We have no president, they don’t consider the government a “legal” one, and the parliament (open or not) is controlled by them.
In addition to all this, they (AMAL and Hezbollah recently) controlled the ministry of electricity for many years, so who are they protecting to?
Category: Lebanon
It’s all in the title! I’ll keep you updated!
Update 1:
The explosion hit a military car that was part of a military convoy..
Confirmed: A civilian was killed by the blast.
Source: OTV
Update 2:
The explosion targeted the “Nakib” Wissam Eid according to NewTV. He was killed in the blast.
According to OTV his house was attacked last year, he was also injured during the Naher L Bared Battle.
5 10 confirmed victims
Update 3:
According to LBCI the security forces caught a guy wearing a suit similar to the one used by the red cross that was on the scene of the explosion!
Try to spot the difference between these two photos taken from yesterday’s BBC “In Pictures”.
Picture 1:
In Lebanon, a protester holds up a piece of bread during a strike by agricultural and transport unions to protest against the rising cost of living.
Picture 2:
French teaching unions hold protests in the town of Caen over government plans to slash 11,000 education sector jobs.
I just saw this on Naharnet, does anyone have more info about it?? it seems weird that they jailed 4 guys because of some remarks over singing talents! I guess there’s a more serious motive, if not we have serious issues in this country (a new kind of serious issues)!
our Lebanese university students have been jailed for a week for making crude remarks on the Facebook social networking site about the singing talents of a woman they met at a party, media reports said on Thursday.
Local newspapers reported that the students — all male — were ordered to be detained on January 10 after the young woman’s father objected to the authorities in the eastern town of Zahle.
The four were charged with slander and “violating public morality” and were ordered to be held in preventive detention despite objections by human rights groups.(AFP)
A US diplomatic car was targeted by an explosion an hour ago, apparently no one in the car was killed but unfortunately innocent civilians passing by were killed!
Usually US diplomats travel in cars separated by a couple of meters so I guess another US car took the wounded out of the targeted car, left some guards around, took the plates and left. (The car was already guarded when news crews arrived and no plates were on the car.)
The LBCI reporter pointed out that no one is currently allowed to even open the car doors to preserve evidence, something we are not used to!
RIP the martyrs and hope the wounded get well soon!
2008: 2 Explosions already!!! Apparently that’s gonna be a good year!
I received this video by mail today. It is supposed to be a secret meeting between Samir Geagea and Michel Aoun. You can’t hear them talk but they are smiling so I hope they agreed on something to get us out of this crisis! I also hope LFers and FPMers smile at each others more! the leaders are smiling I am sure the people can too!
Since our politician still can’t decide anything alone we receive a lot of foreign politicians in Lebanon. One of our regular guest in the French foreign minister Bernard Kouchner, we got used to seeing him once a month on TV since the crisis started so here are some facts about him that might interest you.
- He is the co-founder of Medecin sans frontiere (Doctors without borders) and Doctors of the world.
- He worked as humanitarian volunteer during the siege of the Nabaa camp in Lebanon (1975).
- He worked closely with Imam Moussa El Sadr.
- He tried to broker a cease fire between Aoun and Geagea in 88.
- His son stayed in Lebanon for a Month after the last war to participate in the relief efforts in Khyam.
- He is born from a Jewish Father and a Protestant Mother.
While searching for a picture for the book “Une croix sur le Liban” I found this interesting article written by Robert Solé in “le Monde” on the 24th of November 2006 (3 Days after the murder of Pierre Gemayel). Here’s the article:
Franchement, ne trouvez-vous pas disproportionné tout ce tintamarre à propos du Liban ? Voici un pays minuscule, qui n’a aucune ambition nucléaire et même pas un litre de pétrole. Rien ne le contraignait à être la première démocratie du monde arabe. Rien ne l’obligeait à accueillir les réfugiés palestiniens que ses voisins rejetaient. De quel droit refuserait-il qu’Israël, l’Iran et quelques autres l’adoptent comme champ de bataille ? Et pourquoi tant d’ingratitude à l’égard de son grand frère syrien, qui voulait seulement l’occuper, pour le protéger contre lui-même, et mettre la main sur son économie ?
Que des chrétiens et des musulmans de dix-sept communautés différentes aient su y partager le pouvoir pendant des décennies ne nous intéresse pas. D’ailleurs, les chrétiens finiront par quitter cette région à laquelle ils n’appartiennent que depuis vingt siècles. Accessoirement, que nous importe si beaucoup de Libanais chérissent la langue et la culture françaises ? N’est-ce pas un peu ringard à l’heure de la mondialisation ?
Oui, vraiment, il serait temps de mettre une croix sur le Liban.
Last year Grey Worldwide made a funny video to wish a Happy new Year to the Lebanese. This year they made a very funny flash animation instead. You can check it out here.
Yesterday another person was murdered, I don’t know who killed General Francois Ell Hajj but I know that you really feel secure in a country when a top army general gets assassinated next to the ministry of defense, the presidential palace and many military barracks!
RIP General Francois El Hajj.