Spotlight
The family of Saudi national Majed al-Majed, the chief of a Qaida-linked group who died Saturday in Lebanon, has submitted a request to the Saudi foreign ministry for the repatriation of his body, Saudi Ambassador to Lebanon Ali Awad Asiri announced Sunday.
"The kingdom has not asked for an autopsy," Asiri added in an interview with LBCI television.
Full StoryState Commissioner to the Military Court Judge Saqr Saqr ordered on Saturday handing over the human remains of suicide bomber Qutaiba al-Satem to his family in the northern city of Akkar.
MTV noted that heavy gunfire shots were heard in Tripoli as Satem's remains arrived in the northern city.
Full StorySeveral people were injured on Saturday as clashes took place in the northern city of Tripoli and sniper activity was registered between the rival neighborhoods of Jabal Mohsen and Bab al-Tabbaneh.
"Seven people were wounded in Bab al-Tabbaneh and (Tripoli's) Hara Barranieh,” LBCI television reported.
Full StoryThe al-Qaida-affiliated Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant on Saturday claimed credit for the deadly bombing in the Beirut southern suburb of Haret Hreik.
ISIL managed to penetrate the "security system of the Party of Satan (Hizbullah)... and crush its strongholds... in a first small payment from the heavy account that is awaiting those wicked criminals," according to a statement obtained by U.S.-based SITE Intelligence Group.
Full StorySeveral northern leaders condemned on Saturday the torching of Father Ibrahim Sarrouj's historical library in the northern city of Tripoli, considering that this act does not conform to the teachings of Islam.
Hundreds of civil society members also took to the streets of Tripoli to protest the torching of a decades-old library owned by the Greek Orthodox priest.
Full StoryThe anti-drug bureau in the Bekaa arrested on Thursday four Lebanese and two Syrians on drug dealing charges, reported the National News Agency on Saturday.
It said that the security forces arrested in their possession an electrical captagon pill-producing machine.
Full StoryThe army announced on Saturday the death of Majed al-Majed, the “emir” of the al-Qaida-linked Abdullah Azzam Brigades, after the deterioration of his health.
The Army Command said in a statement that he died while he was being treated at the central military hospital.
Full StoryThe United States supports the formation of a new government in Lebanon, but it also sets as a priority the preservation of stability in Lebanon, As Safir newspaper on Saturday.
It also opposes any measure that may jeopardize Lebanon's stability, U.S. Ambassador David Hale told President Michel Suleiman during a meeting they held away from the media spotlight between Christmas and New Year's eve.
Full StorySpeaker Nabih Berri and Progressive Socialist Party leader MP Walid Jumblat stressed the importance of forming a “consensual government” in order to avert any political conflicts, reported various media outlets on Saturday.
The two officials have warned against the formation of a neutral cabinet, “which will have catastrophic repercussions on Lebanon,” As Safir newspaper quoted Jumblat as telling Suleiman during a meeting earlier this week.
Full StoryLebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea stressed that political assassinations will fail in coercing the March 14 camp to back down from its positions on dialogue and the formation of a new government, reported al-Joumhouria newspaper on Saturday.
He told the daily: “We will not sign any constitutional concession regardless of the cost.”
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