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18 March 2008
TYRE, Lebanon, 17 March (IPS) - “I think the biggest challenge is to stay in the village,” says Ibrahim Sayyed, a 28-year-old municipality accountant from the beleaguered farming town of Aitaroun, situated barely a mile from the heavily patrolled Blue Line and Israel beyond. “My father and grandparents told me stories going back to 1948. All this time there has been war.” Read more about Farmers struggle to stay on their land
13 March 2008
TYRE, Lebanon, 12 March (IPS) - Soon after the US destroyer USS Cole was deployed off Lebanon’s shore 28 February to “preserve political stability”, a group of young men gathered around in the embattled agricultural town Qana in south Lebanon, and voiced their fears. “Everyone feels there is a war coming,” said Salman Ismael, a 22-year-old university student. “Especially after the killing of (Hizballah commander) Imad Mughniyeh and what is happening in Gaza.” Read more about Political crisis set to worsen
6 March 2008
BEIRUT, 6 March 2008 (IRIN) - The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) has completed rebuilding the primary water supply network in currently accessible areas of the ruined Nahr al-Bared Palestinian refugee camp, north Lebanon. Up to 90 percent of the water infrastructure in the areas of Nahr al-Bared outside the official boundary of the “old camp” was damaged or destroyed in a 15-week battle in the summer of 2007 between the army and Islamist militants. Read more about ICRC completes primary water supply to Nahr al-Bared
1 March 2008
BEIRUT, 28 February (IRIN) - When Hamza Shahrour had a heart attack in June last year, the 24-year-old Shia might have hoped to survive it, given that he was just a few blocks away from the Rafiq Hariri hospital, named after the former five-time Sunni prime minister. But because Hamza’s family had no health insurance and could not afford to pay the thousands of dollars deposit demanded, the doctors refused to treat him. Read more about Patients suffer privatized, politicized healthcare
21 February 2008
BEIRUT, 21 February (IRIN) - The UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) welcomed Lebanon’s steps this week to issue work and residency papers to the estimated 50,000 Iraqi would-be refugees in the country, hitherto considered illegal and subject to imprisonment and deportation. Starting this week Lebanon’s General Security intelligence body has given Iraqi asylum-seekers three months to regularize their status, which entails giving them residency and work permits that were previously denied. Read more about Lebanon moves to regularize Iraqi asylum-seekers
18 February 2008
BEIRUT, 18 February (IRIN) - As some 100 nations meet on 18 February to discuss a treaty banning the use of cluster bombs, the New York-based Human Rights Watch (HRW) has raised its estimate of the bombs and bomblets Israel showered over southern Lebanon in the 2006 war, to as many as 4.6 million. Read more about Israel's 2006 bombing of Lebanon could spur cluster bomb ban
13 February 2008
BEIRUT, 13 February 2008 (IRIN) - The government launched a preliminary master plan on 12 February to rebuild Nahr al-Bared Palestinian refugee camp in northern Lebanon, destroyed in a battle last year between the army and militant Islamists. Prime Minister Fouad Siniora said losses from the battle were great on all levels. “As we release the preliminary plan, we look to the Arab and international communities to meet us with the necessary assurances and funding to ensure its success.” Read more about Lebanese government's plan to rebuild Nahr al-Bared
1 February 2008
UNITED NATIONS, 31 January (IPS) - A leading international human rights group is calling into question the findings of an Israeli inquiry into the Jewish state’s war with Lebanon in 2006. The London-based Amnesty International says the Israeli government-appointed Winograd Commission is “deeply flawed” because it fails to address the issue of war crimes against the civilian population in Lebanon. Read more about Winograd report ignores civilian deaths
29 January 2008
BEIRUT, 29 January - The Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) headquarters in the posh neighborhood of the now closed Summerland Hotel in Beirut is buzzing with activity. A few men in black, Kalashnikovs firmly in their hands, guard the entrance to the elegant building. A handful of women and older men carrying papers scurry past them up the stairs to the PLO offices. In the waiting room, al-Jazeera news channel is showing footage of Palestinians in Gaza storming into Egypt, and carrying back baskets of food and consumer goods. Read more about Palestinians rush for confirmation they exist
29 January 2008
BEIRUT, 28 January (IRIN) - Deadly Shia riots in southern Beirut protesting over power and water cuts have occurred because these basic services have become part of the country’s increasingly tense political stand-off, said protesters and analysts. At least eight people were killed and 22 wounded as gunfire and grenades erupted after an official with Shia opposition group Amal was shot dead during a confrontation between angry demonstrators and the army on 27 January. Read more about Politicized power cuts behind deadly riots?