he is receiving.

Jaua said he and others were “very excited to receive our president.”

“He’s going to rest for a while,” Jaua said.

He said that Chavez had plans to address his supporters from the balcony of the presidential palace later Monday.

AP

Photo: President Hugo Chavez with his Vice President Elias Jaua in a file photo. Jaua ( Hawa) who is of Lebanese origin met Chavez at the airport following his return from Cuba

German Foreign Ministry spokesperson Stefan Bredohl told AFP that “the German government has a great interest in returning Lebanese nationals charged with crimes to their country.”

Berlin has “given Lebanon’s representative a list of more than 200 people whose cases are considered dangerous and this list is currently being studied in Beirut,” he said. Now Lebanon

- MEA will now start a daily flight to Abidgan to pick up evacuees directly from the country
- Another MEA flight will head daily to Accra , Ghana to pick up the evacuees that were transferred from Abidjan to Accra
- 2 charter planes ( one with a capacity of 50 passengers and another with a capacity of 75 passengers ) will be shuttling twice daily between Accra and and Abidjan to pick up passengers from Abidjan and position them in Accra for eventual transfer to Lebanon .

Both Qatar and Iran have offered to help in evacuating the Lebanese , but so far no action has been taking by either country

The Lebanese expatriates in Côte d’Ivoire reportedly came under threat after Lebanon’s ambassador Ali Ajami meddled in the internal affairs of the country by attending the swearing-in ceremony of Laurent Gbagbo, the controversial strongman who has refused to step down despite rival Alassane Ouattara being internationally recognized as having won the country’s elections.

Ajami is reportedly very closely associated with Hezbollah .
There are over 70, 000 Lebanese living in the Ivory coast , mostly from south Lebanon

Caretaker PM Saad Hariri who worked out the agreement with MEA for direct flights to Abidjan addressed the situation of the Lebanese expatriates in Ivory Coast (Côte d’Ivoire) last week:

“We have been exerting efforts, together with Lebanon’s friends, to rescue our people in Ivory Coast from the consequences of the foolish political decisions taken without the State’s consent.”

He was referring to Ajami’s siding with Gbagbo, a decision reportedly taken by Hezbollah and Iran, without the approval of the Lebanese government

MEA has been transporting Lebanese expatriates fleeing the violence in Ivory Coast from Accra to Beirut

A MEA flight from Accra landed in Beirut on Saturday carrying on board 277 Lebanese expatriates fleeing the Ivory Coast.

The Lebanese expatriates in Côte d’Ivoire reportedly came under threat after Lebanon’s ambassador meddled in the internal affairs of the country by attending the swearing-in ceremony of Laurent Gbagbo, the controversial strongman who has refused to step down despite rival Alassane Ouattara being internationally recognized as having won the country’s elections.

Editors at the paper said they had last been in touch with the journalists Tuesday morning, U.S. Eastern time, according to the report. It said the newspaper received secondhand information that “members of its reporting team on the ground in the port city of Ajdabiya had been swept up by Libyan government forces.”

However, the newspaper has been unable to confirm those reports, Executive Editor Bill Keller said on the newspaper’s website.

“We have talked with officials of the Libyan government in Tripoli, and they tell us they are attempting to ascertain the whereabouts of our journalists,” Keller said. “We are grateful to the Libyan government for their assurance that if our journalists were captured they would be released promptly and unharmed.”

A battle raged Wednesday in Ajdabiya between government troops and rebels.

Bob Christie, senior vice president for corporate communications at The New York Times Co., said Wednesday that the Libyan government told the newspaper it was unaware of the journalists’ whereabouts.

“They’ve told us they have a lot of prisoners and that they’re processing them” and suggested that the four could turn up in that process, Christie said.

Libyan government forces said Wednesday that they have no information about where the journalists may be and that, if they were picked up by the Libyan military, they would be returned to Tripoli.

The newspaper identified the journalists as Shadid, its bureau chief in Beirut, Lebanon, and two-time Pulitzer winner for foreign reporting; Stephen Farrell, a reporter and videographer who was kidnapped by the Taliban and rescued by British commandos in 2009; and Tyler Hicks and Addario, photographers who have covered the Middle East and Africa.

“Their families and their colleagues at The Times are anxiously seeking information about their situation, and praying that they are safe,” Keller said.

Addario, a freelancer based in India, recently won a MacArthur Fellowship — known as a “genius grant” — for her photography around the world. In an e-mail Monday to CNN correspondent Ivan Watson, Addario called the Libya story “one of the most dangerous” of her career.

The e-mail said, “qaddafi’s forces heading back east, and the rebels are surrendering along the way…so exhausted. this story has been one of the most dangerous i have ever covered. getting bombed from the air and by land.”

Shadid was shot in the shoulder by the Israeli Army in Ramallah in spring 2002.

Farrell routinely reports from Pakistan, Afghanistan and Iraq. Before joining The New York Times in 2007, he worked for the Times of London. In April 2004, he was kidnapped on assignment in Iraq.

Hicks, a staffer for the paper, is based in Istanbul and has served as an embed in Afghanistan.

In a 2004 interview with the StarNews of Wilmington, North Carolina, Hicks described how he felt about his job: “Covering conflicts is a very rewarding experience because you can bring attention to global issues. When I’m working and a photograph appears in The New York Times, I always remind myself of who is seeing that photograph” and the number of people it may have reached, he said. “That is when I can go to bed at night and feel good about what I have done that day.”

Hicks and Addario are both from Westport, Connecticut.
CNN

Mikati 55, and his brother Taha, 62, who founded M1 Group, and is also ranked at 409th with the same net worth, moved down from 374th last year.

In 1982, Najib and Taha founded Investcom, a telecommunications company that operated in emerging markets. The company was bought by MTN Group Ltd. (MTN), Africa’s largest mobile-phone company, in 2006 for $5.5 billion.

M1 Group’s holdings include Geneva-based Baboo airline, French retailer Faconnable, Avante Petroleum, an exploration and production company and a stake in Bank Audi SAL-Audi Saradar Group, Lebanon’s largest lender by assets.

Bahaa Hariri, the eldest son of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafiq Hariri who was assassinated in 2005, was ranked as the 459th richest person in the world with a fortune of $2.5 billion.

Hariri moved down from 316th place last year when his net worth was $3 billion. The 44-year-old Boston University graduate left the family owned Saudi Oger Ltd., a construction, utility and telecommunications company to run his own property business. He became the first member of his family to break with 33-year- old Saudi Oger, which was founded by his father and has built hotels, hospitals, power plants, military compounds and most of the Saudi Royal family’s palaces.

New Company

Hariri’s new company, Horizon Development Group, focuses on real estate in Jordan, Lebanon and Saudi Arabia. The company is in partnership with Jordan’s government-owned real-estate developer to build a downtown neighborhood called Al-Abdali in Amman valued at more than $3 billion.

Hariri’s younger brother, caretaker Prime Minister Saad Hariri, 40, was ranked 595th with a net worth of $2 billion, down from 536th place, although his net worth rose from $1.9 billion in 2010. Saad also runs the Riyadh-based Saudi Oger.

Mexico’s Carlos Slim, 71, who is of Lebanese descent, remained the world’s richest person for a second year with estimated assets of $74 billion, according to Forbes magazine’s annual global ranking of billionaires. Bloomberg