BY ETHAN ZUCKERMAN
Friday evening, Tunisian President Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali boarded a jet for Malta, leaving his prime minister to face streets filled with protesters demanding a change of government in the North African country. The protests began weeks earlier in the central city of Sidi Bouzid, sparked by the suicide of Mohamed Bouazizi, an unemployed university graduate whose informal vegetable stall was shuttered by the police. His despair exemplified the frustration that many Tunisians felt with their contracting economy, high levels of unemployment and inequality, censored media and Internet, and widespread corruption. Protests spread from city to city, with trade unions, lawyers, and countless unemployed Tunisian youth demanding a change to an economic system that appeared to benefit a small number of families close to power and leave ordinary citizens behind.
As the protests intensified, Ben Ali offered concessions to his people: 23 years into his reign, he agreed to step down in 2014. He ordered the security police to stop using live ammunition on protesters after nearly 70 had been killed, cut the price of basic foodstuffs, and promised to allow a freer media and end Internet censorship. This morning, as pressures increased, he offered new elections within six months. But all that failed to placate the crowds, who finally got what they wanted later in the day: a Tunisia sans Ben Ali.
A protester holding a poster reading "Ben Ali get out" demonstrates in Tunis, Friday, Jan. 14, 2011.
While the future of Tunisia’s governance is extremely uncertain at present, it seems we’ve witnessed the rarest of phenomena, a popular revolt toppling an Arab dictator. Audiences in the Arab world have been glued to Al Jazeera, which has covered the protests closely. Many states in the region suffer from the same problems — unemployment, slow growth, corrupt government, aging dictators — that brought Tunisians into the streets. Protesters have taken to the streets in Algeria and Jordan, demanding jobs and affordable food. Whether these protests erupt into the revolution Tunisia is experiencing is impossible to know. What’s clear is that the actions taken by Tunisians are reverberating around the region.
Outside the Middle East and the Francophone media sphere, the events in Tunisia have gotten little attention, certainly not the breathless, 24-hour coverage devoted to 2009’s Iranian election protests. When the protests began in Sidi Bouzid, much of the English-speaking world was focused on the Christmas and New Year’s holidays. As protests in Tunis heated up, U.S. eyeballs were focused on the tragic shooting in Tucson, Arizona. Had the Tunisian protests hit during a slow news month, it’s still unlikely they would have been followed as closely as events in Iran, which is larger, of greater international security concern, and has a large, media-savvy diaspora who helped promote the 2009 protests to an international audience.
Iran’s diaspora was especially effective at promoting the Green Movement to an online audience that followed tweets, Facebook posts, and web videos avidly, hungry for news from the front lines of the struggle. Tens of thousands of Twitter users turned their profile pictures green in solidarity with the activists, and hundreds set up proxy servers to help Iranians evade Internet filters. For users of social media, the protests in Iran were an inescapable, global story. Tunisia, by contrast, hasn’t seen nearly the attention or support from the online community.
The irony is that social media likely played a significant role in the events that have unfolded in the past month in Tunisia, and that the revolution appears far more likely to lead to lasting political change. Ben Ali’s government tightly controlled all forms of media, on and offline. Reporters were prevented from traveling to cover protests in Sidi Bouzid, and the reports from official media characterized events as either vandalism or terrorism. Tunisians got an alternative picture from Facebook, which remained uncensored through the protests, and they communicated events to the rest of the world by posting videos to YouTube and Dailymotion.
People chant during a demonstration in Tunis, Tunisia, against high prices and unemployment, Saturday Jan.8, 2011
As unrest spread from Sidi Bouzid to Sfax, from Hammamet and ultimately to Tunis, Tunisians documented events on Facebook. As others followed their updates, it’s likely that news of demonstrations in other parts of the country disseminated online helped others conclude that it was time to take to the streets. And the videos and accounts published to social media sites offered an ongoing picture of the protests to those around the world savvy enough to be paying attention.
One way to understand the significance of social media in Tunisia is to examine the government’s attempts to control and silence it. Tunisia has aggressively censored the Internet since 2005, blocking not just explicitly political sites, but social media sites like video-sharing service Dailymotion. Video-sharing sites were a special target of government censors because Tunisian activists are extremely tech-savvy and had released provocative videos online, including one that documented the first lady’s frequent shopping trips to Europe using the presidential jet.
Not content just to filter content, last summer Tunisian authorities began “phishing” attacks on activists’ Gmail and Facebook accounts. By injecting malicious computer code into the login page of those services through the government-controlled Internet service provider, Ben Ali’s monitors were able to obtain passwords to these accounts, locking out the activists and harvesting email lists of presumed activists. When the riots intensified last week, the government began arresting prominent Internet activists, including my Global Voices colleague Slim Amamou, who had broken the story of the government’s password phishing. (Amamou was released, apparently unharmed, Thursday night.)
But if the web was such a threat to the government’s authority, why did the regime not block Facebook or shut down the Internet entirely? It’s critical to understand that Ben Ali was, first and foremost, a pragmatist. As late as Friday morning, he was looking for a solution that would allow him to remain in power, offering concessions in the hope of placating protesters. Internet censorship was already one of the grievances protesters had aired — when Ben Ali offered concessions to protesters Thursday, loosening the reins was one of the promises that were warmly, if skeptically received.
Pundits will likely start celebrating a “Twitter revolution” in Tunisia, even if they missed watching it unfold; the Atlantic’s Andrew Sullivan already revived the dreaded phrase Thursday. Others are seeking connections between unfolding events and a WikiLeaks cable that showed U.S. diplomats’ frustration with Ben Ali, and with denial-of-service attacks by online activist group Anonymous, which has been targeting entities that have tried to stop the dissemination of WikiLeaks cables, like the Tunisian government. But any attempt to credit a massive political shift to a single factor — technological, economic, or otherwise — is simply untrue. Tunisians took to the streets due to decades of frustration, not in reaction to a WikiLeaks cable, a denial-of-service attack, or a Facebook update.
But as we learn more about the events of the past few weeks, we’ll discover that online media did play a role in helping Tunisians learn about the actions their fellow citizens were taking and in making the decision to mobilize. How powerful and significant this influence was will be something that academics will study and argue over for years to come. Scholars aren’t the only ones who want to know whether social media played a role in the end of Ben Ali’s reign — it’s likely to be a hot topic of conversation in Amman, Algiers, and Cairo, as other autocratic leaders wonder whether the bubbling cauldron of unemployment, street protests, and digital media could burn them next. FP
The Vatican announced Friday that Pope John Paul II will be beatified on
May 1, meaning it has been decided that he has performed at least one
miracle. If he is found to have performed a second miracle, he will be
canonized as a saint. The miracle in question concerns a French nun, who
was diagnosed with an aggressive form of Parkinson's disease but was
reportedly cured in 2005, 
President
Barack Obama on Friday condemned violence against Tunisian citizens and
called on the government to hold free and fair elections soon.
"I condemn and deplore the use of violence against citizens peacefully
voicing their opinion in Tunisia, and I applaud the courage and dignity
of the Tunisian people," Obama said in a statement. 
A plane carrying Tunisian President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, who fled
his country after 23 years in power on Friday, landed early Saturday in
the Saudi city of Jeddah, the al Jazeera TV channel reported. 
MP
Okab Sakr, a key member of march 14 alliance told New TV on Friday
that Prime Minister Saad Hariri has his own conditions for becoming the
country’s next premier.
Sakr revealed that March 14 forces will not engage in a government
that is not headed by Saad Hariri, provided he will accept the
nomination . 
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According
to a report by by Israeli news website ynet , the Syrian regime
murdered methodically, since the early 1980s , more than 30 Lebanese
leaders and public figures, and nobody opened his mouth or said
anything. Anyone who threatened Syria’s position in Lebanon was removed.
And so, leading figures in some of Lebanon’s most prominent families
were assassinated 
March
14 MP Atef Majdalani said on Tuesday that Syrian President Bashar
al-Assad’s alleged statement in which he called for for rejecting the
Special Tribunal for Lebanon’s (STL) upcoming indictment , was a result
of the visit by Iranian Deputy Secretary of the Supreme National
Security Council Ali Bagheri to Damascus over the weekend.
“The STL is the only hope for achieving justice], ” Majdalani stressed
President Michel Suleiman visited south Lebanon and inspected the
offices of the Lebanese Armed Forces (LAF) and UNIFIL troops in the
South on Tuesday.
The president was accompanied by LAF Commander General Jean Kahwajid
other high ranking officers 
Amal
Movement MP Ali Hassan Khalil told NBN TV on Tuesday that Prime
Minister Saad Hariri’s visit to New York and his meeting with Saudi King
Abdullah bin Abdel Aziz will help in finalizing the settlement over
the STL indictment which should result in easing the tension in
Lebanon. 
A report by the Central Bank has revealed that Lebanese banks
attracted the largest share in bank deposits in the Middle East in
2010...over 30 percent of total deposits.
Lebanese banks reportedly attracted $8 billion of the total $25 billion
which was deposited in banks across the region... this resulted in
increasing the total bank capital to $105 billion as of October of this
year. 
Lebanese
Forces leader Samir Geagea praised the way president handled the vote
on the so called "false witnesses" during the last cabinet meeting :
Following his Tuesday meeting with Maronite Patriarch Nasrallah Boutros
Sfeir in Bkirki he told the media : 
An Iranian convicted of spying for the Israeli intelligence agency Mossad was hanged in Tehran Tuesday, Iranian officials said.
Ali Akbar Siadat was accused of sending classified information to Tel Aviv 
Yesterday Free Patriotic Movement (FPM) MP Nabil Nicolas launched an
attack against president Michel Suleiman and accused him of violating
Article 65 of the constitution.
“I did not understand what he meant when he said that ‘no one specifies
for me when to vote and when not to vote in the cabinet’. The president
does not have the right to vote in the cabinet even if he is presiding
it,” Nicolas told MTV on Monday. 
OTV
channel announced that it had received an anonymous call from a
person with Egyptian accent , who claims to belong to a
fundamentalist organization , accusing the leader of Change and Reform
bloc MP Michel Aoun of persecuting the Sunni Muslims . He threatened
that his group would kill General Aoun, 
Israeli
Minister of Minorities Avishay Braverman told Kuwaiti newspaper Al-Rai
during an interview that will be published on Tuesday that Israel
should seek peace with Lebanon and Syria .
Braverman said “the greatest danger is represented by Iran , 
A
Moscow judge found Mikhail Khodorkovsky, the jailed former head of
Yukos Oil Co., guilty of embezzling crude, adding to a 2005 conviction,
in a trial that has raised European concerns about the rule of law in
Russia.
Khodorkovsky and his former business partner Platon Lebedev, 
In an article published in the 
Lebanon
army intelligence says it has discovered and dismantled another
Israeli spying devices in Toumat Niha , in the Shouf region east of
Beirut , according to local reports .
Local reports revealed that the Toumat Niha device allow Israel to
monitor the Bekaa valley and coastal areas from Sidon all the way to
Jbeil. 
Israeli
warplanes violated Lebanon's airspace the Lebanon Army command says.
Two fighter jets flew over Akkar region at medium altitude and
then headed to the south.
Two other Israeli fighter jets flew over Tyre and Bint Jbeil in south
Lebanon at medium altitude. 
Crude traded little changed within 1 percent of a two-year high as
economic growth in the U.S. and colder temperatures in the northern
hemisphere whittle down excess fuel stockpiles.
Futures climbed as much as 0.3 percent after U.S. government reports
yesterday showed U.S. crude supplies fell last week to the lowest in 10
months 
A
senior Israeli army officer has told the BBC that as long as Hamas
remains in control of the Gaza Strip, another war is "only a question of
time".
He said the Palestinian Islamist group had re-armed so much since the
Israeli offensive two years ago that it was now in a stronger position
militarily.
There has been an increase in rocket fire coming from Gaza in the past
week. 
WikiLeaks
will release top secret American files concerning Israel in the next
six months, its founder Julian Assange disclosed yesterday.
In an exclusive interview with Al Jazeera, Assange said only a meagre
number of files related to Israel had been published so far, because the
newspapers in the West that were given exclusive rights to publish the
secret documents were reluctant to publish many sensitive information
about Israel. 
The
head of the Lebanese Permanent Military Court Brigadier General Nizar
Khalil today announced that January 18, 2011 will be the starting
date for the trial of retired Brigadier General Fayez Karam on charges
of of spying for Israel. 
Minister of State for Administrative Reform Mohammad Fneish, a key
Hezbollah official denied during an interview with NBN television on
Wednesday that his party is planning to carry out a coup in Lebanon 
The
dispute over vast natural gas fields in the eastern Mediterranean,
centered on Israel and Lebanon, has spread to divided Cyprus, which
involves longtime rivals Greece and Turkey.
Israel's discovery of three large fields containing an estimated 25
trillion cubic feet of gas off its northern coast over the last two
years has added a whole new energy dimension to the Arab-Israeli
conflict. 
In
one of the videos posted on the Special Tribunal for Lebanon’s (STL)
website on Wednesday, STL Prosecutor Daniel Bellemare said in a question
and answer session that accusations that the tribunal is politicized
are being made by people who might fear the outcome of the tribunal’s
decision or the tribunal’s efforts to uncover the truth.
Allegations of politicization are groundless, he said and added : "If I
am influenced by governments then the Tribunal could be considered
politicized but I make my own independent decisions and evidence is my
only guide ." 
Saudi
Arabia's royal palace says King Abdullah has left the New York
Presbyterian Hospital in good health after two successful back
surgeries.
Wednesday's statement from the palace says the monarch will remain in
New York for recuperation and to continue his physical therapy. It
doesn't say how long that will take. 
A statement issued Lebanese Forces bloc MP Antoine Zahra on Wednesday
slammed Free Patriotic Movement leader MP Michel over his remarks on
Lebanese officials , including President Michel Suleiman and Maronite
Patriarch Nasrallah Boutros Sfeir and accused him of acting as Lebanon’s
supreme leader, in reference to Iran's top religious leader . 
Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri 's press office denied in a
statement on Wednesday a report published by Ad-Diyar newspaper that he
has agreed to scrap the Special Tribunal for Lebanon ( STL) .
“The PM did not reveal to his visitors any of the information published
by the Ad-Diyar,” the statement said. 
March
14 MP Imad al-Hout told LBC TV on Wednesday that Progressive Socialist
Party leader MP Walid Jumblatt “has forgotten” that he supported the US
in the past years.
“Jumblatt forgot that he was with the US and reached the point of
accusing the March 14 coalition of taking part in Washington’s projects
in the Middle East ,” Hout said. 
Lebanon’s Progressive Socialist Party Leader MP Walid Jumblatt is to
visit Iran within the next two weeks, Iranian Students news Agency ISNA
reported on Tuesday...
During a recent meeting with Iranian ambassador to Lebanon Ghazanfar
Roknabadi, Jumblatt praised Iran’s stances. 
Several March 14 leaders were outraged by the remarks of Iran's supreme
leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei who joined Hezbollah's campaign against
the Special Tribunal for Lebanon ( STL) .
March 14 MP Ammar Houri on Tuesday told AFP:
"It seems that Ayatollah Khamenei's remarks aim to undermine calm in
Lebanon and across the Arab world." 
Lebanon's top Christian spiritual leader, Maronite Patriarch Nasrallah
Sfeir said in an interview on Monday with MTV that "the way Hezbollah
is acting gives the impression that they might seize power" in Lebanon.
Sfeir said: "We hope no Lebanese were involved in the murder of (
Former Lebanese PM Rafik ) Hariri's murder , but if those involved are
Lebanese, every criminal must face punishment." 
“Stray Bullet” by Lebanese director Georges Hachem won first prize at
the Dubai International Film Festival yesterday, this year a showcase
for new Arab talent.
The film, set shortly after the start of Lebanon’s 1975-1990 civil war,
tells the story of a young woman who is torn between a fiance picked by
her family and a former lover who suddenly reappears in her life. 
Egypt
on Monday charged an Egyptian businessman and two Israelis with spying
for Israel and trying to recruit operatives working for telecoms
companies in Egypt, Syria and Lebanon. 
Special Tribunal for Lebanon’s head of Defense Office François Roux and
his Deputy, Alia Aoun, concluded their four-day visit to Lebanon where
they met with President Michel Suleiman, Prime Minister Saad Hariri,
Justice Minister Ibrahim Najjar, Interior Minister Ziad Baroud and other
senior officials, according to an STL statement issued on Monday. 
Barack Obama's lack of progress in delivering on his historic 2009 Cairo
address has led to more despair in the Middle East, according to Bashar
al-Assad, the Syrian president.
"In his speech in Cairo, he sparked great hopes of peace in this
region," Assad told the mass circulation Bild daily in an interview
conducted in Damascus. 
Iran's
supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei joined Hezbollah's campaign
against the Special Tribunal for Lebanon ( STL) . He announced after a
meeting with the emir of Qatar, Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al-Thani that
any indictment handed down by a U.N.-backed court looking into the 2005
killing of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri will be "null and
void." 
Prime
Minister Nuri al-Maliki is expected to announce a partial lineup of
posts in Iraq’s national-unity cabinet, keeping the security jobs for
himself until a deal is reached with groups that opposed him in
elections, according to some members of his bloc in parliament. 
Russia’s
President Dimitri Medevdev will head to Lebanon during the second half
of January on an official visit , Al Liwa newspaper reported Monday
morning
According to diplomats the purpose of the visit is to reiterate
Russian support for stability in Lebanon and to further develop the
relations between the 2 countries. 
Egypt's Hosni Mubarak and Libya's Muammar Gaddafi will visit Khartoum
this week for talks with Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir, ahead of a
referendum on southern independence, the official SUNA news agency
reported on Sunday. 
During
an interview with the National News Agency (NNA) published on Sunday ,
UN Special Coordinator for Lebanon Michael Williams said that an
Israeli withdrawal from the northern part of the disputed village of
Ghajar would not by itself mean that UN Security Council Resolution
1701 has been completely implemented. 
MP
Mohammad Raad , who heads the Hezbollah parliamentary bloc launched
another attack against the Special Tribunal for Lebanon (STL) and
issued another warning toady :
“We are extending time until an agreement is achieved, and before
Israel harms our stability and incites strife among the Lebanese by
fabricating a forged Special Tribunal for Lebanon indictment,” Raad
said in a speech in Nabatiyeh on Sunday. 
Israeli
newspaper Jerusalem post has reported that Israel is concerned by the
possible transfer of French anti-tank missiles to Lebanon.
This comes after Paris has informed Beirut it is prepared to sell 
The
son of former Lebanese president Bashir Gemayel, Phalange MP Nadim
Gemayel said on Sunday during an interview with Voice of Lebanon (VOL)
that “The assassinations of Lebanese leaders stopped when Syria
decided to stop them.”
“There is a certain party that is targeted and another that is
responsible,” 
Iran's
former foreign minister indirectly criticized the president Sunday for
abruptly firing him last week during the middle of an official visit to
Africa, saying his dismissal was "undiplomatic , un-Islamic and
offensive" and caught him unaware.
President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad announced the decision to fire Manouchehr
Mottaki while he was on a diplomatic mission to Senegal. 
The
Beirut government is in paralysis, business deals are on hold and
rumours abound as Lebanon anxiously awaits indictments by a UN tribunal
probing former premier Rafiq Hariri’s murder.
The Special Tribunal for Lebanon (STL) said on December 9 that the
confidential contents of the indictments for the 2005 killing of Hariri
and 22 others in a Beirut blast would be filed for confirmation “very,
very soon.” 
An
Israeli military strike killed five Palestinians in central Gaza on
Saturday night, the Palestinian Authority's official news agency
reported.
The Israel Defense Forces said, in a statement, that its aircraft
"targeted" and struck "a squad of terror operatives who were preparing
to launch rockets towards Israeli territory" from that area. The
statement did not detail if there were any fatalities as a result. 
Lebanese
Ministry of Foreign Affairs filed a complaint against Israel to the UN
Security Council through its permanent mission at the UN regarding
Israeli spying devices that were recently discovered by the Lebanese
army on Mount Sannine in the upper Metn region and Barouk Mountain in
the Shouf region. 
Lebanon
Speaker Nabih Berri ruled out the withdrawal of the March 8 ministers
from the cabinet in its future sessions, during an interview with the
Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA) which published on Saturday,
Berri , Hezbollah's key ally said he guarantees that the ministers who
represent him in the cabinet will accept the results of a possible vote
on the issue of “false witnesses.” 
Steven Spielberg was blacklisted by the Arab League's Central Boycott
Office after making a $1m (£645m) donation to Israel during the 2006
conflict in Lebanon.
A US embassy memo released by WikiLeaks reveals that during a meeting of
the group in April 2007, diplomats or representatives from 14 Arab
states voted to ban all films and other products related to Spielberg or
his Righteous Persons Foundation. 
The Lebanese Minister of Interior and Municipalities, Ziad Baroud said "
the fixed and mobile radars have proved highly effective and reduced
the number of traffic accidents and death toll from these incidents by
more than 50%... a significant and important drop ." 
Phalange MP Sami Gemayel told OTV on Friday, in response to the threats of Hezbollah and its March 8 allies:
“The more they threaten against the Special Tribunal for Lebanon (STL), the more we stick to the court.”
“The STL is a need for Lebanon,” he said 
Israel
cannot defeat Hezbollah in a direct engagement and the Lebanese
guerrilla group would inflict heavy damage on the Israeli home front if
war broke out, a former Israeli national security adviser said Thursday.
Though outnumbered and outgunned, Hezbollah held off Israel's advanced
armed forces in a 2006 war and fired more than 4,000 rockets into
Israeli territory. 
The
French UN mission announced on Friday that France will be
contributing an additional 1.5 million Euro ( $ 2million) to The
Special Tribunal for Lebanon (STL) budget, which brings its total
contribution to 4.5 million Euro ( $ 6 million )
France also on Friday condemned efforts to undermine the UN court
investigating the 2005 killing of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri . 
Cyprus and Israel signed an accord Friday demarcating their maritime
borders to facilitate a search for mineral deposits in the east
Mediterranean where huge natural gas reserves have been discovered.
Cyprus Foreign Minister Markos Kyprianou and Israel's Infrastructure
Minister Uzi Landau signed the deal in the island's capital. No
statements were made after the signing. 
The
Lebanese director Yehya Saadeh passed away today due to an electric
shock during a music video shooting for Maya Diab in Turkey.
Saadeh who left yesterday for Turkey was reportedly warned by one of his
aides against touching the electric wire but it was too late .
Hezbollah
Deputy Secretary General Sheikh Naim Qassem said on Friday, according
to a statement issued by Hezbollah:
“We have buried the Special Tribunal for Lebanon (STL) indictment before
it has even been issued.”
Qassem also said: "They are using the American-Israeli STL to score a
victory against us. The indictment will not change a thing so it has
become worthless to us." 
March
14 MP Ahmad Fatfat told the Voice of Lebanon (VOL) on Friday.
“All we are asking for is to wait until the Special Tribunal for Lebanon
(STL) issues its indictment to find out whether it is politicized,”
Despite all leaks relating to the STL’s indictment, nothing confirms
that the tribunal is politicized, Fatfat said. 
A
Lebanese government official said on Friday that France will give
Lebanon 100 anti-tank missiles.
"Prime Minister Saad Hariri was informed on Wednesday of the French
decision to supply the army with 100 HOT missiles that will be used by
the military's Gazelle helicopters that Lebanon has received from the
united Arab emirates ," the official said 
During
an in an interview with Al-Massira magazine that was published on
Friday, Maronite Patriarch Nasrallah Boutros Sfeir id not rule out a
coup by Hezbollah:
“I do not rule out the possibility of a coup by Hezbollah, but carrying
out a coup is something while maintaining it is something else”, he
said
Sfeir voiced hope that Lebanon overcomes the current crisis. 
The Lebanese Armed Forces on Thursday released photos of Hebrew
markings on spying equipment that it uncovered on mountaintops
earlier this week. A photograph released by the LAF shows a sign saying
“Mini Cloud” in Hebrew and “Beam Systems Israel LTD” in English. 
Lebanese
Forces leader Samir Geagea said on Thursday, in a possible response to
the speech of Hezbollah Secretary General Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah , the
Christians of the Middle East do not need protection, but freedom
instead.
“We do not need anything but freedom, which distinguishes Lebanon from
other countries in the region.” 
Tens of thousands of Hezbollah supporters lined the streets of Beirut’s
southern suburbs, holding pictures of Nasrallah and Iran’s supreme
leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei to mark holy day of Ashura, responding in
force to calls by Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah .
Nasrallah urged his supporters during his speeches 
Economic
sanctions in Iran mean the Islamic republic had to cut funding for
Hezbollah in Lebanon, Israeli intelligence assessments state.
Tehran cut its funding to Hezbollah by more than 40 percent in part
because of pressure from international sanctions, The Jerusalem Post
reports. 
In
a speech marking the beginning of the 2010-2011 Judicial Year ,
President Michel Suleiman called for a judiciary that is “strong,
capable, independent and modern and a protector of freedoms.”
Suleiman said the responsibility for the independence of the judiciary
rests primarily on the judge, who should remain honest and competent. 
The legal noose tightened around Julian Assange, the founder of
WikiLeaks, after his lawyers said Monday that an Interpol notice and
European arrest warrant would oblige the British police to arrest him
for questioning on accusations of rape from Sweden.
The BBC, and a message on the WikiLeaks Twitter feed, reported that new
warrants had been issued and that his arrest might be imminent. 
Responding
to Syrian Deputy Foreign Minister Faisal Moqdad and Speaker Nabih Berri
, Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea said Monday that Lebanon will not
be put under Syrian control again.
Moqdad’s said Saturday that "Syrian troops will not return to Lebanon
for military purposes".
“Lebanon is a free, sovereign and independent state. 
A
US diplomatic cable released by WikiLeaks last week cited Prime
Minister Saad Hariri and his advisor, Ghattas Khoury, as telling a US
official on February 11, 2008 that Syrian Director of Military
Intelligence Asaf Shawkat helped transfer $50 million for OTV television
in Qatar under the names of Free Patriotic Movement leader MP Michel
Aoun’s daughters. 
Special
Tribunal for Lebanon (STL) Prosecutor-General Daniel Bellemare has
finished the draft of his indictment in former Prime Minister Rafik
Hariri’s 2005 assassination and submitted it to STL Pre-Trial Judge
Daniel Fransen, Georges Malbrunot of French newspaper Le Figaro quoted
an STL source as saying on Sunday. 
WikiLeaks'
elusive founder, his options dwindling, has turned to Switzerland's
credit, postal and Internet infrastructure to keep his online trove of
U.S. State Department cables afloat.
Supporters say Julian Assange is considering seeking asylum in
Switzerland. He told a Spanish newspaper that he faced "hundreds of
death threats," 
Forest
fires raged across Lebanon Sunday, with the country's interior minister
hinting the possibility of arson.
According to official figures released by the country's Civil Defense
ministry, about 120 fires broke out on Saturday and Sunday 
Lebanese
Prime Minister Saad Hariri arrived in Muscat on Sunday on a two-day
official visit.
He was received on his arrival at the Royal Airport by Syed Fahd Bin
Mahmoud Al Syed, Deputy Prime Minister for Cabinet Affairs, a number of
ministers, ambassadors of the Gulf Cooperation Council, and senior
military personnel. 
Egypt's
foreign minister said a break-up of Sudan looked inevitable because
northern and southern officials had made no real effort to keep Africa's
biggest country united.
A referendum on independence for south Sudan, promised under a 2005
Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) that ended decades of civil war, is
due to take place on January 9, but preparations are falling behind
schedule. 
Iran claimed another advance in its disputed nuclear activities on
Sunday, a day before opening a new round of talks on that work with
world powers.
The country's nuclear chief said that for the first time the country had
mined its own uranium 
Iran
has sought to assure its Gulf neighbors that it is not a threat to
them, after revelations that Gulf Arab leaders are concerned about
Tehran's nuclear program. 
The
U.N. peacekeeping force in south Lebanon says it is investigating a
blast reportedly caused by the detonation of an Israeli device spying on
Hezbollah's private telecommunications network.
The militant Hezbollah group said Friday it discovered what it said was
an Israeli device in the southern village of Majdel Silim. 
Palestinian
president Mahmud Abbas' office said in a statement on Saturday that
the Palestinian civil defense forces have joined the huge international
operation to tame the massive blaze raging northern Israel.
"The three units of the Palestinian civil defense were sent to assist in
extinguishing the fires in the Carmel," said a presidential statement .
Ad-Diyar
newspaper reported on Saturday that Brigadier General Fayez Karam’s
case file is “full with tangible evidence” that proves he had
collaborated with Israel.
Karam, a senior Free Patriotic Movement official, was arrested by the
Internal Security Forces (ISF) – Information Branch in August and was
charged with espionage and providing Israel with information on
Hezbollah, Aoun’s closest ally. 
29. Nov, 2010
Ad-Diyar
reported that the Lebanese Foreign Affairs Ministry received a
notification from Lebanon’s Embassy in the Netherlands that the Special
Tribunal for Lebanon (STL) will issue its indictment on December 2.
Lebanese Ambassador to Netherlands Zaidan as-Saghir has reportedly also
confirmed that the indictment will be issued on December 2 
Turkish
Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said said in Beirut on Thursday
that Turkey would not remain silent if Israel attacked Lebanon or Gaza.
Ties between the longtime allies remained at an all-time low.
"Does (Israel) think it can enter Lebanon with the most modern aircraft
and tanks to kill women and children 
Progressive
Socialist Party (PSP) leader MP Walid Jumblatt on Wednesday accused
the Special Tribunal for Lebanon ( STL) of being politically motivated
and urged the Lebanese cabinet to unanimously reject it.
"This tribunal is aimed at destabilizing Lebanon rather than rendering
justice," Jumblatt told AFP 
Turkish Ambassador to Lebanon Inan Ozyild told Al-Mustaqbal
Newspaper , on the occasion of Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip
Erdogan's 2 day official visit to Lebanon that Lebanon and Turkey
have signed two military cooperation agreements and that the agreements
are awaiting approval by the Turkish parliament. 
Central
news agency (CNA) quoted on Wednesday an unnamed March 8 source as
saying that Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s visit to
Lebanon comes at the wrong time.
“It looks like it is a reaction to Iranian President Mahmoud
Ahmadinejad’s visit,” the source said.
The source accused Hariri of monopolizing Erdogan's visit. 
The
radical Muslim cleric, Omar Bakri Muhammad, who was sentenced to life
in prison in Lebanon, has been released on bail pending a retrial.
A military court ordered his release after he paid bail of around $3,300
He was convicted in his absence earlier this month of forming a militant
group to weaken Lebanon's government. 
Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan arrived in Beirut on
Wednesday for a two-day official visit.
The Turkish PM was received by his Lebanese counterpart, Saad Hariri,
and a delegation of officials at Beirut’s Rafik Hariri International
Airport, the National News Agency (NNA). 
The
chief prosecutor for the Special Tribunal for Lebanon (STL) , which is
examining the 2005 death of Lebanon's former prime minister Rafik
Hariri, said Tuesday he was "extremely disappointed" by a CBC story
linking militant group Hezbollah to the murder.
Canadian Daniel Bellemare said the story came as the prosecution is
"working flat out" to prepare a draft indictment to be submitted to a
judge in the near future. 
Lebanese
Prime Minister Saad Hariri will head to Iran on Saturday to meet with
President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and other officials, a government official
said Tuesday. 
Bloodstained
Lebanon could be plunged into a new round of civil war, if an
international criminal tribunal, appointed by the United Nations to
investigate the assassination of Lebanon's former prime minister Rafik
Hariri, decides to indict members of Hezbollah for his murder. 
Israeli
Knesset passed into law Monday a bill that could make it significantly
more difficult for an Israeli government to consummate peace agreements
with the Palestinians and the Syrians.
The legislation, which passed 65-33, would require a popular referendum
or a two-thirds Knesset super majority 
The
Canadian Broadcasting Corp. (CBC) published an investigation report
on Sunday that implicates Hezbollah in the 2005 murder of former
Lebanese prime minister Rafik Hariri.
Prime Minister Saad Hariri said Tuesday in reaction to the report:
“We have full confidence in Internal Security Forces (ISF) - Information
Branch head Colonel Wissam al-Hassan.” 
Suddenly the health of three of the most powerful men in Saudi Arabia is in the news.
King Abdullah, who is 86, is preparing to travel to America for the treatment of a herniated disc.
Crown Prince Sultan bin Abdul Aziz has been rushed home from recuperation in Morocco. 
The
Lebanese political situation is stabilizing despite current tension,
Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea said on Monday in a statement issued
by his office.
Geagea praised President Michel Suleiman’s speech on the occasion of
Lebanon’s 67th Independence Day on Sunday and called the president “a
statesman.” 
Former
Lebanese president and Phalange Party leader Amin Gemayel said on
Sunday during a mass which was held to commemorate the fourth
anniversary of the assassination of his son , former Industry Minister
Pierre Gemayel : “We don't need another national charter, or another
Taif Accord or Doha Agreement, but all we need a verdict on who killed
our martyrs.” 
An
Israeli military court demoted two soldiers and gave them suspended
sentences for forcing a 9- year-old Palestinian boy in the Gaza Strip to
open bags that they suspected contained explosives. 
Pope Benedict's statement on the use of condoms appears to be a
relaxation of a hitherto uncompromising Vatican ban on the use of
artificial contraception.
A crack has opened in the Church's ban on contraception because of the
Aids epidemic, particularly in Africa. 
During
a joint press conference with Marada Movement chief Suleiman Franjieh,
Free Patriotic Movement leader Michel Aoun on Sunday warned he will
not take part in Cabinet or dialogue sessions unless the false
witnesses' issue has been settled.
Aoun's remarks came at the end of a visit to Franjiyeh's mansion in
Bnashi in northern Lebanon. 
Egyptian
security forces detained more than 100 supporters of the banned Muslim
Brotherhood group in different cities on Friday, police and Brotherhood
sources said.
The crackdown, a little more than a week ahead of Egypt's parliamentary
election due on November 28, 
During
an interview with Future TV , March 14 MP Atef Majdalani called on
Telecommunications Minister Charbel Nahas to resign.
He said that Nahas' conduct with PM Saad Hariri is immoral.
Majdalani's comment comes after another March 14 MP accused Nahas of
corruption . 
Hezbollah Secretary General’s political adviser Hussein Khalil said
after meeting with FPM leader MP Aoun: Amendments to STL don't concern
Hezbollah.
The special Tribunal For Lebanon STL issued a statement on Friday in
which it said that its Judges met 
France's
President Nicolas Sarkozy said Saturday that Iran poses the main threat
of the type of rogue attack that NATO's planned anti-missile defence
shield is designed to foil.
"No name appears in the documents made public by NATO, but let's call a
spade a spade: today's missile threat, it's Iran," he told reporters at
the NATO summit in Lisbon. 
General
James Mattis, the US Central Command chief, on Friday pledged his
country would continue to support the Lebanese army, a week after
Washington lifted a freeze on military aid to Beirut.
"General Mattis came to Lebanon to reiterate ... the US government's
position that the United States is committed to the continuity of 
During
a press conference on Friday March 14 MP Ghazi Youssef accused
Telecommunications Minister Charbel Nahhas of using the ministry funds
illegally.
Youssef revealed to the media that Nahhas instructed both Fransabank
and Bank Audi – Saradar to issue checks amounting to $300,000 in the
name of his personal adviser Moussa Khoury . 
During an interview with the London based Arabic newspaper Asharq
Al-Awsat Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas has spoken against the US
military help to Israel in exchange for a moratorium on the construction
of Jewish settlements on West Bank of the Jordan River.
" Let their aid be carried out far removed from the Palestinian peace
negotiations and not be used as a pretext for giving more weaponry to
Israel," Abbas said. 
Lebanon
Defense Minister Elias Murr reiterated on Friday Army Commander Jean
Kahwaji's statement to the army that political disputes are part of the
democratic process but this does not mean that they should be
transformed into strife that threatens the lives of citizens." 
Saudi-Syrian
efforts to resolve Lebanese tensions have reached an advanced stage and
a Saudi official will be in Damascus within hours to meet with
Syrian president Bashar al Assad to finalize the plan for establishing
calm and stability in Lebanon, according to Lebanon Files . 
Lebanon
Army chief Jean Kahwaji stressed on Thursday that political disputes
are part of democratic life but should not be transformed into strife
that threatens the lives of citizens."
In address to soldiers on the occasion of 67 th Lebanese Independence
anniversary Kahwaji said : "Political disputes should be resolved
through political means, " and added "Security is every citizens' holy
right and it is your duty to preserve it." 
In
an interview with Al-Ousbou al-Arabi magazine to be published
Friday, Lebanon's Maronite Patriarch Nasrallah Boutros Sfeir warned
that Lebanon and the entire Middle East were in danger.
"Not only is the Lebanese Republic in danger, but the situation in the
Middle East as a whole," he said. 
Following
his meeting with Maronite Patriarch Nasrallah Sfeir , French Foreign
Minister Bernard Kouchner described in a statement the situation in the
region as dangerous .
According
to local reports Kouchner is expected will hold a press conference
later on Saturday to discuss the situation in Lebanon.
French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner voiced France’s support for Lebanon during his meeting with Lebanese officials.
Kouchner arrived in Lebanon on Friday for a two-day official visit and met with President Michel Suleiman on Friday. 
Nawwaf
Salam , Lebanon's Ambassador to the United Nations told the UN
Security Council Friday that the Lebanese officials are committed to
international legitimacy.
Salam thanked UN Under-Secretary General for Legal Affairs Patricia
O'Brian and the members of the council for their continuous support of
Lebanon and their concern for its stability, according to National News
Agency (NNA). 
France’s
Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner visits Lebanon Friday amid the
country’s worst political crisis for more than two years, as the United
Nations probe into the murder of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri
announced indictments were nearing. 
The
president of a UN-backed tribunal set up to prosecute the assassins of
former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri made an impassioned plea
Wednesday for the country to give the court a chance to show it can
dispense impartial justice.
Italian Judge Antonio Cassese also told a group of Lebanese journalists
visiting the Special Tribunal for Lebanon (STL) he hopes prosecutors
will issue an indictment by December 
Brazil's
female president-elect, Dilma Rousseff, said Wednesday she was "totally
opposed" to the death-by-stoning sentence ordered for an Iranian woman,
Sakineh Mohammadi-Ashtiani.
"I am totally opposed to the stoning of the Iranian woman," she told
reporters in a joint media conference in Brasilia with outgoing
President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva. 
Al-Qaida
in Iraq has threatened more attacks on Iraq's Christians, claiming
that they are legitimate targets who now face the "doors of
destruction".
The warning, published today on militant websites, came three days after
gunmen from an al-Qaida front group, the Islamic State of Iraq, raided
one of Baghdad's main cathedrals during Sunday mass. 
Republicans
won control of the House of Representatives and Democrats managed to
retain their majority in the Senate following months of voter discontent
over the economy and government policy.
Based on the results of key races, Republicans were almost certain to
capture the House, and several TV networks projected the party would win
control. 
For
the six oil-importing countries in the Middle East and North Africa
region--Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Morocco, Syria, and Tunisia--high
unemployment is a chronic problem. Unemployment rates here are among the
highest worldwide. This can have enormous economic and social costs,
with the potential for what the IMF Managing Director has described as a
"lost generation" of unemployed. 
Sheikh
Naim Qassem, deputy of Hezbollah chief Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah
warned on Tuesday of the risks of an explosion in Lebanon if members of
his party are indicted by Special Tribunal for Lebanon in the
assassination of for former Lebanese premier Rafik Hariri.
"We cannot disclose what we might do if the indictment accuses members
of Hezbollah," 
Al-Liwaa newspaper reported that the The ambassadors of Syria, Saudi
Arabia and Iran will be meeting for lunch on Tuesday to stress the
stability in Lebanon.
The meeting is reportedly designed to discuss an Arab-Iranian umbrella
to get the Lebanese to overcome the tension that will be created by
the indictment of the special Tribunal for Lebanon (STL). 
French
President Nicolas Sarkozy was among the intended recipients of four
parcel bombs found in Athens on Monday, Greek police have said. 
March
14 MP Serge Torsarkissian said on Monday: “No one will be able to
abolish the Special Tribunal for Lebanon (STL) or change its course, not
even Prime Minister Saad Hariri.”
It is wrong for some to assume that if Hariri resigns, a new cabinet
could abolish STL, 
A
4,600-square-meter painted canvas was assembled at the Cite Sportive
stadium in Beirut Sunday, breaking the Guinness world record for the
largest handprint painting.
The Lebanese Red Cross (LRC) broke the record by creating the Red Cross
emblem using handprints collected from various Lebanese regions. 
The
Governments of Fiji and Lebanon formalized their diplomatic relations
in a ceremony in New York recently.
The formal relationship was affected by a joint communiqué signed by
Ambassador Nawaf Salam of Lebanon and Ambassador Peter Thomson of Fiji. 
Dar
al-Assad for Culture and Arts recently held two concerts dedicated to
Lebanese singer, songwriter, actor and musician Wadi al-Safi featuring a
choir of 60 singers, 15 musicians and a dance troupe, celebrating
al-Safi's history and accomplishments across 70 years of music, Syrian
DP news / SANA reported. 
Iraqi antiterrorist forces stormed a church where gunmen had taken close
to 100 hostages on Sunday in an afternoon of chaos that became a
bloodbath. At least 30 hostages and 7 security officers were killed, and
41 hostages and 15 security force members were wounded, according to a
source at the Ministry of the Interior. 
The man suspected to be at the center of the plot to send bombs from
Yemen to the United States is a Saudi national who authorities believe
has been living in Yemen for the past three years. 
Minister
of State Adnan as-Sayyed Hussein said Sunday during an interview with
OTV that Lebanon faces an existential crisis if the current path
persists, and that the government should leave as quickly as possible
if it cannot confront the strife. 
Lebanese
Prime Minister Saad Hariri ended his visit to Kuwait on Sunday and
headed to London where he will be joined by a Lebanese delegation which
includes Minister of Defense Elias el Murr for talks with UK
officials. 
During
a televised speech on Thursday Hezbollah Secretary General Sayyed
Hassan Nasrallah called on all Lebanese to boycott Special Tribunal for
Lebanon ( STL) and to end all cooperation with its investigators. 
A
former senior diplomat at Iran's embassy in Helsinki, who resigned and
joined the opposition, said Thursday he had been granted political
asylum by Finland only weeks after applying for it.
Hossein Alizadeh, deputy head of mission at the Iranian embassy until
early last month, was at least the third Iranian diplomat this year to
seek political asylum in Europe, 
Lebanon
is in a tense state in part because of Hezbollah's weapons and Israel's
failure to meet its international obligations, the U.N.
secretary-general said.
"Lebanon is currently experiencing a domestic climate of uncertainty and
fragility," wrote U.S. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon in his latest
assessment of the situation in Lebanon. 
Syria,
Iran and the militant group Hezbollah are undermining Lebanon's
independence and are endangering its stability, the U.S. ambassador to
the United Nations said Thursday.
Susan Rice ( R) spoke a day after three employees of the U.N.-backed
court set up to try suspects in the 2005 murder of former Lebanese Prime
Minister Rafik Hariri were attacked in Beirut. 
