Bible Quotation for today/Warnings and Instructions
Jude 01/17-22: " But remember, my friends, what you were told in the past by the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ.  They said to you, “When the last days come, people will appear who will make fun of you, people who follow their own godless desires.”  These are the people who cause divisions, who are controlled by their natural desires, who do not have the Spirit.  But you, my friends, keep on building yourselves up on your most sacred faith. Pray in the power of the Holy Spirit, and keep yourselves in the love of God, as you wait for our Lord Jesus Christ in his mercy to give you eternal life. Show mercy toward those who have doubts;  save others by snatching them out of the fire; and to others show mercy mixed with fear, but hate their very clothes, stained by their sinful lusts.

Latest analysis, editorials, studies, reports, letters & Releases from miscellaneous sources

The “Cursed Three” and the “Supreme Leader”/By: Amir Taheri /Asharq Alawsat/April 20/13

Latest News Reports From Miscellaneous Sources for April 20/13

1 of 2 Boston Bomb Suspects Dead as Towns, Mass Transit Shut Down 
Boston terrorist bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev captured
Report: STL Trial to Start Next Autumn
U.N. chief says Lebanon’s border must be controlled
Hezbollah Operatives Wary of Deeper Intervention in Syria
German Chancellor Angela Merkel Hails Suleiman's Role in Preserving Stability, Backs Refugee Conference
Hizbullah deputy chief Sheikh Naim Qassem to Connelly: We Do Not Need Your Advice over the Elections
Lebanon's envoy to the United Nations Nawwaf Salam : Syrian refugees in Lebanon could reach 1.2 million
Speaker Nabih Berri Slams March 14, Says Formation of Cabinet Not Linked to Electoral Law
Hearing in Ain Alaq Bombing Set for May 24
Armed Men Assault Civil Servant in Nabatiyeh
Relatives of Pilgrims Briefly Erect Tent near Turkish Airlines to Press for Action
Charbel Slams Provocative Rhetoric, Applauds Security Forces
Hezbollah: Nonpolitical government unrealistic
Caretaker PM Najib Miqati's Advicer Denies Bomb Plot against Mikati
Zasypkin Fears Syria War Could Trigger Qaida Presence in Lebanon
Reports: Army First Adjutant Involved in 'Major' Ain Zhalta Operation
Lebanese hostages' relatives warn to shut airport road
Northern Storm Brigade: Positive Breakthrough in Abductees Case within 10 Days
'At Least 82 Hurt' as Egypt Islamists, Rivals Clash in Cairo
U.S. Fears Arab Spring Hopes Being Crushed
U.S. Unveils Major Arms Deal with Israel, Saudi, UAE
Brahimi Urges U.N. Action on Syria Stalemate
U.N. Rights Chief Sounds Alarm over Iraq Executions
U.S. to increase nonlethal aid to Syria rebels
Uncertainty behind U.S. escalation on Syria

Mr. Tammam Salam, Lebanon's designate PM, May Almighty God be with you
Elias Bejjani/20.04.13/ For a long time, we the Lebanese in the Diaspora were eagerly longing for a Lebanese PM, who is like the majority of our peace loving people and resembles them in domains of values, ethics, faith, perseverance, and patriotism . A PM, who actually believes that being a Lebanese is a heavenly grace and an endowment. A PM, who is willing to serve the county and the people and not his own interests or the interests or non Lebanese powers. A PM, who fears almighty God in both his conduct and rhetoric, and who is honest, knows what conscience means, respects himself, not a puppet, not a Trojan, not a mercenary, not a militiaman, transparent and courageous in witnessing for the truth. Personally we see all these righteous traits in you and accordingly we are hopeful that you are going to be loudly and clearly who you are and not any body else. In reality, occupied and corrupted Lebanon is in great need for genuine officials like you. May Almighty God be with you, bless your efforts and grant you all the needed wisdom, tolerance, courage and faith to accomplish the patriotic mission that you are entrusted to assume and execute.

Boston terrorist bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev captured
DEBKAfile Special Report April 20, 2013/
A massive police operation in Boston ended Friday night, April 19, with the capture of Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, 19, suspected of the twin bombing Monday, April 15, at the Boston Marathon which left three dead and 180 injured and the death of a police officer in a shootout out at MIT during the day Friday. Described as armed and dangerous, he was finally hunted down hiding in a boat in a Watertown backyard and injured before he was captured..
Many hundreds of town, state and federal officers, with helicopters, held Boston in lockdown for a day to scour the town door to door. Bostonians came out to cheer the police after hearing their mayor Tom Menino say: “We got him!”
His capture will enable the investigation to answer questions about the motives behind the acts of terror of which the two brothers of Chechen origin, Tzhokhar Tsarnaev and Tamerlan, 26, are suspected, and find out who else was involved. Tamerlan was killed in a shootout with police at Watertown earlier.
debkafile’s counter-terrorism sources report the brothers were suspected from the first of acting with a group of accomplices. The main two tasks facing the investigation are to uncover any connections between the two bombers of Chechen origin with international terrorist organizations and who supplied them with quantities of weapons and explosives described by the police as of “military grade.” Our sources earlier traced a link to a Wahhabi cell suspected of being funded by Saudi al Qaeda.
Questions have been asked about the semi-official history of the Tsarnaevs’s arrival in the US in 2002 as “political refugees.” How did the young Dzhokhtar come to be admitted to an elite Cambridge college in the United States? – is one. The Chechen family came from Dagestan, a Russian republic for years in the grip of violent Islamist violence. Since early 2013, alone, 124 people have died and 75 injured in attacks by Muslim terrorists.
Another question to be answered is: How was a lone terrorist, albeit armed and dangerous, allowed to hold an important American town of three million under siege for almost a day?
Read debkafile’s earlier coverage Friday.
Two Chechen brothers from Dagestan were identified as the terrorists who detonated two bombs at the Boston Marathon last Monday and carried out a bombing-shooting spree at the MIT campus in Watertown outside Boston, Friday, April 19, in which a police officer was killed.
Tamerlan Tsarnaev, 26, and Dzhohav Tsarnaev, 19, escaped the MIT campus in a hijacked Mercedes SUV, chased by the police. As they threw explosives out of the window, critically injuring another police officer, police bullets hit the older brother, who died in custody. The younger one, identified earlier as “Suspect 2 in the white cap” made a run for it.
Warning he is armed and dangerous, the police hunt has placed parts of Boston, Watertown and other outlying towns under curfew and suspended public transport. Hundreds of law enforcement officers, federal agents, national and state police backed by helicopters are scouring the area door to door, after warning people to stay home and not open the door to strangers.
The Boston police stress that the event is still ongoing and the investigation is closely coordinated with Washington. Many of the facts as released so far are conflicting or unclear.
The Chechen government denies the two brothers lived in their country and say the family left some years ago and finally settled in the United States. Boston officials report that the family arrived in the US in 2002. The student won a scholarship in 2011 to study at a college in Cambridge.
The incident began with gun shots reported at 10:48 p.m. at Building 32 on Vassar Street near Main Street, off Kendall Square, when the two men armed with guns, explosives and wearing body armor were apparently about to seize the university building. The police officer who responded to the upset was shot dead. The attack occurred shortly after the FBI released images of the two main Boston Marathon bombing suspects with an appeal to the public for information to identify them.
Suspect 1 is shown wearing a black cap and, walking fast close behind him, Suspect 2 in a white cap. Both carry large black packages and both have Middle East complexions.
FBI Agent Richard Deslauriers who is in charge of the investigation said Suspect 1 planted the first bomb, while a few seconds later, Suspect 2 was filmed placing a package at the site of the second, more powerful bomb, and walking away very fast. Both men are dangerous, he said, and should not be approached by the public. The images the FBI released of the two suspects have been floating around the Internet for the past 36 hours. And so the suspects must know they are being hunted. debkafile’s counterterrorism sources add that both have either gone to ground in a pre-arranged hideout or have left the United States. The way they walk behind each other as they pass through crowds without losing contact strongly recalls the formation maintained by the suicide bombers who blew up the London Tube train on July 7, 2007

1 of 2 Boston Bomb Suspects Dead as Towns, Mass Transit Shut Down
Naharnet /The two suspects in the Boston Marathon bombing killed a university police officer and hurled explosives at police in a car chase and gun battle overnight that left one of them dead and his brother on the loose, authorities said Friday as thousands of officers swarmed the streets in a manhunt that all but paralyzed the Boston area. The suspects were identified by law enforcement officials and a family member as Dzhokhar and Tamerlan Tsarnaev, brothers from a Russian region near Chechnya, which has been plagued by an Islamic insurgency that has carried out deadly bombings.
Meanwhile, the father of the suspects stressed that his two sons are innocent. "In my opinion, my children were set up by the secret services because they are practicing Muslims," Anzor Tsarnaev told the Interfax news agency from the North Caucasus Russian city of Makhachkala.
"Why did they kill Tamerlan? They should have taken him alive," said the father. He added that the younger brother Dzhokhar "is in hiding. He was a second-year student in a medical university. We were waiting for him to come back (to Russia) for the holidays."
"Now I do not know what will happen," he said.
Tamerlan Tsarnaev, who had been known to the FBI as Suspect No. 1 and was seen in surveillance footage in a black baseball cap, was killed overnight, officials said. His 19-year-old brother — dubbed Suspect No. 2 and seen wearing a white, backward baseball cap in the images from Monday's deadly bombing at the marathon finish line — escaped.
The law enforcement officials spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the unfolding case.
Authorities in Boston suspended all mass transit and warned close to 1 million people in the entire city and some of its suburbs to stay indoors as the hunt went on. Businesses were asked not to open. People waiting at bus and subway stops were told to go home.
"We believe this man to be a terrorist," said Boston Police Commissioner Ed Davis. "We believe this to be a man who's come here to kill people."The bombings on Monday killed three people and wounded more than 180 others, tearing off limbs in a spray of shrapnel and instantly raising the specter of another terrorist attack on U.S. soil.
The endgame — at least for Suspect No. 1 — came just hours after the FBI released photos and video of the two young men at the finish line and appealed to the public for help in identifying and capturing them. Tips came pouring in to the FBI immediately, but exactly how authorities managed to close in on the two young men was not immediately disclosed.
The brothers' uncle, Ruslan Tsarni of Montgomery Village, Maryland, told The Associated Press that the men lived together near Boston and had been in the U.S. for about a decade. They traveled here together from the Russian region near Chechnya.
The White House said President Barack Obama was being briefed on developments overnight by Lisa Monaco, his assistant for homeland security and counterterrorism.
The images released by the FBI depict the two young men walking one behind the other near the finish line. Richard DesLauriers, FBI agent in charge in Boston, said Suspect No. 2 in the white hat was seen setting down a bag at the site of the second of two deadly explosions. Authorities said surveillance tape recorded late Thursday showed Suspect No. 2 during a robbery of a convenience store in Cambridge, near the campus of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where a university police officer was shot to death while responding to a report of a disturbance, said State Police Col Timothy Alben. From there, authorities said, the two men carjacked a man in a Mercedes-Benz, keeping him with them in the car for half an hour before releasing him at a gas station in Cambridge. The man was not injured.
The search for the vehicle led to a chase that ended in Watertown, where authorities said the suspects threw explosive devices from the car and exchanged gunfire with police. A transit police officer was seriously injured during the chase, authorities said.
In Watertown, witnesses reported hearing multiple gunshots and explosions at about 1 a.m. Friday. Dozens of police officers and FBI agents were in the neighborhood and a helicopter circled overhead. Watertown resident Christine Yajko said she was awakened at about 1:30 a.m. by a loud noise, began to walk to her kitchen and heard gunfire.
"I heard the explosion, so I stepped back from that area, then I went back out and heard a second one," she said. "It was very loud. It shook the house a little."
She said a police officer later knocked on her door and told her there was an undetonated improvised explosive device in the street and warned her to stay away from the windows.
"It was on the street, right near our kitchen window," she said. State police spokesman David Procopio said: "The incident in Watertown did involve what we believe to be explosive devices possibly, potentially, being used against the police officers."Boston cab driver Imran Saif said he was standing on a street corner at a police barricade across from a diner when he heard an explosion. "I heard a loud boom and then a rapid succession of pop, pop, pop," he said. "It sounded like automatic weapons. And then I heard the second explosion."He said he could smell something burning and advanced to check it out but area residents at their windows yelled at him, "Hey, it's gunfire! Don't go that way!" Doctors at a Boston hospital where Suspect No. 1 died said they treated a man with a possible blast injury and multiple gunshot wounds. In the past, insurgents from Chechnya and neighboring restive provinces in the Caucasus have been involved in terror attacks in Moscow and other places in Russia. Those raids included a raid in Moscow in October 2002 in which a group of Chechen militants took 800 people hostage and held them for two days before special forces stormed the building, killing all 41 Chechen hostage-takers. Also killed were 129 hostages, mostly from effects of narcotic gas Russian forces used to subdue the attackers. Chechen insurgents also launched a 2004 hostage-taking raid in the southern Russian town of Beslan, where they took hundreds of hostages. The siege ended in a bloodbath two days later, with more than 330 people, about half of them children, killed. Insurgents from Chechnya and other regions also have launched a long series of bombings in Moscow and other cities in Russia. An explosion at the international arrivals hall at Moscow's Domodedovo airport in January 2011 killed at least 31 people and wounded more than 140

U.N. chief says Lebanon’s border must be controlled
April 20, 2013/The Daily Star
http://www.dailystar.com.lb/News/Local-News/2013/Apr-20/214417-un-chief-says-lebanons-border-must-be-controlled.ashx#axzz2Qy9Qd2zc
BEIRUT: U.N. chief Ban Ki-moon has highlighted the urgency of controlling and demarcating the porous Syria-Lebanon border to suppress arms smuggling, as he urged Hezbollah to refrain from military activity in Syria.
In his semiannual report on the implementation of U.N. Security Council Resolution 1559, which was issued Friday, Ban also pointed to the increased number of security incidents relating to the Syrian crisis, and urged political leaders to swiftly form a new government under Prime Minister-designate Tammam Salam, so that parliamentary elections can be held on time. “The complex security situation along the Syrian-Lebanese border in the current circumstances, including credible reports of cross-border fighting and movement of arms and people, further underlines the urgency of demarcating the border,” Ban wrote in his report, acknowledging the bilateral responsibility for border delineation. “I condemn the repeated incidents in which civilians were reported to have been killed, injured or put at risk on the Lebanese side of the border owing to the actions of [the Syrian authorities],” he said, calling on Damascus to respect Lebanon’s sovereignty and territorial integrity. Resolution 1559, which was adopted in 2004, calls for Lebanon to exercise sovereignty over its territory, the withdrawal of foreign forces, the disarmament of militias as well as the demarcation of Lebanon’s borders with Syria.
Ban said several states had expressed concern over the illegal transfer of weapons across the 550-kilometer border.
“To address ongoing cross-border incidents and in the context of reports of arms smuggling, there remains an urgent need to improve the management and control of Lebanon’s land borders,” he said in the report.
No tangible progress toward the disbanding and disarming of Lebanese and other militias have taken place, Ban reported, referring to Hezbollah and Palestinian armed groups.
The U.N. chief voiced concern about the reported involvement of Lebanese parties in the Syrian conflict, “which is contrary to Lebanon’s policy of disassociation and poses very real risks to Lebanon’s security and stability.”
“I urge Hezbollah not to engage in any militant activity inside or outside of Lebanon, consistent with the requirements of the Taif Agreement and ... Resolution 1559,” Ban said in the report.
Ban urged the Lebanese government and security forces to take all necessary measures to prevent Hezbollah from acquiring weapons and building paramilitary capacities outside state authority.
“As Hezbollah maintains close ties with a number of regional states, in particular with the Islamic Republic of Iran, I call upon these states to encourage the transformation of the armed group into a solely political party and its disarmament,” it added. He said he supported a “Lebanese-led cross-party political process” as the optimal way to disarm militias. The report also discussed the resignation of Prime Minister Najib Mikati and the designation of MP Tammam Salam to form a new Cabinet. Ban encouraged all political leaders to engage with Salam positively and ensure the government is formed early to safeguard the stability of the country and the prospect of parliamentary polls in June. He also urged them to reach agreement on key security appointments. Mikati has said his resignation was over rifts within his Cabinet to extend the term of former police chief Maj. Gen. Ashraf Rifi.
“Political polarization and lack of agreement on an elections law and security appointments have made Lebanon even more vulnerable and less able to address the challenges it now faces,” Ban said.
As for Israel’s repeated violations of Lebanese airspace, Ban called on the country to cease its overflights and withdraw from the northern part of Ghajar and an adjacent area of the Blue Line.
He noted that the airspace violations undermine “the credibility of Lebanese security services and generate anxiety among the civilian population. They also greatly increase the risk of unintended consequences in an already very tense region.”

Hezbollah Operatives Wary of Deeper Intervention in Syria
Sources say splits are growing over casualties taken in fighting in Damascus and Homs
Beirut, Asharq Al-Awsat—Lebanese Shi’ites are increasingly split on the issue of support for the government of Bashar Al-Assad in Syria, according to sources in southern Beirut.
The issue has become increasingly contentious because of the mounting casualties incurred by Hezbollah members travelling across the border to fight alongside the Syrian armed forces, particularly around Damascus and Homs.
Residents of the southern suburb of Beirut, Hezbollah’s primary stronghold and security zone, are split over the issue, with some in support and others opposed to the group’s participation in the fighting in Al-Qusayr, the Governorate of Homs in central Syria.  At the same time, pro-Hezbollah Shi’ites agree on the need to fight in the Al-Sayyidah Zaynab area in the Damascus countryside, in defense of the shrine there.
The sources, who spoke on condition of anonymity, also told Asharq al-Awsat that some Hezbollah followers support the group’s joining the ongoing fighting in Al-Qusayr on the basis of the resistance’s strategic goals, while those opposed say that this is a distraction from the central the aim of the group, fighting against Israel. The sources noted that unease over the group’s participation has begun to spill over into the ranks of the fighters, some of whom refuse to take part in the fighting in Al-Qusayr. Meanwhile, funerals for Hezbollah fighters killed in Syria continue. According to reports, some Hezbollah members were killed last week near the shrine of Al-Sayyidah Zaynab and elsewhere in Al-Qusayr. Hezbollah previously announced that Lebanese Shi’ite men were fighting in Al-Qusayr to defend it. On Tuesday, Lebanon Now reported that Hezbollah held a funeral procession for one of its members, Muhammad Obayd, in the town of Ali al-Nahri. Quoting informed sources, the website said that he was killed in recent clashes in the border area adjacent to the Al-Qusayr countryside.
Last week, Hezbollah held another funeral for one of its fighters, Hamza Ghamlush, and buried him near the grave of his late commander Imad Mughaniyah in the Rawdat al-Shahidayn Cemetery in the Southern Suburb of Beirut. Hezbollah did not specify where he was killed. Another Lebanese-based news site said that Ghamlush died defending the Al-Sayyidah Zaynab shrine. The website posted two pictures of him. One of the pictures showed him wearing military uniform and standing in front of the shrine. These developments come at the same time as Lebanese authorities prepare to protest to the Arab League over what they allege are continuing Syrian violations of Lebanese sovereignty. The decision to make the protest was taken after two Lebanese citizens were killed and eight others wounded when Syrian opposition forces targeted the predominantly Shi’ite Village of Al-Qasr in Al-Hirmil. The intention to send a letter of protest to the Arab League after Syrian opposition forces targeted Lebanese territories prompted Future Movement secretary general Ahmad Al-Hariri to criticize the “flagrant selectivity” in Lebanon’s dealing with the “aggressions.” The Future Movement secretary general said: “No official move was made throughout the past months to protect the citizens and deploy the army all along the border to deal with a string of increasing aggressions against Irsal and the Akkar villages. At the same time, an emergency security meeting was convened fast after specific areas came under an aggression, the first of its kind.”
Hariri added: “the caretaker government responsible for the continuation of these aggressions has allowed the regime of Bashar Al-Assad to go too far in violating Lebanese territory.”
The main responsibility lies with Hezbollah, which has always warned us of the seriousness of its involvement in the fighting against the Syrian people.”

Lebanon's envoy to the United Nations Nawwaf Salam : Syrian refugees in Lebanon could reach 1.2 million
Lebanon's envoy to the United Nations Nawwaf Salam asked that the UN Security Council help Lebanon cope with the growing number of Syrian refugees in Lebanon, whose numbers could reach 1.2 million by 2014.
"The number of Syrians in Lebanon could reach 1.2 million by the end of 2013,” Salam stated at a UN Security Council session held on Thursday. He also said that "the Syrian people deserve that the UN Security Council deal with their suffering in a different way, other than this shameful paralysis.”"Lebanon adopted the disassociation policy but this does not mean that we should dissociate ourselves from our duties towards the suffering of the Syrian people,” he added. The Lebanese envoy to the UN stressed that “Lebanon will not close its border in front of any individual or family seeking refuge and will not deport any Syrian back to their country.” Beirut is facing difficulties dealing with the increasingly high number of Syrian refugees who look to neighboring Lebanon for safe haven. More than 416,000 refugees are now registered with the UNHCR in Lebanon.
Syria is witnessing a violent uprising against the regime of President Bashar al-Assad, which has so far killed more than 70,000 people since its outbreak in March 2011, according to figures released by the United Nations.

Report: STL Trial to Start Next Autumn
Naharnet/The trial at the Special Tribunal for Lebanon in ex-Premier Rafik Hariri's assassination case will start next autumn, informed sources told An Nahar daily published Friday. The sources hinted that both the prosecution and the defense have completed the preparations for the start of trial. The STL announced in February that a March 25 provisional date for the start of the in absentia trial of four Hizbullah members indicted in Hariri's Feb. 2005 murder in a massive car bombing on the Beirut seafront had been postponed. But the court hasn't yet announced the new tentative date set by pre-trial Judge Daniel Fransen. The postponement came upon the request of defense lawyers who said prosecutors had not yet given them all the relevant information to prepare their cases. The lawyers representing Mustafa Badreddine, Salim Ayyash, Hussein Oneissi, and Assad Sabra, have also not been able to access prosecution material "due to technical issues," the judge said in February. The STL issued warrants against the four men in June 2011 and Interpol issued a "red notice" for the suspects, but so far none has been arrested.  Set up by a U.N. resolution in 2007 at Lebanon's request to probe Hariri's death, the STL is the first court of its kind to deal with terrorism as a distinct crime. It is also the only current international tribunal that can try suspects in absentia.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel Hails Suleiman's Role in Preserving Stability, Backs Refugee Conference
Naharnet/German Chancellor Angela Merkel telephoned President Michel Suleiman, lauding his role in preserving stability in Lebanon and hoping that a new cabinet would be formed soon, Baabda palace said Friday. A presidential statement said that Merkel also expressed support to Lebanon's call for a U.N.-led international conference to discuss the issue of Syrian refugees.
Their talks focused on bilateral relations, it said. Lebanon's envoy to the U.N. Nawwaf Salam warned on Thursday that the number of Syrians in Lebanon could reach 1.2 million by the end of 2013.
"The Syrian people deserve that the U.N. Security Council deals with their suffering in a manner different from this shameful paralysis,” he said at a U.N. Security Council session that discussed the situation of Syria's children in the midst of the country's conflict. "We have the right to ask for dividing the burden as Lebanon is the smallest country and has the least of potentials but hosts the largest number of refugees,” he added.
The Security Council has been stalemated for months on Syria. Western and Arab nations blame the conflict on President Bashar Assad's government. Russia insists on assigning equal blame to the Syrian rebel opposition, and has cast vetoes, along with China, to block draft council resolutions.

Caretaker PM Najib Miqati's Advicer Denies Bomb Plot against Mikati
Naharnet/The adviser of caretaker Prime Minister Najib Miqati denied on Friday that three hand grenades found in the northern town of Qalamoun were placed to target Miqati. In remarks to Voice of Lebanon radio (100.5), Fares Gemayel denied the report published in An Nahar newspaper on Friday. State commissioner to the military court Judge Saqr Saqr tasked on Friday the military intelligence to investigate the details of the incident as the military command said in a communique that the grenades were placed in a plastic container. An Nahar said that the grenades found on the side of the highway in Qalamoun were aimed at targeting Miqati's convoy while on his way back to Beirut from the northern city of Tripoli. The town lies five kilometers south of Tripoli. The Lebanese army on Thursday night blocked the highway and diverted traffic to the seaside road to inspect the grenades.

Speaker Nabih Berri Slams March 14, Says Formation of Cabinet Not Linked to Electoral Law
Naharnet/Speaker Nabih Berri denied on Friday that the March 8 alliance is linking the formation of the government with the drafting of the new electoral law, urging Prime Minister-designate Tammam Salam to discuss with all the major political parties the distribution of the portfolios. “Achieving any progress in the formation of the government will have a positive impact on us and would facilitate reaching an agreement on the electoral law and vice versa,” Berri said in comments to newspapers. Berri and his March 8 allies are calling for a national unity cabinet. But the March 14 coalition wants a government whose members are neither political figures nor running in the upcoming parliamentary elections. On Wednesday, Salam urged leaders to facilitate the formation of his government, reiterating rejection to the monopolization of portfolios by a single sect. The speaker told al-Joumhouria newspaper that he received positive signs concerning the efforts exerted by Salam on the distribution of portfolios. “The constitution is clear regarding the representation in the government,” Berri said.
Concerning the electoral subcommittee meeting on Thursday, the AMAL movement leader praised in comments to An Nahar newspaper Hizbullah MP Ali Fayyad's statements that the party is ready to approve any draft-law that the Christian parties agree on. The electoral subcommittee agreed to hold the next round of talks on Tuesday, its third meeting since it resumed sessions earlier in the week in a last-ditch effort to agree on a controversial vote law. Berri slammed some March 14 parties after describing Fayyad's statements as a new maneuver, saying: “I reject such analysis.”
He considered that the lawmaker's proposal is an opportunity to reach common ground on the new electoral law.

Hizbullah deputy chief Sheikh Naim Qassem to Connelly: We Do Not Need Your Advice over the Elections
Naharnet /Hizbullah deputy chief Sheikh Naim Qassem stressed on Friday that the Lebanese people can handle their own affairs without political directions from any power. He said addressing U.S. Ambassador to Lebanon Maura Connelly: “We do not need your advice over the parliamentary elections or any other issue.”“We reject the threats that you make every now and then,” he declared. “We also do not want you to spread the repercussions of the Syrian crisis to Lebanon,” he added. Connelly had told Future television in an interview on Wednesday that her administration had a problem in dealing with the outgoing cabinet of caretaker Prime Minister Najib Miqati due to Hizbullah's presence in the government. She hoped the line-up of the new cabinet will allow Washington to have better ties with the government of Lebanon, but stressed that the cabinet formation process is a purely Lebanese affair. Connelly also called on Lebanon to dissociate itself from the conflict in Syria as much as possible, describing Hizbullah's involvement in the fighting as a blatant violation of Lebanon's self-dissociation policy and the Baabda Declaration, while noting that it has also created a dilemma for the party's supporters. Qassem continued: “The U.S. itself is seeking to spread the Syrian crisis to Lebanon, Jordan, and nearby countries in order to change the circumstances on the internal Syrian scene.” The Hizbullah official said the Lebanese people can tackle their concerns away from the Syrian crisis, calling against banking on the developments that may take place in the next few months. “The developments in Syria cannot alter the situation in Lebanon,” he remarked. Addressing the efforts to form a new government, he said that “a non-political cabinet is not a realistic one” because everyone in Lebanon is politicized. “The government should therefore be a political one,” he stressed. “The new government should include all powers and be a product of consultations among them,” he stated.
The cabinet should be able to tackle all of the country's concerns, ensure that the parliamentary elections are held as scheduled, and maintain security and political stability. On the electoral law dispute, Qassem called for reaching an agreement over a law that offers real representation for various Lebanese powers. Moreover, he voiced Hizbullah's readiness to confront strife in Lebanon without itself being dragged into the unrest.

'At Least 82 Hurt' as Egypt Islamists, Rivals Clash in Cairo
Naharnet/..At least 82 people were hurt on Friday after Egyptian opposition activists marched on thousands of Islamists rallying outside the Supreme Court in central Cairo demanding judicial reform, an official said.
The fighting took place in Abdel Moneim Square and on the October 6 Bridge that passes over it after crossing the Nile River. Islamists on the bridge threw rocks at militants below, including masked members of the so-called Black Bloc. An Agence France Presse correspondent said some of the Black Bloc members fired birdshot at people on the bridge, wounding two of them. Opposition activists also set fire to an empty bus that had brought Islamists to the rally. The head of the Egyptian emergency services, Mohammed Sultan, told television at least 82 people had been injured. An hour after the clashes broke out, three armored police vehicles arrived and began firing tear gas, the correspondent said. Prime Minister Hisham Qandil issued a statement warning that "demonstrations accompanied by violence completely harms the security and economy of the country and hampers plans for reform." Morsi's presidency has been plagued by deadly clashes between protesters and police, a revolt in Suez Canal cities, sectarian violence and a devastating economic crisis, in what many fear is bringing Egypt to the brink of chaos. Egypt is negotiating with the International Monetary Fund on a multi-billion dollar loan to stabilize its finances. That would require considerable reforms, and clinching it has been held up in part by the inability of the government to build a political consensus around the program. For its part, the interior ministry called on all political forces to aid law enforcement in "providing security to demonstrators to prevent confrontations resulting in victims." The Islamists are demanding an overhaul of the judiciary, after a court challenged a decision by Islamist President Mohamed Morsi to sack the veteran state prosecutor.
Morsi's Muslim Brotherhood had called the demonstration outside the Supreme Court, which has repeatedly challenged the president since he took office in June. Last month, a court overturned a controversial Morsi decree to sack state prosecutor Abdel Meguid Mahmoud, appointed by ousted president Hosni Mubarak. The court believed Morsi had overstepped his powers when he sacked Mahmoud, blamed for bungling the trials of former regime officials, including Mubarak himself, after the 2011 uprising. A court also overturned Morsi's calling of parliamentary elections for this month, ruling that he had ratified a new electoral law without consulting the constitutional court. Many judges are Mubarak-era appointees, and Morsi supporters claim they remain hostile to them despite subsequent election victories. The Islamist-controlled Senate is currently preparing to debate legislation that would lower the retirement age for judges from 70 to 60, which many judges consider a manoeuvre to get rid of suspected anti-Morsi figures.SourceAgence France Presse.

The “Cursed Three” and the “Supreme Leader”
By: Amir Taheri /Asharq Alawsat
During pre-television times, Iranians, especially in smaller towns, owed much of their entertainment to bands of clowns roaming the countryside. Any spot could be used as a stage: a village square, a bazaar shop-front or the courtyard of a “holy” shrine. Sometimes, the pond in a rich man’s house would be covered with wood panels and used as a stage. A typical troupe of four comedians would offer a routine of folk songs and dances and recitals of lewd poetry. One popular sketch was known as siah-bazi, which, translated literally, means “playing black.” In it, two actors, wearing red turbans with their faces painted black, would fight a fast-paced verbal duel with words that could mean anything or nothing. The idea was to pin down the attention of the audience about nothing; an exercise worthy of the Beckettian theater of the absurd.
Going through the Iranian media these days one is reminded of siah-bazi. To be sure, the clowns involved are not wearing red turbans. Nor do they paint their faces black.
The theme of the sketch is the forthcoming presidential election. Every day brings a new batch of putative candidates, with fast-paced exchanges regarding possible approval or rejection by the Council of Guardians—or the supreme leader, for that matter. If the official media are to believed, the “enemies of Islam,” whose identity changes according to circumstances, are hatching a new plot to turn the election into a new fitnah (sedition).
With former presidential candidates Mir Hossein Moussavi and Mehdi Karroubi under lock and key, Tehran conspiracy theorists need new characters to cast as villains.
So far, three men are lined up as likely candidates for that role.
One is Ali-Akbar Hashemi Bahremani Rafsanjani—let us call him Rafsanjani for short. Another is Muhammad Khatami Yazdi. Despite the fact that the two mullahs served a combined total of 16 years in the presidency of the Islamic Republic, the Tehran media brands them “traitors” to the Islamic Republic and the Khomeinist ideology.
The third potential villain is Esfandiar Rahim Mashaei, regarded as President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s bosom-buddy. Today, Mashaei is secretary-general of the Non-Aligned Movement, a post Ahmadinejad invented to provide his friend with a heightened profile and a regular pay check.
According to the daily newspaper Kayhan, reflecting the views of “supreme leader” Ali Khamenei, none of the three would squeeze through the filter of the “Council of Guardians.”
All three have repeatedly stated that they do not plan to stand as candidates. So, why is Khamenei’s faction focusing its fire on the “cursed three” (Al-muthallath Al-malounah) with such vehemence?
One might find the answer in siah-bazi sketches, at the end of which the spectator realizes that the clowns have been talking about something quite different from what he thought he was hearing.
Let us try to see through this tangled web of double-talk, dissimulation and deceit. Khamenei is desperately trying to prove to the world—and more importantly to himself—that the Khomeinist regime retains at least part of its popular base. One way to demonstrate this is to achieve a big voter turnout in the presidential election. The last presidential election attracted more than 40 million voters, according to official claims. So, this time, with more than 55 million people eligible to vote, the regime must manage a bigger turnout. However, that could not be achieved without candidates capable of creating some excitement. With candidates like former foreign minister Ali-Akbar Velayati, a Khamenei favourite, potential voters may just yawn and stay home. However, allowing exciting candidates is a high-risk strategy.
A candidate who rejects velayat-e faqih, even if he does taqiyah (religious dissimulation whereby a believer can deny his faith) about the so-called “heritage of the revolution,” could encourage those who seek straight regime change. Thus, Khamenei is looking for a candidate, or candidates, who could produce some excitement without endangering his hold on power.
At first glance, the “cursed three” could deliver that. Rafsanjani has a network of personal support, bureaucrats, civil servants, businessmen and mullahs whom he patronized and helped enrich during at least two decades of direct or indirect power. At the same time, aged 80, he would presumably not want to upset the apple cart by challenging Khamenei.
Khatami may be even more attractive. When president, he described his position as that of factotum to the “Supreme Leader.” There is no reason why, if given another chance, he would adopt a different stance. He could serve the regime by, once again, hoodwinking sections of the urban middle class as well as Western liberals with talk of the “dialogue of civilizations.”
Of the “cursed three,” Mashaei is by far the potentially most exciting candidate. After eight years as Ahamdinejad’s éminence grise, Mashaei remains something of a mystery. Reflecting fear of the unknown, the official Tehran media and pro-Khamenei mullahs have launched a massive campaign of vilification against Mashaei. That, in turn, has aroused some interest in him among potential voters.In the “as-if” style of Khomeinist politics, the trio are pretending they would have a presence in the coming elections, even if only through an understudy. The Rafsanjani–Khatami camp is using the shibboleth “Dawn of Hope” as an election slogan.
Mashaei’s supporters have adopted “Long Live Spring” as their slogan. In other words, whether they become candidates or not, the “cursed three” have thrown their turbans or hats in the ring.
If any of the three actually becomes a candidate, people might see that as a direct challenge to Khamenei. That, in turn, could trigger an avalanche that no one would be able to control. Having secured a degree of power, he could not have dreamed of a decade ago, Khamenei may not relish that prospect.
Waiting for the final list of candidates to be approved by the “Supreme Leader,” a measure of interest in the current siah-bazi may be in order.

Question: "Did God create evil?"
"GotQuestions.org
Answer: At first it might seem that if God created all things, then evil must have been created by God. However, evil is not a “thing” like a rock or electricity. You cannot have a jar of evil. Evil has no existence of its own; it is really the absence of good. For example, holes are real but they only exist in something else. We call the absence of dirt a hole, but it cannot be separated from the dirt. So when God created, it is true that all He created was good. One of the good things God made was creatures who had the freedom to choose good. In order to have a real choice, God had to allow there to be something besides good to choose. So, God allowed these free angels and humans to choose good or reject good (evil). When a bad relationship exists between two good things we call that evil, but it does not become a “thing” that required God to create it.
Perhaps a further illustration will help. If a person is asked, “Does cold exist?” the answer would likely be “yes.” However, this is incorrect. Cold does not exist. Cold is the absence of heat. Similarly, darkness does not exist; it is the absence of light. Evil is the absence of good, or better, evil is the absence of God. God did not have to create evil, but rather only allow for the absence of good.
God did not create evil, but He does allow evil. If God had not allowed for the possibility of evil, both mankind and angels would be serving God out of obligation, not choice. He did not want “robots” that simply did what He wanted them to do because of their “programming.” God allowed for the possibility of evil so that we could genuinely have a free will and choose whether or not we wanted to serve Him.
As finite human beings, we can never fully understand an infinite God (Romans 11:33-34). Sometimes we think we understand why God is doing something, only to find out later that it was for a different purpose than we originally thought. God looks at things from a holy, eternal perspective. We look at things from a sinful, earthly, and temporal perspective. Why did God put man on earth knowing that Adam and Eve would sin and therefore bring evil, death, and suffering on all mankind? Why didn’t He just create us all and leave us in heaven where we would be perfect and without suffering? These questions cannot be adequately answered this side of eternity. What we can know is whatever God does is holy and perfect and ultimately will glorify Him. God allowed for the possibility of evil in order to give us a true choice in regards to whether we worship Him. God did not create evil, but He allowed it. If He had not allowed evil, we would be worshipping Him out of obligation, not by a choice of our own will.