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In Lebanon, A Reason For Heartbreak - Feb 19, 2010 - 6:20:43 AM

Five years after the Cedar Revolution the Lebanese seem to have lost faith in their leaders.
Crushed, red rose petals speckled the pavement in downtown Beirut this Feb. 14 as thousands of people gathered in Martyrs' Square to commemorate the assassination of former prime minister Rafik Hariri, whose violent death in 2005 sparked a revolution among grieving, yet hopeful, Lebanese.
But it wasn't just rose petals that looked broken Sunday afternoon.
Sure, people cheered and waved flags. Yet many of them looked disenchanted, sullen. In Lebanon's web of changing and complicated politics, their leaders have let them down.

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A U.N. Betrayal in Beirut - Feb 13, 2010 - 10:51:30 PM

FIVE years ago today, the former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri of Lebanon was killed, an assassination that set off the "cedar revolution" and forced Syria, the principal suspect in the crime, to withdraw its army from the country. Meanwhile, global public outcry led the United Nations Security Council to initiate an international investigation, the first of its kind.
Half a decade later, however, the Hariri case has made little progress toward justice. Lately, Syria has reasserted its power in Beirut after years of trying to destabilize a government dominated by its political foes.

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1600 عام على وفاة القديس مارون "شهادة ايمان وسيرة شعب "

- Jan 27, 2010 - 11:46:13 AM

1600 عام على وفاة القديس مارون "شهادة ايمان وسيرة شعب "
اطلاق برنامج احتفالات اقرها صفير من المركز الكاثوليكي للاعلام
قداديس وكتيب خاص بسنة اليوبيل عن مار مارون وسيرة الكنيسة
وتنظيم ندوات ومحاضرات في لبنان وبلدان الانتشار ورحلات حج

أطلق ظهر اليوم في المركز الكاثوليكي للاعلام برنامج الاحتفالات التي ستجري لمناسبة مرور 1600 سنة على وفاة القديس مارون بعنوان "شهادة إيمان وسيرة شعب" التي اقرها البطريرك الماروني الكاردينال مار نصرالله بطرس صفير، خلال ندوة شارك فيها رئيس اللجنة البطريركية للاحتفالات المطران بولس اميل سعادة ورئيس اللجنة الإعلامية وأمين سرها الدكتور انطوان سعد، نائب رئيس جامعة الروح القدس - الكسليك الاباتي بولس نعمان والنائب فريد الخازن، في حضور نقيب المحررين ملحم كرم، مستشار وزير الإعلام اندره قصاص، مديرة "الوكالة الوطنية للاعلام" لور سليمان صعب، رئيس اللجنة الأسقفية لوسائل الإعلام المطران بشارة الراعي، راعي ابرشية بعلبك ودير الأحمر للموارنة المطران سمعان عطاالله، أعضاء لجنة اليوبيل وعدد من الإعلاميين وطلاب من كليتي اللاهوت والتاريخ في جامعة الروح القدس.

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Allah - The Word - Jan 11, 2010 - 3:36:16 PM

It was 2006, when I sat with a friend, Hikmat Farha, at the foot of a snow-capped Mount Hermon. Our conversation was about politics, as it usually is in Lebanon, and to make a point, he cited Imam Ali, warrior, sage and seventh-century caliph whom Shiite Muslims consider the divinely sanctioned successor to the Prophet Muhammad.
"Don't be afraid to walk in the path of righteousness, even if you must venture alone," Hikmat said, his rendering of Imam Ali's words from Nahj al-Balagha, the Way of Eloquence, a collection of sayings, sermons and speeches that has served for centuries as a model of Arabic, much the way Cicero's speeches did for Latin.

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The Murdered Fathers Club - Dec 24, 2009 - 5:48:35 AM

On Saturday, Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri traveled to Damascus for a meeting with Syrian president Bashar Asad, the man widely believed to have ordered the assassination of his father, former Lebanese premier Rafiq Hariri. The 2005 murder sparked the Cedar Revolution, a mass protest movement that resulted in the end of the thirty-year Syrian military occupation of Lebanon, and swept the pro-West March 14th coalition to power. Although March 14 again triumphed over the Iranian and Syrian-backed Hizballah-led opposition in elections this past June, Washington's allies in Beirut are now facing a crisis. Hariri's trip to Damascus represents the return of Syrian influence to Lebanon, and perhaps, the end of the Cedar Revolution.