LCCC ENGLISH DAILY NEWS BULLETIN
January 26/2010

Bible Of the Day
Matthew 6/5-18: "When you pray, you shall not be as the hypocrites, for they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and in the corners of the streets, that they may be seen by men. Most certainly, I tell you, they have received their reward. 6:6 But you, when you pray, enter into your inner room, and having shut your door, pray to your Father who is in secret, and your Father who sees in secret will reward you openly. 6:7 In praying, don’t use vain repetitions, as the Gentiles do; for they think that they will be heard for their much speaking. 6:8 Therefore don’t be like them, for your Father knows what things you need, before you ask him. 6:9 Pray like this: ‘Our Father in heaven, may your name be kept holy. 6:10 Let your Kingdom come. Let your will be done, as in heaven, so on earth. 6:11 Give us today our daily bread. 6:12 Forgive us our debts, as we also forgive our debtors. 6:13 Bring us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one. For yours is the Kingdom, the power, and the glory forever. Amen.’ 6:14 “For if you forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. 6:15 But if you don’t forgive men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses. 6:16 “Moreover when you fast, don’t be like the hypocrites, with sad faces. For they disfigure their faces, that they may be seen by men to be fasting. Most certainly I tell you, they have received their reward. 6:17 But you, when you fast, anoint your head, and wash your face; 6:18 so that you are not seen by men to be fasting, but by your Father who is in secret, and your Father, who sees in secret, will reward you"

Free Opinions, Releases, letters & Special Reports
Could rap save Yemen from terrorism? By Mira Baz/January 25/10
The Egypt-Hamas standoff in Gaza: a view from Israel/By Shlomo Brom/January 25/10

Latest News Reports From Miscellaneous Sources for January 25/10
Murr Rules Out Sabotage Act in Plane Disaster/Naharnet
Massive International Task Force, Including U.S. 6th Fleet, in Search for Plane Crash Survivors/Naharnet
20 Bodies Recovered as Hope Diminishes to Find Any Survivors from Plane Crash Disaster/Naharnet
Names of Passengers Released from Ethiopian Plane Crash/Naharnet
Bodies Recovered, No Survivors Likely from Ethiopian Plane Crash/Naharnet
Report: Ethiopian airliner believed crashed off Lebanon/CNN
Suleiman Puts All Rescue Units on Alert, Hariri Declares Monday Day of Mourning/Naharnet
Parliamentary Session Postponed After 'National Disaster'/Naharnet
Educational Institutions Closed after Plane Crash/Naharnet
Ethiopian Airlines Sends Team to Investigate Plane Crash/Naharnet
Iraq says Saddam's cousin 'Chemical Ali' executed/The Canadian Press
Parliamentary Meeting Saves MP from Ethiopian Plane Crash/Naharnet
Qassem: We Don't Need Assurances on Behalf of Israel, Our Weapons Give Us Confidence/Naharnet
Obama's envoy urges Syria, Lebanon to join Mideast talks/Ha'aretz
Israel plays down talk of attacking Lebanon/Daily Star
GOC Northern Command plays down border tensions: Talk of confrontation with with Lebanon is 'virtual,' not real /Ha'aretz
Ahmadinejad hints Iran resolved to make 20 percent nuclear fuel/AFP
Syria's Assad holds talks with Libyan leader/Daily Star
Mubarak defends Gaza barrier, vows to quash militant groups/Daily Star
HRW slams acquittal of UAE leader's brother in torture case/AFP
Rabbi wants to buy Libyan estate in US for learning center/Daily Star
Hobeika's son: We hope years of hate are behind US/Daily Star
Unprecedented building boom reshapes heart of Beirut/Daily Star
Sfeir urges faithful to make donations to Haiti/Daily Star
Opposition wins Sidon Chamber by default/Daily Star

Bodies Recovered, No Survivors Likely from Ethiopian Plane Crash
Naharnet/An Ethiopian aircraft carrying 90 passengers and crew, including 54 Lebanese, crashed into the Mediterranean sea off Lebanon in a fireball just after takeoff in stormy weather early Monday. It was unclear whether there were any survivors. Helicopters and navy vessels could be seen at the crash site and Aridi said several bodies had been recovered.
Rescue teams said at least 10 bodies have been recovered.
Aridi said Ethiopian Airlines Flight 409 lost contact with the airport control tower shortly after takeoff and crashed into the Mediterranean sea about 12 kilometers (seven miles) south of the airport. "The control tower was assisting the pilot of the plane on takeoff and suddenly lost contact for no known reason," Aridi told reporters.
He identified the crash site as being about 3.5 kilometers (two miles) off the coastal village of Naameh.
Families of the passengers, some of them weeping, could be seen huddled at the VIP lounge of Beirut International Airport while awaiting news of their loved ones.
One woman was sobbing and screaming, "Why, why?"
A government official said there were several children on board the plane, which crashed about five minutes after takeoff at 2:30 am (1230 GMT).
Witnesses reported seeing a ball of fire as the Boeing 737 plunged into the sea.
The accident took place amid heavy rains and storms in Lebanon in the past two days that have caused heavy flooding and damage in some parts of the country.
Aridi said the passengers include 54 Lebanese, 22 Ethiopians, one Iraqi, one French woman, one Syrian and seven crew members. There were also several dual nationals including two British-Lebanese, one Canadian-Lebanese and a Russian-Lebanese.
Thousands of Ethiopians are employed as domestic workers in Lebanon and Ethiopian Airlines operates a regular flight between Addis Ababa and Beirut.
Among the missing Lebanese were two children aged three and four years.
Wife of France's ambassador to Lebanon, Marla Sanchez Pietton, who was on board the plane was feared dead.
Aridi said he had formed an investigative committee to determine the cause of the crash and had contacted nearby countries to assist in the search and rescue effort.
The Lebanese army, navy as well as the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) were assisting in the rescue, Aridi added.
"We have contacted everyone, inside and outside the country, that can assist us and the Lebanese navy, the army and UNIFIL have joined in the rescue," the minister added.
He said the French organization responsible for technical investigation of civil aviation accidents was taking part in the probe.
A government official said Cyprus was assisting in the search and rescue efforts. He said a U.N. helicopter from Cyprus was dispatched to the site.
A German naval UNIFIL boat was also at the site.
The Boeing 737-800, which entered into commercial service in 1998, is one of the latest versions of the world's most widely used short to medium-haul airliners, and is capable of carrying up to 189 passengers. The accident comes just one month after a Panamian-flagged ship transporting livestock capsized in stormy weather and sank off the coast of northern Lebanon with around 80 sailors on board. The majority of the sailors were rescued but 26 were unaccounted for and presumed dead. A Royal Air Maroc flight bound for Casablanca was also cancelled Sunday afternoon. A traveler on board the plane told Naharnet that passengers were told in the middle of the runway at Beirut airport that there is a technical problem and that "we must go home."(AFP-Naharnet)

Parliamentary Session Postponed After 'National Disaster'
Naharnet/A parliamentary session scheduled for Monday was postponed after Prime Minister Saad Hariri declared a mourning period for the Ethiopian plane crash victims.
"Lebanon was shocked today from a national disaster that took the lives of scores of people from around Lebanon," Berri's office said in a statement. "Because of this painful national tragedy," the speaker "announces the closure of parliament in mourning" of the victims "and postponement of the parliamentary session that was scheduled for today," the statement added. The controversial session was aimed at discussing a draft law on lowering voting age from 21 to 18. Media reports had said that the parliamentary meeting was headed for postponement due to lack of quorum. The amendment of article 21 of the constitution requires two-thirds of votes. Beirut, 25 Jan 10, 10:01

Israel 'Making Every Effort to Avoid War' as Ayalon Says Hizbullah Testing Antiaircraft Missiles
Naharnet/Israeli Deputy Defense Minister Matan Vilnai said on Sunday that while Israel faced military threats from all sides, it has strategically chosen to make every effort to avoid entering in armed conflict with its enemies. Vilnai said that Israel had its eyes on Hizbullah, which it believes is rearming in violation of U.N. Security Council resolution 1701. Meanwhile, Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon on Sunday told U.N. Special Coordinator for Lebanon Michael Williams that Israel viewed the alleged flow of weapons from Iran and Syria to Hizbullah as the greatest threat to the northern border. Israeli media said Ayalon warned Williams that Hizbullah fighters were training in Syria and the Shiite party was receiving supplies of advanced antiaircraft missile systems. The Israeli official also told Williams that Hizbullah fighters were testing surface-to-surface missile systems in Syria. He also asked that the next U.N. report on Lebanon mention the training of Hizbullah militants and their rearmament, as well as other serious cases in which Hizbullah weapons were discovered in the country.
Beirut, 25 Jan 10, 08:00

Qassem: We Don't Need Assurances on Behalf of Israel, Our Weapons Give Us Confidence
Naharnet/Hizbullah deputy chief Sheikh Naim Qassem said Sunday in apparent response to French President Nicolas Sarkozy that Hizbullah does not need assurances on behalf of Israel, stressing that the group's weapons and readiness give them confidence. Qassem was surprised "by those who give assurances to Lebanon when they do not have the power to curtail Israel."
"We don't need to be assured by anyone on behalf of Israel. What is reassuring is our weapons and readiness," Qassem said in remarks published by state-run National News Agency.
"If Israel wants to do something it is fully aware of the level of response," he warned. "This is what reassures us and nothing else matters." Qassem was apparently responding to comments made by Sarkozy during Prime Minister Saad Hariri's trip to Paris earlier this week. "France vows to try to prevent Israel from bombarding the basic infrastructure of Lebanon, but not more than that," Sarkozy reportedly told Hariri and the accompanying delegation. He stressed the need to "control the internal Lebanese situation and prevent any provocations."
In response to Hariri's concerns over a possible Israeli attack on Lebanon, Sarkozy said: "Lebanon can depend on France's friendship and support." Beirut, 24 Jan 10, 18:41

Phares to al Arabiya: US Bill on Anti Terror TV
Written by Al Arabiya .
Saturday, 23 January 2010
US Congressional bill on al Manar and al Quds TV aims at stopping the industry of Terror
In an interview with al Arabiya TV, Professor Walid Phares said "the bill proposed in the US Congress (by Rep Gus Bilirakis and co-sponsored by Reps Joseph Crowley and Ileana Ros-Lehtinen), on "anti-American incitement to violence in the Middle East" aim at the production of incitement to violence not at the ideas and concepts debated on the airwaves." Phares, an advisor to the Anti-Terrorism Caucus at the US House of Representatives told al Arabiya that the main difference is between the words "information" and "incitement." He said: "America doesn't worry about criticism but is rightly concerned about the production of material aimed at causing acts of terror and violence."
Phares, the Director of the Future Terrorism Project at the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies in Washington appears frequently in the Arab media and specializes in the political cultures and the ideologies of the region. "From a US perspective, a propaganda arm of a Terrorist entity is part of the organization and participates in the production of terror. But even more important if a media organization is airing press releases and calls for violence by other entities, it does not fall automatically under the notion of Terror facilitator, even though it could evolve into a radicalizing factor. But it is specifically when the management of a media entity is sponsoring the production of Terror material and incitement to violence, that the organization is defined as Terror facilitator."
Phares said "there is a battle in the Arab media space to define what the United States is doing with obviously the forces of Terror pushing for their definition to win." Asked what should be the US position of Lebanese authorities would shut down al Hurra TV, Radio Sawa and CNN in reprisal for shutting down al Manar, Phares said "Lebanon's Government is under the control of Hezbollah and will follow the latter's instructions. Where were Lebanon's authorities when al Manar TV incited against the populations of Beirut and the mountain in preparation for Hezbollah invasion and the many killings that followed?" Asked if this side (Hezbollah and Hamas) has the right to respond to US measures Phares said: "First Hezbollah doesn't allow the establishment of an opponent TV inside the Shia Lebanese areas in Lebanon, and Hamas doesn't allow the establishment of Palestinian media opposed to its agenda in Gaza. The US by taking measures against facilitators of terror and violence is in fact defending also those civil societies oppressed by the militant organizations who own these propaganda tools."
Last Updated ( Saturday, 23 January 2010 )

GOC Northern Command plays down border tensions: Talk of confrontation with Lebanon is 'virtual,' not real
By Anshel Pfeffer/Haaretz
The talk of a confrontation on the northern border is "a virtual escalation," GOC Northern Command Gadi Eisenkot said yesterday. Nonetheless, the general acknowledged that conditions leading to a confrontation with Hezbollah "could occur rapidly."  Responding to increasingly frequent talk about a confrontation on the Lebanese border, including explicit statements by Minister Yossi Peled over the weekend about a clash with Hezbollah this year, Eisenkot tried to calm the atmosphere. "The issue is virtual, with no real basis," he said, commenting on recent Arab media reports. Speaking at Tel Aviv University's National Security institute, Eisenkot analyzed the threats facing Israel in the north. He described the Second Lebanon War as successful, despite the flaws in Israel Defense Forces operations. He said that the success stemmed from the substantive damage to Hezbollah's fighting capabilities, its long-range missile arsenal, its command centers in Beirut and its logistic capabilities in the Bekaa. Eisenkot said that the fact that Hezbollah has not carried out a single attack in the three and a half years since the war is proof that the group was hard-hit, and is not interested in resuming the fighting. However, the Northern Command chief said that Hezbollah has managed to multiply its rocket arsenal since the war and significantly improve the range of its missiles.
Hezbollah's main developments are in increasing its deployment north of the Litani River as well as in southern Lebanon, and dispersing weapons among the 160 Shi'ite southern villages and towns where the United Nations forces and the Lebanese army do not enter. Another development, Eisenkot said, is the increasing involvement of Iranian forces in Hezbollah's operational management, a process that became very obvious following the assassination of the group's terrorist mastermind, Imad Mughniyeh, two years ago in Damascus.
Eisenkot said the populated areas where Hezbollah is storing its arms would be "war zones" if the confrontation renews. The IDF will have a "disproportionate offensive" in the next round, he said. After Hezbollah's "quality targets" are destroyed, the IDF will inform the Shi'ite population that "you are in Hezbollah war zones and you should evacuate," and then attack.
"I think this is moral and right, and that Hezbollah must understand that this is the outcome it is imposing on civilians - and we too must understand this," Eisenkot said.

Israel plays down talk of attacking Lebanon
Commander says recent saber rattling from both sides was nothing but ‘virtual escalation’
By Patrick Galey /Daily Star staff
Monday, January 25, 2010
BEIRUT: A senior Israeli military commander denied on Sunday that constant talk of conflict with Lebanon was raising tensions between the two countries, 24 hours after an Israeli minister said war was “a matter of time.” Major General Gadi Eizenkot of the northern command told Israeli media at a conference in Tel Aviv that recent saber rattling from either side of the Blue Line was nothing but a “virtual escalation” which had no basis in fact. “[Hizbullah leader Sayyed Hassan] Nasrallah would be happy to return to the days prior to July 2006, before the Second Lebanon War, when everything was intact. [Hizbullah] hasn’t executed an attack since the Second Lebanon War,” Eizenkot said. “But Hizbullah is getting stronger and we are preparing for all options in order to be able to act effectively.” He added that Hizbullah had increased its arsenal of rockets dramatically since 2006 and that any Israeli response to an attack from the group would be “disproportionate.”
Eizenkot’s comments come a day after Israeli Premier Benjamin Netanyahu was forced to play down remarks from one of his senior officials who announced that another war with Lebanon was unavoidable. Yossi Peled, a minister in Netanyahu’s ruling Likud party, speaking at an event in the northern Israeli village of Beersheba Saturday, said that a conflict with Hizbullah along the Blue Line would happen sooner or later. “Lebanon is the only country in the world that has a military organization – Hizbullah – that doesn’t answer to the government and is supported by two external states, Iran and Syria,” Peled told reporters.
“In my estimation, understanding and knowledge, it is almost clear to me that it is a matter of time before there is a military clash in the north … but I don’t know when it will happen, just as we did not know when the Second Lebanon War would erupt,” the reserve army general added, in reference to the 2006 summer war which killed more than 1,200 Lebanese, mainly civilians. Netanyahu issued a statement later Saturday in response to Peled’s comments, in which the Israeli premier refuted talk of imminent conflict. “Israel does not wish at all to have a confrontation with Lebanon,” Netanyahu said, adding that Israel sought “peace with Lebanon and with all its neighbors.” Peled said that the international community had failed to “manage Hizbullah” and that the group was now more powerful than in 2006. “Although Hizbullah is part of the Lebanese government, the latter has no influence on it,” he added. “If there is another confrontation in the north, we will hold Syria and Lebanon alike responsible.”
The conflicting remarks from Israeli officials were delivered following a spate of newspaper reports alleging that Hizbullah had diversified its areas of operation within Lebanon.
The Washington Post, quoting Israeli military sources, wrote that the group now had weapons stockpiles across swathes of northern Lebanon and the Bekaa Valley, outside of the operational mandate of the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL). General Aharon Zeevi Farkash, the former head of the Israeli Army Intelligence unit, told the newspaper that Hizbullah had “learned [its] lesson” from 2006, adding that “the ‘border’ is now the Litani River.”
The pan-Arab Ash-Sharq al-Awsat reported that the Israeli Army undertook military maneuvers along the UN-demarcated Blue Line, causing Hizbullah members in the south to be placed on high alert. When contacted by The Daily Star, a spokesperson for the group said that Hizbullah was ready to face any aggression from Israel. Hizbullah’s military commander in the south, Nabil Qawouk, said on Saturday that Israel was fearful of retribution ahead of the anniversary of the assassination of the group’s former military head Imad Mughniyeh, who was killed in a Damascus car bomb attack in 2008.
“The enemy knows that the blood of the martyr Mughniyeh will continue to flow until [our enemy’s] great defeat,” Qawouk said, adding that Israeli action against the group could have far-reaching regional consequences. Hizbullah blames Israel for Mughniyeh’s death, though Israel denies involvement. Earlier this month, an unsuccessful bomb attack on Israeli diplomats travelling in Jordan was blamed on Hizbullah by investigators from Tel Aviv. – With Agencies

Mitri: Arab states will defend media freedoms
/Daily Star staff/Monday, January 25, 2010
BEIRUT: Information Minister Tarek Mitri said that Arab states were adamant to safeguard media freedoms. Mitri spoke during a meeting of information ministers from the region. Ministers met in Cairo on Sunday to address the issue of Arab satellite broadcasting in light of the recent United States Congress bill, which aims to impose sanctions on satellite channels accused of supporting terrorism and inciting violence against the US. Mitri also called for Arab diplomacy to unanimously oppose the new law. “Over the years, Lebanon has had an obvious respect for freedom of the press,” he said, adding, “Such freedom is even encouraged by our political system.” – The Daily Star

Unprecedented building boom reshapes heart of Beirut
Number and value of property sales have leaped over past year
Monday, January 25, 2010
Zeina Karam
Associated Press
BEIRUT: Blocks of historic Ottoman-era buildings, once pocked by bullet holes, have been majestically restored, and new high-rise apartment towers with mirrored facades front the glittering Mediterranean, signs of an unprecedented real estate boom that is transforming Lebanon’s capital. Beirut’s building craze, despite chronic political turmoil in recent years, has astonished even the experts, turning Lebanon into an investment haven at a time when other regions – including the oil-rich Persian Gulf – are hemorrhaging cash. Even the seemingly unstoppable city-state of Dubai has hit the brakes after a massive debt crunch there rattled world financial markets.
“The market is continuing to really stun a lot of people and to attract some new players,” said Raja Makarem, founder of Ramco, a leading real-estate company. He added that Lebanon has seen a 30-percent increase in property value for each of the past four years.
Lebanon has seen a window of relative peace since the devastating 2006 summer war that Israel launched against Lebanon and deadly gunbattles two years later between Hezbollah and its political rivals in the streets of Beirut. Since then, political wrangling has continued, but Lebanon’s many factions have managed to keep their differences from exploding into violence.
Moreover, the financial meltdown that hit Dubai and elsewhere may have even helped Lebanon. While real-estate buyers in Dubai were mostly investors and speculators relying on bank loans, the demand in Beirut is mainly from end-users buying with cash, Mukaram and other experts said.
Real estate isn’t the only sector booming: Tourists have rediscovered the coastal nation with its beaches, scenic mountains and freewheeling lifestyle. This week officials announced that Lebanon attracted a record 1.8 million foreign visitors in 2009, earning an estimated $7 billion, beating the previous record of 1.4 million tourists in 1974 – just before the 1975-1990 Civil War broke out.
For many, especially those who have not visited Beirut in a while, the transformation from the real-estate frenzy is striking.
Blocks of elegant buildings with apartments selling at prices ranging between $5,000 and $8,000 per square-meter have arisen downtown. Some are restorations of buildings that date back to 19th Century Ottoman rule, others are brand new ones on plots where old rubble had long been bulldozed away. High-rises also now stand on land reclaimed from the sea.
The names of the new projects are as ostentatious as the developments themselves: The Beirut Souks, Venus Towers and Sama Beirut (Beirut Sky) are just some of the massive architectural projects underway.
“It’s the new Beirut. It looks nice and modern, but the problem is you have to be rich to enjoy it,” said Iman Haidar, a 42-year-old mother of two walking recently through Beirut Souks downtown – a 100,000 square-meter outdoor shopping mall.
The $300-million mall was built by Solidere, Lebanon’s largest construction and development firm, on the site of a historic souk, or market. But with its high-end retail outlets, it is nothing like the bustling souks that existed there before the civil war, where people from all over the country came to buy everything from vegetables and clothes to jewelry.
Solidere has taken the lead in flattening and then rebuilding much of downtown. Many, like Haidar, worry that Beirut is turning into a hotspot for high-end investments unaffordable to most Lebanese.
Experts say many of the new apartment owners are citizens of oil-rich Gulf nations and wealthy members of the 12-million-strong Lebanese diaspora living abroad, who want to keep a pied-a-terre for regular visits to Beirut.
In fact, many of the luxury apartments lining Beirut’s famed corniche seem uninhabited, their glass facades unlit at night.
The number and value of property sales have leaped over the past year, according to figures released by Lebanon’s leading Bank Audi this week. The value of real-estate sales in December around the country was $1.25 billion, up 40.8 percent from the same month in 2008. The number of sales in all of 2009 were up 27 percent over the previous year, it said.
“The global crisis that has strongly impacted the real-estate market in the Gulf has somehow pushed investors to turn toward Lebanon,” said Tina Chamoun, marketing manager for Plus Properties, the Dubai-based real estate marketing company currently promoting two high-profile projects in Beirut.
The $700 million developments, Plus Towers and Venus Towers, involve five luxury residential towers with duplexes and penthouses downtown and along Beirut’s waterfront.
The marketing manager says sales are going beyond expectations – mainly Lebanese, but also Gulf nationals.
Also, several five-star international chain hotels have opened in Lebanon before the end of the year, including waterfront Rotana and Four Seasons hotels and Le Gray, part of the British-owned CampbellGray Hotels. Another of the new projects is the 50-story Sama Beirut, which promises to be Lebanon’s tallest skyscraper once completed in 2014.
The project, launched earlier this year, has been criticized by some who say the tower will destroy the architectural heritage in the historic area.
The building developers were unfazed. “Mixing modernity with history is enriching,” said Massaad Fares, who heads Prime Consult, marketing and financial consultants for Sama Beirut.
Mona El Hallak calls this diversity an urban catastrophe.
“Downtown Beirut used to be a meeting point for people from all backgrounds. Now if you don’t have money, there is nothing for you there, you feel you are not welcome,” said the architect, who is a member of the executive committee of APSAD, an organization that campaigns to classify Lebanon’s old buildings as heritage sites to protect them.
She says old cultural heritage buildings are being destroyed to make way for towers without any urban planning involved.
“Ten years from now,” she said, “the city will not even bear resemblance to the Beirut we know,” she said.

Iraq says Saddam's cousin 'Chemical Ali' executed
By The Canadian Press
BAGHDAD - Saddam Hussein's notorious cousin "Chemical Ali" has been executed, about a week after being sentenced to death for the poison gas attacks that killed more than 5,000 Kurds in 1988. News of the hanging came shortly after three suicide car bombs struck downtown Baghdad. It was not immediately clear whether the attacks were linked the execution of Ali Hassan al-Majid. Government spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh confirmed the execution took place. Al-Majid was convicted last week for ordering the poison gas to be dropped on the Kurdish town of Halabja in 1988 as part of a campaign against a Kurdish uprising.
It was the fourth death sentence against him for crimes against humanity.