LCCC ENGLISH DAILY NEWS BULLETIN

LCCC ENGLISH DAILY NEWS BULLETIN
April 08/14

Bible Quotation for today/John 7,1-13/‘My time has not yet come, but your time is always here
"After this Jesus went about in Galilee. He did not wish to go about in Judea because the Jews were looking for an opportunity to kill him. Now the Jewish festival of Booths was near. So his brothers said to him, ‘Leave here and go to Judea so that your disciples also may see the works you are doing; for no one who wants to be widely known acts in secret. If you do these things, show yourself to the world.’ (For not even his brothers believed in him.) Jesus said to them, ‘My time has not yet come, but your time is always here. The world cannot hate you, but it hates me because I testify against it that its works are evil. Go to the festival yourselves. I am not going to this festival, for my time has not yet fully come.’After saying this, he remained in Galilee. But after his brothers had gone to the festival, then he also went, not publicly but as it were in secret. The Jews were looking for him at the festival and saying, ‘Where is he?’ And there was considerable complaining about him among the crowds. While some were saying, ‘He is a good man’, others were saying, ‘No, he is deceiving the crowd.’ Yet no one would speak openly about him for fear of the Jews."

Latest analysis, editorials, studies, reports, letters & Releases from miscellaneous sources For April 08/14

Latest News Reports From Miscellaneous Sources For April 08/14
Lebanese Related News

Pope presses anti-AIDS chastity strategy in Africa
April 07, 2014/Daily Star/VATICAN CITY: Pope Francis has praised church workers in Africa who promote chastity as a key way to prevent the spread of HIV. Francis was speaking Monday at the Vatican to bishops from Tanzania. Many non-Catholic health care workers advocate condoms as an important weapon to fight the spread of the HIV virus that causes AIDS. The Vatican opposes condom use because church teaching forbids contraception. Francis praised church health care workers in Africa who care for those with HIV/AIDS and "all who strive diligently to educate people in the area of sexual responsibility and chastity." In 2010, Pope Benedict XVI said male prostitutes who intend to use condoms might be taking a step toward greater responsibility. The Vatican insisted Benedict wasn't justifying condom usage to prevent HIV's spread

Bulgaria bus bomber trained in Lebanon camp
April 07, 2014/Daily Star
http://www.dailystar.com.lb/News/Lebanon-News/2014/Apr-07/252559-bulgaria-bus-bomber-trained-in-lebanon-camp.ashx#axzz2yCZug0Oc
SOFIA: The man who blew up a bus in a Bulgarian Black Sea resort in 2012, killing five Israeli tourists, was of Algerian origin and trained in camps in South Lebanon, the Bulgarian daily Presa said, quoting sources familiar with the investigation. Sofia has said Lebanese militant group Hezbollah was behind the attack at the Burgas airport. The European Union last July put the group's armed wing of the group on its terrorism blacklist over the incident. Hezbollah denies any involvement. The EU country has named two men of Lebanese origin as suspected accomplices of the bomber, who died during the attack. "The assailant was born in Algeria, lived in Morocco and was trained in camps in South Lebanon. He also studied at a Beirut university with the other two suspects," the newspaper said, quoting sources who declined to be named. The Balkan country has identified the suspects as 32-year-old Meliad Farah, also known as Hussein Hussein, an Australian citizen, and 25-year-old Hassan El Hajj Hassan, a Canadian citizen, both of Lebanese origin. The prosecutor's office, that is preparing an indictment for the attack, declined to comment. Bulgarian Chief Prosecutor Sotir Tsatsarov said last Friday there is a new information on the bomber, which is likely to extend the investigation into the attack.

April 07, 2014/The Daily Star /BEIRUT: Hezbollah was behind the March 14 roadside bomb attack on an Israeli patrol along the border with Lebanon, Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hasan Nasrallah said in an interview published Monday. The bombing that hit an Israeli patrol in Shabaa Farms was “the work of the resistance,” Nasrallah told the local daily As-Safir. The attack, he said, “sent a message that the resistance is still capable of fighting Israel,” even as its fighters back Syrian President Bashar Assad in his war against the rebels. Nasrallah said the attack was also a response to an Israeli air raid on a Hezbollah base in the Bekaa Valley border town of Janta in late February. “The story is not about rules of engagement, but about deterrence,” Nasrallah added. He also said Assad was winning the war against the armed opposition. "The danger of the Syrian regime falling has ended, and we have exceeded the risk of partition," he said.

April 07, 2014/By Mohammed Zaatari The Daily Star /SIDON, Lebanon: Clashes in the Palestinian refugee camp of Mieh Mieh in the coastal city of Sidon killed eight people, including the commander of an armed group, and wounded 10 others Monday, security sources said. Fighting erupted around noon between supporters of former Fatah commander, Ahmad Rashid Adwan, and members of the armed group Ansar Allah, headed by Jamal Suleiman. During the clashes, members of Ansar Allah stormed Adwan's headquarters, killing him and his bodyguard, Ahmad Souri, the sources told The Daily Star. Adwan's two brothers, Rashid and Khaled, were also among the fatalities, the National News Agency reported. Gunmen exchanged gunfire and rocket-propelled grenades for over two hours, the sources said, adding that the clashes subsided around 3 p.m. The Lebanese Army deployed heavily around Mieh Mieh in a bid to contain the clashes as military units worked to seal off all entrances to the camp.Palestinian Popular Committees delegation arrived to the camp and held several meetings with Ansar Allah to put an end to the violence and agree on a ceasefire. Members of the Palestinian group, founded in the 1990s with Iran's backing, evacuated Adwan’s headquarters as residents in the camp pulled several bodies out of the offices. A Palestinian official said Monday’s fighting was the result of a personal dispute between members of the two groups. “There was a personal dispute ten days ago and several factions tried to resolve it but they failed," head of Aqssa Brigades Munir al-Maqdah told the state-run agency.

Berri calls for open-ended sessions to pass laws
April 07, 2014/The Daily Star /BEIRUT: Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri called for a two-day, open-ended legislative session Wednesday and Thursday to pass a number of laws. A statement from his office Monday said Berri will convene Parliament at 10:30 a.m. Wednesday and Thursday. It said the legislative session’s length is unrestricted. There are 14 items on the agenda. However, the long-awaited salary increase will only be added to the legislative timetable if the Joint Parliamentary Committees finalize drafting the law before Wednesday, a political source told The Daily Star. The two most notable items on the agenda are the controversial Naameh landfill and the job status of Civil Defense workers. Residents living near the landfill south of Beirut have complained for years that the dumping ground was being filled beyond its capacity and ruining the environment, as well as making locals sick. Civil Defense workers have blocked roads and held demonstrations last week demanding authorities change their status to full-time employees.

Salameh joins committees’ meeting over salary scale
April 07, 2014/The Daily Star /BEIRUT: Central Bank governor Riad Salameh joined Monday Parliament’s joint committees’ talks over a draft law to raise public sector salaries after lawmakers failed last week to agree over revenues and proposed taxes to cover the increase. Salameh attended the three-hour meeting for the first time to present his views on the controversial salary scale draft law estimated to cost the government over $1.6 billion annually. The lawmakers are set to resume their meeting at 5:00 p.m. Parliamentary sources said that Salameh suggested to the gathering that the government pay the increased salaries in installments over five years to ease pressure on the Treasury’s finances and avoid inflation. The committees’ meeting was attended by dozens of lawmakers as well as Finance Minister Ali Hassan Khalil and Education Minister Elias Bou Saab and chaired by Deputy Speaker Farid Makari. The UCC, representing public sector employees and teachers, has held a series of protests and strikes to pressure lawmakers to pass the law, while threatening further escalatory measures if the salary scale bill was not approved soon. The country’s Economic Committee, which represents the private sector, has come out against the bill, arguing it would have dire consequences for the economy.

Al-Rahi Travels to Geneva, Says New President Should be Honorable
Naharnet Newsdesk 07 April 2014/Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi on Monday traveled to Switzerland on a five-day official visit, reiterating his call for the election of an “honorably” strong president.
Al-Rahi, who headed to Geneva, was accompanied by Bishop Boulos Matar and Bkirki spokesman Walid Ghayyad. The patriarch is expected during his five-day trip to give a lecture, and meet with U.N. peace envoy Lakhdar Brahimi and Lebanese community members in Geneva. Al-Rahi reiterated to reporters before traveling to Geneva that Lebanon is in need for a president who is “strong in his morals ... and his impartiality.”
The new president should “believe in the state and bring back its dignity,” he said at Rafik Hariri International Airport. He should also help the state institutions regain their role and have strong ties with the international community, including Arab countries, al-Rahi added. The patriarch thanked Speaker Nabih Berri for the efforts he is exerting to hold the presidential elections. But he urged him to call for a parliamentary session as soon as possible. The legislature is yet to convene to elect a successor to President Michel Suleiman whose six-year term ends on May 25. Only Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea has officially announced his candidacy although there are many contenders, including his rival Free Patriotic Movement chief MP Michel Aoun.

Kataeb Urges Maronite, March 14 Talks over Presidential Elections
Naharnet Newsdesk 07 April 2014/The Kataeb party called on Monday for addressing the presidential elections through a meeting of Maronite leaders in Bkirki, and through talks between March 14 figures.
In a statement released after the political bureau's weekly meeting, the party called on all parties to embark on the process of electing a new president within the constitutional timeframe. "And we also call for addressing the presidential elections through a meeting of Maronite leaders in Bkirki, and through a March 14 and a national meeting,” the statement added. "We have tasked a committee formed of some political bureau members to draft suggestions that could assure holding the presidential elections on time, and preventing vacuum,” the statement revealed.Earlier on Monday, a parliamentary committee formed by Speaker Nabih Berri announced that all the parliamentary blocs it has met with have promised to attend the first parliamentary session to elect a new president, which the speaker is expected to schedule "between April 15 and April 30." The constitutional timeframe to elect a successor to President Michel Suleiman began on March 25, amid the president's refusal of any extension of his term -- which ends May 25.Until the moment, only Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea has officially nominated himself for the presidency. Separately, Kataeb's politburo called for providing the needed support to assure the success of this security plan in the Bekaa, “following its positive outcome in the northern city of Tripoli.”“We hope this plan would extend to include all Lebanese regions until we reach an arms-free country,” the statement said.
"The success of this plan underscores the state's capability of taking matters into its own hands, when a national decision in this regard is secured.”

Syria's Assad says political Islam project has failed

April 07, 2014 /Daily Star/DAMASCUS: The "project of political Islam has failed," Syria's President Bashar al-Assad said on Monday, calling for the separation of religion from politics, state television said. Assad's regime has been battling an uprising that has come to be dominated by Islamists, ranging from moderates to radicals, who want to see Syria run as an Islamic state. "The project of political Islam has failed, and there should be no mixing between political and religious work," he said in comments on the 67th anniversary of the founding of his Baath party. Assad refers to all those fighting against him as "terrorists" and has said that he is battling extremists with retrograde ideas. The president has repeatedly stressed the need for all parts of Syrian society to challenge "extremism". Assad said his government was also "continuing with the process of reconciliation, because what concerns us is ending the bloodshed and the destruction of infrastructure". In recent months, Assad's government has negotiated limited ceasefires with rebels who agree to raise the government's flag in their neighbourhoods, and in many cases turn over their weapons. The deals usually follow months-long sieges by the army, which have contributed to humanitarian crises in parts of the country. Syria's conflict, which began in March 2011, has left more than 150,000 people dead.

US arms Syrian rebels with first heavy weapons, anti-tank BGM-71 TOW missiles - raising war stakes
DEBKAfile Exclusive Report April 7, 2014/Two Syrian rebel militias judged moderate in Washington have in the last few days taken delivery and begun using – mostly in the Idlib region - the first advanced US weapon to be deployed in more than three years of civil war, debkafile’s military sources reveal. It is the heavy anti-tank, optically-tracked, wire-guided BGM-71 TOW, which is capable of piercing 50mm thickness of Syrian tank armor and Syrian fortifications at a range of 4 kilometers. Armed with this weapon now are Brig-Gen. Abdul-Hila al Bashir, the new commander of the rebel Free Syrian Army, which is headquartered at the Golan town of Quneitra, and Jamal Maarouf, head of the rebel Syrian Revolutionary Front fighting in the north. The appearance of this advanced missile radically alters the balance of strength on the Syrian battlefield. It also denotes a striking change in Obama administration policy, which hitherto flatly resisted every demand to provide Syrian rebel groups with the heavy arms essential for them to have any chance of standing up to Bashar Assad’s superior military strength.
Our sources report that in the last few days, the new weapons are being airlifted in through two routes: the southeastern Turkish town of Diyarbakir on the Tigris, and the giant northern Saudi King Faisal Air Base at Tabuk near the Jordanian border. US Gen. Martin Dempsey, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs, arranged during his visit to Israel last week for the Netanyahu government to waive a standing agreement between the US, Saudi Arabia and Israel, whereby Saudi Air Force F-15 fighters are not stationed in Tabuk given its proximity to Israeli air space. Dempsey explained that they were needed as air cover for the American transports flying the new weapons in via Saudi, and the convoys ferrying them onward from the Saudi base to their destination in southern Syria through Jordan. Stationed at the Tabuk air base too is a squadron of French fighter jets. The route from Turkey to Syria runs through the “Kilis Corridor”, which is a narrow rebel-controlled strip 40 kilometers long from the southern Turkish town of Gaziantep up to the big Syrian town of Aleppo.
From his headquarters at Quneitra, opposite IDF positions on the Golan, Gen. al Bashir commands most of the Syrian forces fighting Bashar Assad’s army in the south. Maarouf and his Syrian Revolutionary Front operate from a base in the southern Turkish town of Antakya. In the last of his recent press interviews on April 2, Maarouf disclosed that some of the Front’s operations against the Syrian army were carried out in conjunction with al Qaeda’s Jabhat al Nusra. Our military sources report that Syrian tank armor is not thick enough to withstand the BGM-71 TOW rockets. To save his tanks, Assad has shifted the brunt of his anti-rebel operation to heavy air force bombardments, which claim a heavy toll among civilians. Washington is therefore confronted with its next decision about whether to give the rebels sophisticated anti-aircraft weapons as well. According to our sources in Washington and Moscow, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov obtained from US Secretary of State John Kerry a commitment, when they met in Paris last week, not to supply the rebels with hand held anti-aircraft missiles.

Is Israel focusing on the wrong enemy?

on : Monday, 7 Apr, 2014 /The Israeli government should not have shelled Hezbollah posts and is mistaken in defining the group as an enemy. This is the opinion of columnist Guy Bechor, writing in the Israeli daily, Yedioth Ahronoth. Bechor believes that President Bashar Al-Assad currently only governs one-fifth of Syria, and that Israel has plans, and the necessary power, to confront Shi’ite terrorists—though not their Sunni counterparts.
In reality we are not concerned about this kind of impoverished thinking, as it represents the analysis of someone who does not seem able to differentiate between the details on the ground. Contrary to Bechor’s argument, it would be good if Israel also targeted the Islamic State of Iraq and the Syria (ISIS), the Al-Nusra Front, and the other extremist groups. It is Assad’s regime itself that facilitated the emergence of such parasites vying, against the Syrian revolutionaries, for control of the country. These extremist groups have succeeded in turning the revolution into a sectarian war and have distorted the image of many Syrians taking part in the uprising.
Bechor writes: “the Syrian territory in the Golan Heights is already filled with Salafi Sunni terrorist forces. In the whole of Syria they include tens of thousands, and they are continuing to multiply . . . There is already a jihadist Sunni country from Baghdad to our fence in the Golan. Until now, these forces were busy fighting the regime’s army, but they are slowly taking over additional territories and finding time for Israel. If that is the case, is it possible that Israel is pointing an accusing finger at the wrong side? . . . Because against Hezbollah or the Assad army we still have a deterrence ability, but against the Salafis there is zero deterrence. That is the situation in Sinai, in the Red Sea and in the Gaza Strip.” Syria will be the biggest threat to Israel after it has been its top silent ally and its secure line of defense for 40 years. The threat stands, regardless of whether Assad remains in power or not.
If Assad survives, he will remain weak and in control of only limited areas. The situation will be the same if the conflict and extremist groups like ISIS take control of important geographical zones. Israel’s interest lies in ending Assad’s security cover and in supporting the idea of establishing a peaceful civil state in its vicinity. ISIS, Al-Nusra Front and Hezbollah are all terrorist groups with a shared policy of not crossing the borders toward Israel.
Most of their fighting takes place in civilian areas, whose residents they take as hostages. They enjoy the support of different groups in the region to the extent that one of them resorted to abducting foreigners or Christians for financial support. Such an operation is akin to money laundering: The countries that support these groups give them millions of dollars in funding disguised as “ransom” money to release the abductees. In reality, this is simply a way of supporting terrorist groups without alerting suspicion.

Dutch Priest Who Saw Syria as Home Shot Dead in Homs
Naharnet Newsdesk 07 April 2014/Dutch priest Frans van der Lugt, who gained renown for his insistence on staying in Syria's besieged city of Homs, was shot dead there on Monday by a masked gunman.
His death was reported by the British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights and Syria's state news agency SANA, and was confirmed by the Dutch Jesuit Order. The motive for his murder was unclear, although Syria's main opposition bloc accused the regime of President Bashar Assad of being behind it. Van der Lugt, 75, had become a well-known figure in the Old City of Homs, respected by many for his solidarity with residents of the rebel-held area under a government siege for nearly two years. He refused to leave despite constant shelling and dwindling supplies, insisting Syria was his home and he wanted to be with the country's citizens in their time of need. "I can confirm that he's been killed," Jan Stuyt, secretary of the Dutch Jesuit Order, told AFP by phone. "A man came into his house, took him outside and shot him twice in the head. In the street in front of his house," he said, adding the priest would be buried in Syria "according to his wishes". The opposition National Council said a "masked gunman" who also wounded Van der Lugt's guard from the rebel Free Syrian Army when he stormed the priest's Jesuit monastery and killed him.
Van der Lugt spent nearly five decades in Syria, and told AFP in February that he considered the country to be his home. "The Syrian people have given me so much, so much kindness, inspiration and everything they have. If the Syrian people are suffering now, I want to share their pain and their difficulties," he said. He stayed on even as some 1,400 people were evacuated during a U.N.-supervised operation that began on February 7 and also saw limited supplies of food brought into the city. Government forces have besieged Homs's Old City for nearly two years, creating increasing dire circumstances for those unable to leave. "The faces of people you see in the street are weak and yellow. Their bodies are weakened and have lost their strength," Van der Lugt said before the U.N. operation. "What should we do, die of hunger?" The siege and shelling whittled away the Old City's population, including a Christian community that shrunk from tens of thousands to just 66, according to the Dutch priest. Father Frans arrived in Syria in 1966 after spending two years in Lebanon studying Arabic.
He lived in a Jesuit monastery, where he ministered remaining Christians and tried to help poor families -- Muslims and Christians alike. "I don't see people as Muslims or Christian, I see a human being first and foremost," he told AFP in February. The Vatican praised Van der Lugt as a "man of peace," and expressed "great pain" over his death.
"This is the death of a man of peace, who showed great courage in remaining loyal to the Syrian people despite an extremely risky and difficult situation," spokesman Federico Lombardi said. "In this moment of great pain, we also express our great pride and gratitude at having had a brother who was so close to the suffering." Dutch Foreign Affairs Minister Frans Timmermans also mourned the priest on his Facebook page. "The man that's brought nothing but good in Homs, who became a Syrian among Syrians and refused to leave his people in the lurch, even when things became life-threatening, has been murdered in a cowardly manner," he said.
"Father Frans deserves our thanks and our respect. He must be able to count on our contribution to help end this misery."The office of Ahmad Jarba, the president of the opposition National Council, condemned the murder "in the strongest terms". It said the Assad regime was "ultimately responsible for this crime, as the only beneficiary of Father Frans's death". Assad himself was quoted as saying the "project of political Islam has failed" in Syria, where more than 150,000 people have been killed in a three-year conflict that has come to be dominated by Islamists, ranging from moderates to radicals.
SourceAgence France Presse.