LCCC ENGLISH DAILY NEWS BULLETIN
January 19/2013

Bible Quotation for today/Modesty
"He has scattered the proud in the imagination of their hearts. He has put down princes from their thrones. And has exalted the lowly. He has filled the hungry with good things. He has sent the rich away empty". (Luke 01/51-54)

Latest analysis, editorials, studies, reports, letters & Releases from miscellaneous sources
 Eupean Countries appeases the Terrorist Hezbolah: Bulgaria: No Hezbollah link to deadly terror attack //January 19/13

Latest News Reports From Miscellaneous Sources for January 19/13
 The politics of a bombing investigation In Bulgaria
Sleiman inspects Army, U.N. peacekeepers in south
President Michel Sleiman: No Christian consensus without me
 Lebanon minister’s convoy attacked, four wounded
Jumblatt in Russia backs Geneva plan to end Syria crisis
Grand Mufti Mohammad Rashid Qabbani launches scathing attack on Assad regime
 Companies lining up to buy Lebanon’s gas data
Lebanese minister says survived assassination attempt
 March 8 certain polls will not be held based on 1960 law
A noisy electoral debate in Lebanon, but is anyone listening?
Lebanese Army Defuses Two Grenades in Bab al-Tabbaneh
 Syrians Turn to Lebanese Foretellers for Signs of Hope
 Report: 8 Ain el-Hilweh (Saidon) Gunmen killed in Syria Fighting
 Gunmen Open Fire on Lebanese Army Barracks in Hermel
 Sniper Kills French Journalist in Syria's Aleppo, Says NGO
 Syria Rebels See Airport as Key to Taking Aleppo
 Raging Clashes Pit Syrian Kurds against Jihadists
 New "massacre" in Syria's Homs kills 106 - monitoring group
 Syria: Rocket hits Aleppo building, many hurt
Dark uncertainty over more than 50 Algerian gas field hostages
 30 hostages reported killed in Algeria assault
Sahara hostage holders make new threat

Islamists behind Algeria Raid Threaten More Strikes
 U.N. agency and Iran fail again to reach nuclear deal

Panetta urges NATO to keep pressure on al-Qaida
French-backed Malian troops reclaim key town from rebels
US: Egypt needs more religious tolerance
Obama to name McDonough chief of staff

This is Why Modesty is a MUST
By: Elias Bejjani/
"He has scattered the proud in the imagination of their hearts. He has put down princes from their thrones. And has exalted the lowly. He has filled the hungry with good things. He has sent the rich away empty". (Luke 01/51-54)
Those who falsely delude themselves into thinking they are superior to others, super wise and can do everything and any thing, fall into the evil trap of arrogance. By doing so they badly detach themselves from the reality of God's love. They build delusional castles in their minds, imprison themselves inside its imaginary gates and ultimately become completely blind in both heart and soul .
Arrogant individuals inevitably become hostile, angry, childish, selfish, antisocial and narcissists who are not welcomed anywhere. People avoid those who brag and exalt themselves. Arrogance is a very serious social problem caused by lack of faith that needs to be fixed before it gets worse. God does not bless those who are arrogant.
Almighty God has made it very clear in His Holy Book that He does not like those who are pompous, proud, and conceited because He Himself is a caring, humble, and meek Father. "Come to me, all you who labour and are heavily burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart; and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light." (Matthew 11:28-30)

European Countries appeases and cajoles the Terrorist Hezbollah
Bulgaria: No Hezbollah link to deadly terror attack
By JPOST.COM STAFF 01/18/2013/
http://www.jpost.com/International/Article.aspx?id=300048
Bulgarian Foreign Ministry denies report that the Burgas probe links the Lebanese terror organization to the bombing.
The Bulgarian Foreign Ministry denied on Friday a report saying that the probe into the Burgas bombing links Hezbollah to the attack.
On Thursday, Channel 2 reported that the investigation report found the Lebanese terror organization was behind the deadly bombing that killed five Israeli tourists and a Bulgarian bus driver.A contradicting report, however, that appeared in Bulgarian media on Thursday, said Bulgaria has no evidence of Hezbollah's involvement in the bombing. The report, citing officials in the Bulgarian Interior Ministry, added that the bomber's suspected Arab accomplice had a link to al-Qaida in the past.
The Bulgarian investigation report also states that the Europol has successfully identified three out of the four suspected of committing the attack, Channel 2 reported. The three allegedly entered Bulgaria through neighboring countries using fake identifications.
Bulgarian Foreign Minister Nikolai Mladenov made a surprise visit to Israel to brief leaders on his country's probe into the attack, but Israeli officials remained tight-lipped about what was said in these meetings.
While Israel blamed Hezbollah and its sponsor Iran for the attack, the Bulgarians have not yet issued their final report on the matter, due to be released either next week or the beginning of February.
The conclusions of the report are expected to have a significant impact on whether the EU finally adds Hezbollah to its list of terrorist organizations, something the US has already done and which Israel has been pushing for more than a decade. Such a move could lead to the freezing of Hezbollah’s assets in Europe.
According to Bulgarian and Israeli sources, Mladenov met Thursday with President Shimon Peres and Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, as well as with National Security Adviser Yaakov Amidror.
Bulgarian Interior Minister Tsvetan Tsvetanov, in Dublin for talks with European Union ministers on Thursday, was also expected to update Bulgaria's EU allies with the latest news, his office said.
Bulgaria has said the bombing was plotted outside the country and carried out by foreigners but has yet to publish full findings from its long-running investigation, which officials say is not yet complete.
Earlier this month Bulgaria issued an international arrest warrant for the accomplice to the terrorist who carried out the attack.
Bulgarian police investigators are keeping details about the accomplice’s identity and origins – both of which they say are known to them – out of the public domain for the time being.
According to the Bulgarian news agency Novintine, the bomber went under the alias of Jacque Felipe Martin, and one of his accomplices used the name Ralph Willima Rico. Both had fake documents from the US state of Michigan. The bomb blast tore through the bus soon after Israeli passengers had boarded. It was supposed to ferry them from Burgas Airport to hotels in the resort city.
*Benny Weinthal, Herb Keinon and Yaakov Lappin contributed to this report.


The politics of a bombing investigation
Now Lebanon/Six months after a suicide bomber detonated explosives on a bus full of Israeli tourists in the low-cost Black Sea resort of Burgas, Bulgaria, killing six, Bulgarian security agencies are rushing to finish their investigation. The results are scheduled to be made public on January 22, after a Bulgarian National Security Council meeting summoned by the country’s president.
There is a lot at stake in the inquiry into the bombing, as the US and Israel are fingering Hezbollah and Iran as the main suspects. Washington and Tel Aviv have been pressuring the European Union to label the Lebanese group a terror organization and consider its patron, Iran, a direct threat to Israel. Brussels, on the other hand, has been reluctant, and many countries asked for solid proof that the Lebanese Party of God is actually involved in terror activities on European soil. The only way to prove that is to come up with evidence that Hezbollah operatives were involved in the Burgas bombing. American and Israeli pressure on the Bulgarian government is great, and there are chances that Sofia might give in, experts say.
Nikolay Slatinsky, a Bulgarian author and national security expert, told NOW that Bulgarian foreign policy is very pro-American. “Our governments in general, not only this government, are always too ready to comply with this pressure, thinking that this is part of our Euro-Atlantic orientation,” Salinsky told NOW. “But in this real situation they will actually need proof, and I don’t think any exists.” But he stressed that he fears accusing an organization without proof just because of US-Israeli pressure might pose even more security risks for Bulgaria and the EU.
Finding evidence and identifying the perpetrators has been a difficult job for the Bulgarian prosecutors handling the case. The chief prosecutor in charge of the inquiry, Stanelia Karadjova, was sacked after complaining to the press that she had insurmountable obstacles. “Our crime reconstruction is so far based on indirect evidence and the conclusions of the experts,” Karadjova told the press.
She said the perpetrator was a Western citizen who hadn’t lived in his country for years and that both he and an accomplice carried IDs with addresses in Michigan, a US state with a large Lebanese community. But Karadjova also said that a SIM card sold by a Moroccan mobile operator was found at the crime scene. However, Moroccan authorities have not replied to Bulgarian investigators’ requests to send them the scripts of the phone calls and text messages made on the phone the SIM card belonged to, or the IDs of the SIM card’s holders. Moreover, she said that the Israeli security agencies have not sent the Israeli survivors’ eyewitness accounts of the attack. After Karadjova was fired, the Bulgarian chief of police travelled to Israel to discuss the investigation.
Israel and the US have no doubt that the bomb was detonated by Hezbollah operatives, but a number of experts believe it is more probable that either al-Qaeda or Bulgarian criminal gangs sent the suicide bomber. Meanwhile, al-Qaeda has officially taken responsibility for the strike, and a video clip praising the death of Swedish extremist Mehdi Ghezali was posted on the Internet. Ghezali was a follower of Lebanese Salafist Sheikh Omar Bakri, who lives in Tripoli. Bakri admitted in an interview that Ghezali was his student in London for a short while. Bakri also made a statement that shocked the Bulgarians: Eastern Europe is Islamic land waiting to be liberated.
Three months after the bombing, the Bulgarian government cracked down on a Salafist ring operating in the country and put on trial 10 Sunni Muslims from the village of Sarnitsa. Said Mutlu, an imam who studied in Saudi Arabia, was accused of running an unregistered branch of al-Waqf Al-Islami, a foundation funded mainly by hardline Salafists from Saudi Arabia. Mutlu pleaded not guilty. The trial attracted international criticism, and Sofia was accused of violating human rights.
Beyond the pressure coming from the US and Israel, Bulgaria also has to convince Brussels that there is no terror threat on its territory. This is one of Sofia’s main concerns, as Bulgaria wants to join the EU's passport-free Schengen zone. Once in Bulgaria, immigrants from all over the world would be free to travel throughout the EU.
Ioanis Michelatos, an Athens-based independent security analyst, told NOW that Bulgarian authorities have many reasons to be very careful with this investigation. “I know that with all the pressure coming from Israel to accuse Hezbollah, the Bulgarian government denied it had any proof of the group’s involvement, and I know they are looking into leads that do not only involve Islamic extremism but that are related to organized crime and other sectors,” he said. “There has never been a suicide bombing in the Balkans before. This was something very strange. Bulgaria is a strategic country in energy-security terms for the EU; the South Stream gas pipeline [from Russia] is going to pass through its territory. Moreover, there is a powerful organized crime network in Bulgaria which also poses security threats,” he said.

A noisy electoral debate, but is anyone listening?
January 18, 2013/By Willow Osgood/The Daily Star
BEIRUT: It took weeks of negotiations and a few VIP suites at a five-star hotel for the parliamentary subcommittee to relaunch talks on a new electoral law.
Since it resumed meeting last week, television stations and newspapers have covered every development, from the first 200 meter walk to Parliament from the hotel where some of the committee members are staying as a security precaution, to Speaker Nabih Berri’s suggestion of a hybrid law that would see MPs elected through both proportional representation and winner-takes-all systems.
But even with front page headlines and talk of a vote in the subcommittee next week, many Beirutis told The Daily Star Thursday that they aren’t following the electoral law debate, while those who are keeping up with the discussions are largely unsatisfied with the choices currently on the table.
“I think proportional representation in five large districts would be best. But the problem is that we are splintered demographically,” said Ismael, sitting at a cafe in Hamra. “There are areas that are home to just Shiites or Sunnis. If there’s a small Christian village nearby, their votes won’t count.”
None of the proposals under discussion matches the 28-year-old’s ideal system, but he had especially strong views on the Orthodox Gathering’s draft law, under which each of the country’s sect would elect its own MPs.
“It is pure sectarianism,” said Ismael. “It would take us back to 1975, when we’re looking for a way to get religion out of politics.”
Despite support from Hezbollah, Amal, the Free Patriotic Movement, the Lebanese Forces and Kataeb Party, the Orthodox proposal has garnered much criticism.
Ismael said he respects a number of politicians who are in a party not affiliated with his sect. But if the Orthodox draft law is passed, he wouldn’t be able to vote for these MPs.
Regardless of the outcome, however, he doesn’t plan to take part. “I never vote. I take my parents, drop them off and have a cigarette.”
Down the street, Hiba echoed Ismael’s assessment of the Orthodox Gathering’s proposal.
“It’s a bad idea. We are divided already and it would only divide us more,” the 30-year-old accountant said. Ultimately though, she doesn’t think new legislation to replace the 1960 law will have an impact – positive or negative – on the country.
“I’m not planning to vote because I think it’s useless,” she explained. “Older generations care, but we’ve given up on politics. We’d rather go out, go dancing, have fun.” Hiba’s coworker, Dina, 23, said she would be voting in the parliamentary election scheduled for June – the first since she’s reached voting age – but her ballot would be blank.“I will vote with a white paper: no one deserves my vote,” she said.
Across town, near Sassine, Sami Kabbabe admitted he hadn’t been following the discussion on the vote law. “I haven’t been watching it yet. There are still months before the election,” the 27-year-old said.
“We used to follow people and politics but not anymore, we don’t care. Now we only want peace,” he added, looking to a coworker for agreement.
Kabbabe, who volunteered that he was Christian and wasn’t planning to vote, said the Orthodox Gathering proposal could lead to sectarian tension, but he understood the reasoning behind it.
“Lebanon is that way: everyone is connected to their religion.” In the middle of bustling Aisha Bakkar, Samir Jalloul was busy selling phone credit, but eager to weigh in on the electoral proposals.
“We have been listening to the debate about the laws,” he said, gesturing toward his colleagues in a cellphone store. Describing the debate as a tug-of-war between parties, Jalloul was at first dismissive of all the draft laws. “None of them are good for Lebanon, they’re only good for the deputies,” he said, listing off pressing concerns that wouldn’t be affected by the law: “water, electricity and schools.”
But it soon emerged that the 50-year-old favored the Orthodox Gathering’s proposal, at least for the upcoming elections.
“Here in Lebanon, everything is by religion. Believe me, it’s how it works,” Jalloul said. “Just for this time, though.”While he thinks proportional representation would be better in principle, he added, “Not here, not now.” The Cabinet’s proposal, which would divide the country into 30 districts under a proportional representation system, doesn’t go far enough for Kaspar Derderian.
“The solution, in a nutshell, is: Lebanon as one district with proportional representation and without confessional distinctions,” the 79-year-old lawyer said, his answer fired off without a second thought.
“Lebanon is not yet united as a nation and this is the only way to realize one nation,” he explained as he looked up from a newspaper.
At a bookstore near the Cola roundabout, Badira, 40, was leaning against the counter, happy to say that she didn’t know much about the electoral law discussions.
“I haven’t been watching much. I don’t care about it,” she said. “I’ve decided not to vote this year because it’s just disgusting what’s happening now.”

March 8 certain polls will not be held based on 1960 law
January 18, 2013/By Hasan Lakkis/The Daily Star
The March 8 parties feel very confident that this year’s parliamentary elections will not be held on the basis of the 1960 electoral law, even if some amendments are introduced to it.
The parties’ stance conforms with the positions of Maronite Patriarch Beshara Rai and major Christian parliamentary blocs who have rejected the 50-year-old legislation. The 1960 law, which adopts the qada as an electoral district and is based on a winner-takes-all system, was used in the 2009 parliamentary elections.
Following a meeting with Hezbollah officials, some March 8 allies have confirmed this trend. According to them, the officials said: “We cannot give our necks to March 14 parties and allow the elections to be held on the basis of the 1960 law,” which has been rejected by everyone, at least as shown by their statements.
March 8 allies quoted these officials as saying that they would not allow the dispute over a new electoral law to go on until the election date in June. Senior state officials, under the pretext that the vote is a constitutional and democratic event, stress that the elections must take place even if the rival political factions fail to agree on a new electoral law.
The March 8 parties are wary of the gravity of a consensus between President Michel Sleiman, Prime Minister Najib Mikati and Progressive Socialist Party leader MP Walid Jumblatt to say that the elections must take place and that the matter is not linked to a new electoral law as long as there is legislation that ensures the election process, an approach that would put the March 8 alliance in an embarrassing situation.
The March 8 sources quoted Hezbollah officials as saying that irrespective of local, Arab, foreign or U.N. pressure, holding the elections according to the 1960 law was unacceptable, especially since most parties, except the Druze, have announced that they oppose holding the vote within this framework.
The March 8 parties are open to all options and ready to discuss all proposals that can ensure a true representation for all sects, they said.
Those visiting the Hezbollah officials did not get the impression there was assent on a new electoral law. They said the door had not yet been closed on such an agreement, adding that contacts launched by Speaker Nabih Berri with all the parties were still continuing, even though no concrete results had so far emerged.
Some of the March 8 parties, particularly MP Michel Aoun’s Free Patriotic Movement, have rejected a proposal presented by PSP’s MP Akram Shehayeb during the meetings of the parliamentary subcommittee for the creation of a senate. They said that if some wanted to discuss the issue of the country’s political system as a whole, “let the elections be postponed, after which we can begin discussing these formulas whose approval requires a consensus.”However, parliamentary sources voiced fears that the current political tensions might lead Lebanon to a dead end before an agreement was reached on election legislation, similar to what happened in 2005 following the assassination of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri and the May 7, 2008, clashes between pro- and anti-government groups in Beirut, which eventually led to the Doha Accord.

President Michel Sleiman: No Christian consensus without me
January 18, 2013/By Hussein Dakroub The Daily Star
BEIRUT: President Michel Sleiman broke his silence Thursday on the current heated debate over new electoral legislation, lashing out at ministers who failed to support the Cabinet’s draft law and opted instead to embrace other proposals. He also took a direct swipe at the country’s rival Maronite parties, which have displayed an unprecedented Christian consensus on the controversial Orthodox Gathering electoral proposal, saying that there can be no Christian consensus without the president. Sleiman’s tough stance on a new electoral law for this year’s parliamentary polls came during a Cabinet meeting he chaired at Baabda Palace during which he reiterated his support for the government’s draft law based on a proportional representation system with 13 medium-size districts and urged the ministers to embrace it. “President Sleiman urged the ministers not to depart from the Cabinet unanimity reached over the issue of an electoral law, while showing understanding toward the stances of the political parties to which the ministers belong,” Information Minister Walid Daouk quoted the president as saying during the Cabinet session.
“It is unacceptable for the ministers to promote via statements and news conferences draft laws different from the one they voted for in the Cabinet without returning to the Cabinet,” Sleiman added.
Ministers from the March 8 alliance, who belong to the Free Patriotic Movement, Hezbollah and the Amal Movement, have voiced support for the Orthodox proposal, while ministers from MP Walid Jumblatt’s bloc have backed an amended version of the 1960 law used in the 2009 polls.
Sleiman recalled that the Cabinet last year referred its draft electoral law to Parliament to debate it.
His remarks came as the rival political parties were still sharply split over what would serve as the best legislation to ensure fair representation for all sects.
The outcome of several days of deliberations by a parliamentary subcommittee made up of March 8 and March 14 lawmakers showed support for a proposal presented by the Orthodox Gathering, which projects Lebanon as one single district based on proportional representation with each sect electing its own MPs.
Six MPs out of the nine subcommittee members supported the Orthodox proposal. The six MPs belong to the Lebanese Forces, the Kataeb Party, MP Michel Aoun’s FPM, Hezbollah and the Amal Movement.
However, the Orthodox proposal has been rejected by Sleiman, the Future Movement, Jumblatt and some March 14 Christian lawmakers, who warned that the draft would sharpen sectarian divisions and encourage the rise of extremists. The subcommittee has also examined the Cabinet’s draft electoral law and a proposal presented by the LF and the Kataeb Party that would divide Lebanon into 50 small districts under a winner-takes-all system.
The leaders of the rival Maronite parties – the FPM, the LF, the Kataeb Party and Zghorta MP Suleiman Franjieh’s Marada Movement – have fully supported the Orthodox proposal in a rare show of Christian unity.
Addressing the Cabinet session, Sleiman scoffed at the argument by some FPM ministers and lawmakers that the president had departed from Christian consensus by not supporting the Orthodox proposal.
“To say that the president departed from Christian consensus is not true at all. There is no Christian consensus without the consent of the president, particularly when he is not consulted on a certain matter. There are other people as well [who haven’t been consulted],” Sleiman said, according to Daouk. Sleiman’s remarks drew a quick response from Aoun who said that an election law is an issue of political rights stipulated by the Constitution.
“Gen. Aoun would like to clarify that the issue of an election law cannot be treated as an issue of a new law seeking a national consensus. Rather, it is an issue of political rights stipulated by the Constitution,” Aoun said in a statement released by his office.
Sleiman stressed that efforts should be exerted to ensure that the elections, scheduled for early June, should be held on time.
“Everyone must cooperate to find an election law because it is very shameful for the country not to be able to adopt an electoral law for the first time without a [foreign] tutelage,” he said, clearly referring to Syria’s domination of Lebanon for nearly three decades until 2005.
In order to facilitate the work of the joint parliamentary committees studying a new electoral law and approve the state budget, Sleiman said he had signed a decree to open an extraordinary parliamentary session.
The Cabinet approved the allocation of $400,000 to the Interior Ministry to prepare for the parliamentary elections.
Meanwhile, Speaker Nabih Berri pledged to continue his efforts to seek an inter-Lebanese consensus on a new electoral law. He said he had supported the 1960 law, which adopts the qada as the electoral district and is based on a winner-takes-all system, when there was a Christian consensus on it in Doha, Qatar, in 2008.
“Now, I am not standing against the Orthodox draft law. But there is a very sensitive and important point. What I am seeking is to reach a consensus among the Lebanese. I will continue my efforts for this purpose until the last minute,” Berri said during a meeting with a delegation of the consular corps led by Joseph Habeis. Berri met at his residence in Ain al-Tineh with Batroun MP Butros Harb with whom he discussed efforts to reach an agreement on a new electoral law. Harb is one of independent March 14 lawmakers who have slammed the Orthodox proposal, warning that it threatened the Christians’ role in Lebanon. Former President Amin Gemayel, head of the Kataeb Party, renewed the party’s support for the Orthodox proposal. During a meeting with a delegation from the Journalists’ Union led by its chairman Elias Aoun, Gemeyal urged critics of the Orthodox proposal “to find an alternative draft law that can ensure a true representation of the Christians.”

Grand Mufti Mohammad Rashid Qabbani launches scathing attack on Assad regime
January 17, 2013/The Daily Star /BEIRUT: Grand Mufti Mohammad Rashid Qabbani said Lebanon should help Syrian refugees as much as it can and launched fiery statements against the Assad regime in statements Thursday.
“I strongly condemn anyone who says we should find a way to deport the Syrian refugees out of Lebanon ... The Syrian and Lebanese people are one and we should provide Syrian refugees with all possible assistance,” said the Mufti in a press conference in which he launched an aid campaign for the Syrian refugees in Lebanon. The campaign, launched from Dar al-Fatwa under the title “You should love those who come to you,” was funded by Kuwaitis, Saudis and Lebanese. The UNHCR is in touch with more than 200,000 Syrian refugees who have fled the violence in their neighboring country since the uprising against the Assad regime begun in March 2011.
The influx of refugees to the country has provoked concern among some Lebanese officials, notably Energy and Water Minister Lebanon Gebran Bassil, who has said the country should set limits on the newcomers.
Qabbani also launched fiery statements against the Assad regime, saluting the “heroic” Syrian people who he said would eventually win the battle.
“The regime in Syria is a tyrant one... We have never witnessed a regime killing its own people,” said the mufti.“You will see with your own eyes the fate of oppressors in Syria and their supporters,” he added.

Sleiman inspects Army, U.N. peacekeepers in south
January 18, 2013/By Mohammed Zaatari/The Daily Star
TYRE, Lebanon: President Michel Sleiman inspected Friday U.N. peacekeepers and Lebanese Army units in south Lebanon. The president, who was accompanied by Defense Minister Fayez Ghosn, arrived in the border town of Naqoura aboard a military helicopter around 10 a.m. He headed straight to the Naqoura headquarters of the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) where he was met by Lebanese Army head Gen. Jean Kahwaji and UNIFIL commander Maj. Gen. Paolo Serra. Sleiman held talks with Serra in Naqoura before heading to Benoit Barakat barracks of the Lebanese Army in Tyre. A military band played the national Lebanese anthem before Sleiman was led into the barracks. "The president is visiting UNIFIL as part of a regular visit," UNIFIL spokesman Andrea Tenenti told The Daily Star. The local newspaper As-Safir said Friday that Sleiman’s visit would be an opportunity to highlight Lebanon’s commitment to U.N. Security Council Resolution 1701 and urge the international community to compel Israel to abide by the resolution. UNSCR 1701 brokered a cessation to the hostilities between Lebanon and the Jewish state following a 33-day conflict between the two sides. Sleiman, according to the daily, would also underline the importance of cooperation and coordination between the Lebanese Army and U.N. peacekeepers operating in south Lebanon. The president would also reaffirm that the government will spare no effort to provide the Army with logistics and arms supplies, it added.

Lebanese minister says survived assassination attempt
January 18, 2013/The Daily Star
TRIPOLI, Lebanon: Minister Faisal Karami said Friday he was a target of an assassination attempt Friday while he was on his way to Friday prayers. “I was a target of an assassination attempt when my convoy was attacked by gunfire and they were aiming at me,” Karami was quoted as saying.

Companies lining up to buy Lebanon’s gas data
January 18, 2013/ BEIRUT: More companies are expected to buy the oil and gas data from Lebanon as companies line up to bid for the first round of a prequalification tender in February, the CEO of Britain-based Spectrum said Wednesday. “The government and our company have already raised $90 million from the selling of this data to international oil companies. There are daily and weekly meetings in several capitals to review this data to make bidding in the tenders,” David Rowlands told The Daily Star over the telephone. Basically, the data contains detailed information about the geological structure and carbon on the shores of Lebanon as well maps of all the areas that were surveyed by the high-capacity seismic vessel, M/V Polar Duke. The vessel has surveyed 3,000 square kilometers southwest of Lebanon, near the maritime border with Cyprus and Israel.
“There has been lot of activity among companies since the Energy and Water Ministry set dates for the tender this year. The companies are trying to put together partner groups to drill for gas fields in Lebanon,” Rowlands explained. Energy and Water Minister Gebran Bassil insists on granting the licenses to extract gas to a consortium of companies instead of allowing one company alone do the work in the oil fields.
“We had companies which came to our office in London to inquire about the prospects of oil and gas in Lebanon. We also had four meetings in Dubai this week to discuss the same subject,” Rowlands said.
The six member Petroleum Administration is currently making all the preparations to launch the tender in the coming few months.
But Bassil said recently that the members of this committee were not authorized to reveal any information to the press or contact the companies. The committee is designed to hammer out the conditions for the tender and review all the technical and legal details. The committee communicates with the Energy and Water Ministry, which will negotiate with the companies. Rowlands stressed that the actual drilling and gas exploration would begin in 2014 if everything went according to the plan. The total maritime area that will be surveyed is 22,000 square kilometers, meaning that gas levels could be higher than initial estimates show, Rowlands said earlier. “Over the next six months, I anticipate more selling of the technical data. In addition to the data, we’ll prepare reports and then sell them to interested parties,” he added. Rowlands said Spectrum had several months ago sent teams to scout additional Lebanese areas to explore the possibility of oil onshore. But he added that Spectrum would get a clear idea about the prospects of oil on Lebanese shores at the end of this year because it is easier to assess the size of gas offshore.Bassil expressed confidence Tuesday of finding substantial oil and gas inside Lebanese territories. But some experts fear that the political wrangling and the sharp debate over the election law could delay the work of the Petroleum Administration.

U.N. agency and Iran fail again to reach nuclear deal
January 18, 2013/By Fredrik Dahl/Daily Star
VIENNA: U.N. inspectors failed again in talks in Tehran this week to secure a breakthrough deal on Iran's atomic activity in a setback for diplomatic efforts to resolve the nuclear dispute with the Islamic state peacefully.
Herman Nackaerts, deputy director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), said on Friday his team had not been granted the access they have long sought to a military site. A further meeting was scheduled for Feb. 12. In a separate note sent to IAEA member states about the negotiations over Wednesday and Thursday, seen by Reuters, the U.N. agency said "important differences" between the two sides remained and it had therefore not been possible to reach an agreement. The absence of an accord meant to allay international concerns over Tehran's atomic ambitions will disappoint world powers seeking a broader diplomatic settlement with Iran that would avert the threat of a new Middle East war. The IAEA's efforts to unblock its long-stalled investigation into suspected atom bomb research in Iran are separate, but closely linked, to negotiations between Tehran and the powers that may resume later this month after a seven-month hiatus. The IAEA, whose mission is to prevent the spread of nuclear weapons, has been trying for a year to negotiate a so-called structured approach with Iran giving the inspectors access to sites, officials and documents for their long-stalled inquiry. At the centre of its concerns, it wants to inspect the Parchin military complex southeast of Tehran where it believes explosives tests relevant for nuclear weapons development may have taken place, something Iran denies. "We had two days of intensive discussions," Nackaerts told reporters at Vienna airport. "We could not finalise the structured approach to resolve the outstanding issues regarding possible military dimensions of Iran's nuclear programme," he said.
Nackaerts said as he left Vienna for Tehran on Tuesday that he hoped for immediate access to Parchin, where Western diplomats suspect Iran has carried out work to cleanse the site of any traces of past, illicit nuclear-related activity. Iran says Parchin is a conventional military facility and has dismissed accusations of "sanitisation" taking place there.
"Also on this occasion no access was granted to Parchin," said Nackaerts, who led a team of eight senior IAEA officials.
World powers were monitoring the IAEA-Iran talks for any signs as to whether Tehran, facing intensifying sanctions pressure, may be prepared to finally start tackling mounting international concerns about its nuclear programme. Israel - a U.S. ally believed to have the Middle East's only nuclear arsenal - has threatened military action if diplomacy and economic sanctions intended to rein in Iran's uranium enrichment programme do not resolve the stand-off. Nuclear proliferation expert Mark Fitzpatrick said about the latest round of IAEA-Iran talks: "Unfortunately, this disappointing result is the norm. Despite all the optimism about engagement, in practice anyone who sits down at the table with Iran finds it immensely frustrating." Diplomats have said there is still a window of opportunity for world powers to make a renewed diplomatic push to find an overall negotiated solution to the dispute after U.S. President Barack Obama won re-election in November. The powers - the United States, Britain, France, Germany, Russia and China - want Iran to scale back its uranium enrichment programme and cooperate fully with the IAEA. Iran wants the West to first lift sanctions hurting its economy. Both sides say they want to restart their talks as soon as possible, perhaps later in January, but no date and venue has yet been announced. "Iran may have an incentive to delay cooperation with the IAEA in order to use that as a bargaining chip in the more important political talks," Shashank Joshi, a Middle East specialist at the Royal United Services Institute, said.

Dark uncertainty over more than 50 Algerian gas field hostages
DEBKAfile Exclusive Report January 18, 2013/
On January 11, a few hundred French troops and a handful of fighter jets and gunships launched a campaign against Islamist terrorists in Mali, a West African desert vastness larger than Texas and California combined. This former French colony appealed to Paris for aid to throw back a mixed al Qaeda-rebel advance on the capital, Bamako.
But France, no more than the US, had learned from the Afghanistan War that Al Qaeda cannot be beaten by aerial warfare - certainly not when the jiahdists are highly trained in special forces tactics and backed by highly mobile, well-armed local militias, armed with advanced anti-aircraft weapons and knowledgeable about conditions in the forbidding Sahara.
Within 48 hours, this modest “crusader” intervention had united a host of pro-al Qaeda offshoots and allies, some of them castoffs from the army of Libya’s deposed Muammar Qaddafi.
They are led by Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb – AQIM; the West African jihadist MUJAO; and the Somali al-Shabaab which is linked to Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula – AQAP. Together, they are threatening to execute one by one the 10 or eleven French hostages they are holding as part of their revenge on France.
The French declared their mission to be to dislodge the Islamists from an area larger than Afghanistan in the north, including the principal towns of Timbuktu, Gao and Kidal. Without several thousand special forces’ troops on the ground, this is just a pipedream. The disaffected Touareg tribes are supporting al Qaeda against the French as part of their drive for independence. Their added value is the training in special forces’ tactics some 1,500 Touareg fighting men and their three officers received from the US. The US originally reserved them as the main spearhead of a Western Saharan multi-tribe campaign to eradicate al Qaeda in North and West Africa.
Instead, the Sahel tribesmen followed the Touareg in absconding to Mali with top-quality weapons for desert warfare and hundreds of vehicles from US and ex-Libyan military arsenals.
This major setback for US administration plans and counter-terror strategy in Africa tied in with Al Qaeda’s assassination of US Ambassador Chris Stevens and three of his staff in Benghazi last September. Because the United States held back from direct US military action in both cases, Qaeda has been allowed to go from strength to strength and draw into its fold recruits from Mali’s neighbors. They are tightening their grip on northern Mali and have imposed a brutal version of Islam on its inhabitants, putting hundreds to flight.
France stepped in when al Qaeda drove south to extend its rule to all parts of Mali and pose a terrorist threat to Europe.