(OTTAWA, ON) — Lebanese-Canadian university professor Hassan Diab was charged with first-degree murder and other offenses in France on Saturday after being extradited in connection with a decades-old terrorism case, and his lawyer says he is ready to prove in court there is no real evidence against him.
On Thursday, Canada’s highest court refused to hear Diab’s final plea to halt his extradition to France, ensuring he will face trial for the 1980 bombing of a Paris synagogue.
The decision brings an end to 60-year-old Diab’s six-year legal battle to avoid what he said would be an unfair prosecution in France for a crime he insists he did not commit.
The Supreme Court of Canada issued its decision in a statement, saying his appeal of a lower court ruling and the government’s extradition order was “dismissed without costs.”
Diab, who was taken into custody Wednesday pending the announcement, could now be flown to Paris at any time in the next 45 days. There he will be questioned by an investigating judge before criminal proceedings can begin.
If convicted, Diab could face life in prison.
The 1980 bombing on the Copernic Street was the first fatal attack against the French Jewish community since the Nazi occupation in World War II.
Explosives packed in the saddlebags of a parked motorcycle were detonated as worshippers were starting to exit the synagogue.
The blast killed three Frenchmen and a young Israeli woman. Forty were injured.
Guillaume Denoix de Saint-Marc, speaking for the victims’ families, expressed “relief” that the case may now finally go to trial after 34 years.
Diab is a former sociology lecturer at the University of Ottawa and Carleton University in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada.
He was born in Lebanon and studied sociology at the American University of Beirut. He received his PhD from Syracuse University in Syracuse, New York and became a Canadian citizen in 1993. Sources say Diab moved to Ottawa in 2006.
Examiner StaffComments Off on Lebanese-Canadian professor charged with 1st-degree murder in France 1197
(BEIRUT, LEBANON) — Foreign Minister Gebran Bassil called on the support of the Lebanese diaspora on Sunday, saying when it comes to elections or the economy, Lebanese expatriates should help.
“Elections in Lebanon can’t happen without the participation of expats,” Bassil said during a conference held in the Rotana Beach Hotel in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates.
Bassil called for granting Lebanese citizenship to second generation expatriates and launching electronic voting options for Lebanese living abroad.
The foreign minister says opening these opportunities for Lebanese communities would make them more likely to invest in Lebanon’s economic sectors.
“Lebanese abroad can compensate for the failure of the government in building a strong state, and contribute to the revival of its economy,” he said.
Bassil also called on emigrants to market local products in their host countries, especially Lebanon’s apples and wine.
Bassil announced that he will host a conference for Lebanese immigrants on March 21, saying that the event seeks to build bridges between Lebanon’s residents and Lebanese living abroad.
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(ARSAL, LEBANON) — A roadside bomb wounding three Lebanese soldiers exploded near an army patrol in eastern Lebanon on Friday, the Lebanese military said in a statement.
The attack took place near the town of Arsal along the Syrian border. The army later said that two bombs were found near the scene of the blast, each weighting 15 kilograms (33 pounds).
Militants from neighboring Syria briefly seized control of Arsal in August before withdrawing with more than two dozen Lebanese security forces as hostages. The army has clashed with gunmen in the area several times since then.
Arsal and surrounding areas have been the site of clashes between soldiers and militants from al Qaeda’s Syria wing, Nusra Front, and the militant group Islamic State. Gunmen from the groups briefly took over the town in August and took a group of soldiers captive.
Also Friday, the U.S. embassy said Vice Admiral Mark Fox, Deputy Commander of U.S. Central Command, visited Lebanon and met with Prime Minister Tammam Salam, army commander Gen. Jean Kahwaji and other Lebanese military officials.
“In his meetings, Vice Admiral Fox noted the success of the LAF in its recent battle against extremist militants in Arsal,” the statement said.
Fox “reaffirmed continued U.S. support” to the Lebanese army and Lebanon’s security institutions, it said.
The U.S. has been speeding up delivery of ammunition to help Lebanon’s military combat jihadi groups. Washington has provided more than $1 billion in military assistance to Lebanon since 2006.
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(BEIRUT, LEBANON) — Lebanese Health Minister Wael Abu Faour raised concerns on Tuesday over food sanitation in the country, warning that “the food that the Lebanese are eating is full of diseases.”
Abu Faour listed some of Lebanon’s most popular restaurant chains and supermarkets as locations that serve customers food “that contains sewage and fecal matter.”
“A large number of foodstuffs firms are operating without licenses and without meeting the proper health conditions,” the minister announced at a press conference.
“Some of the food that is being consumed by the Lebanese contains remains of human feces and this is something intolerable,” Abu Faour revealed, lamenting the dire situation.
The minister noted that warnings will be addressed to the violating restaurants and fines will be imposed over practices that pose a health risk to consumers.
“I will ask the interior minister to close the sections that do not meet the proper health and hygiene conditions in all the aforementioned firms until they rectify their situations,” Abu Faour added, stressing that the ministry’s campaign “is not temporary” and vowing to “disclose more names.”
The minister noted that 1,005 firms were inspected across Lebanon and that 3,600 samples were sent to the laboratories of the Ministry of Agriculture.
Revealing the names of these firms “is not aimed at defamation or at harming their business,” Abu Faour noted, emphasizing that he is only shouldering his responsibility as health minister.
“Some of the owners are my personal friends and some of them support our political party,” Abu Faour added.
In addition to contamination with bacteria and other inedible substances, the minister mentioned other violations involving “the presence of flies on the refrigerators of dairy products, the presence of open garbage bins in kitchens, workers not wearing gloves … and frying oil that was not changed for months.”
View the full list below:
JBEIL
Hawa Chicken
Taouk
Spinneys
Meat
Jbeil Supermarket
Meat
NABATIEH
Rimal restaurant
Hamburger
KESROUAN
Fahed Supermarket
Minced meat, kafta, hamburger and shawarma
TRIPOLI
Crepina restaurant
Chicken and mayo
Dar al-Qamar restaurant
Meat
Chai w Asal restaurant
Hamburger
Baytna restaurant
Meat
Abdel Rahman Hallab restaurant
Ashta
Makiye
Ashta
ALEY
Hawa Chicken restaurant
Chicken and taouk
MP Supermarket
Minced meat
BAABDA
Metro Supermarket
Rotisserie chicken
Poule d’or
Rotisserie chicken
Al-Amiliyya airport road
Whole rotisserie chicken
CHOUF
Rashid Moussa shops
Sujuk
Ghanem institution
Hamburger
Al-Rayan institution
Shish taouk
Abou Khalil Damour
Sujuk
METN
Bido
Sausage
Kababji Jal el-Dib
Minced meat
Roadster Diner
Chicken
Zomrab butchery
Soujuk and sausage
Tannouri market Baabdat
Minced meat
Al-Ashqar Antelias
Soujuk and sausage
Masoud market
Minced meat
McDonalds
Chicken nuggets
Mnih farms
Labneh
Al-Khawly market
Sausage and beef pieces
Al-Sultan butchery
Chicken and minced meat
Metro
Whole rotisserie chicken
Nassar Supermarket
Meat
Marché du Rond Point
Meat
TSC Mega
Veal, hamburger, minced meat and taouk
Mazloum
Taouk and minced meat
Broumana market
Taouk and soujuk
Examiner StaffComments Off on Dirty secrets? Abu Faour announces food sanitation crisis 1370
(BEIRUT, LEBANON) — An Ethiopian maid who attempted suicide on Monday from a fourth floor Beirut apartment is expected to be fine, according to media reports.
The incident reportedly occurred in Beirut’s Mousaitbeh neighborhood near Lebanese International University. Videos uploaded on YouTube show the woman throwing herself from the window as nearby spectators let out screams.
The woman slammed into a car, shattering the glass and smashing its roof, which media reports say may have saved her life.
According to Human Rights Watch, about 200,000 domestic workers work in Lebanon. In 2008, HRW recorded an average of one maid death per week in Lebanon by unnatural causes, including suicides.
Watch the suicide attempt below. *Warning: Video may be considered graphic to some viewers*
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For more than 150 years, millions of Lebanese have been emigrating from Lebanon to create successful diaspora communities around the world. Yet there has never been a center outside Lebanon devoted to learning their stories.
An $8.1 million gift from Dr. Moise A. Khayrallah and his wife, Vera Khayrallah, will change that.
With the support of the Khayrallahs — who moved to the Triangle from their native Lebanon in 1983 — NC State will soon be home to the Moise A. Khayrallah Center for Lebanese Diaspora Studies, a thriving international hub for research into Lebanese immigration and migration more broadly.
Housed within the College of Humanities and Social Sciences (CHASS), this will be the first privately endowed center at NC State. It follows the creation in 2010 of the university’s Khayrallah Program for Lebanese-American Studies, which sought to preserve and publicize the history of the Lebanese community in North Carolina.
“We felt it was critical to show how this one community established itself here in North Carolina and then contributed to local commerce, education and success,” said Moise Khayrallah, who has founded several drug-development companies in the area. “And that was a very, very successful program, I have to say.”
Dr. Akram Khater, professor of history at NC State, serves as the program’s director. Like the Khayrallahs, he first came to the United States from Lebanon to further his education. Years later, he and Dr. Khayrallah met over coffee to draw up a public history project.
“We were discussing how, after 9/11, the prevailing narrative about Arab-Americans — including the Lebanese — became focused on terrorism or tabouleh, violence or salad,” said Khater. “Conspicuously absent was any sustained mention of the richness of the culture, of the heritage and of the myriad contributions of Lebanese-Americans to America for over a century and a half.”
Funding from the Khayrallahs and the resources of a vibrant public history program in CHASS have enabled Khater and other NC State researchers to spotlight those contributions. Lebanese-Americans in North Carolina have generated an estimated $4.5 billion of revenue. Among the 16,000 people who make up the community today are the Georges of Hickory, whose legacy includes Lowes Foods, and the Koury family, who own the Greensboro convention center of the same name.
By retracing the steps and recording the stories of Lebanese immigrants to the state, Khater and graduate students in the department of history unearthed enough material to sustain an online archive, a PBS documentary, a K-12 curriculum and a multimedia museum exhibit, Cedars in the Pines.
“As I saw him and his team at the Department of History and other departments at NC State come together and bring all of these programs and activities to life, I was very impressed,” said Moise Khayrallah.
The Khayrallahs’ gift will allow NC State to build on these successes through the creation of the Khayrallah Center, a groundbreaking international institution that Khater will helm. A home for scholars and students from around the world, it will establish NC State as the premier research and outreach site for the Lebanese diaspora. At another level, the center will allow NC State to engage in vital national and international debates about immigration and its global impacts.
“Creating the first endowed center at NC State is a real signature landmark for us,” said Dean Jeffery P. Braden of CHASS, noting that this is the largest gift in the college’s history. He added that the center’s mission — deepening the American public’s understanding of migration — makes it a perfect fit for NC State.
“Part of it is our land-grant tradition,” said Braden. “Part of it is our ‘Think and Do’ culture. But we really have the structure of bringing our disciplinary knowledge and the scholarship that we do out of the university, out of the academy, and bringing it into the community.”
For the Khayrallahs, that kind of outreach is key to revealing the contribution of immigrants to American life.
“We all have so much in common, but a lot of times people don’t even notice those commonalities,” said Vera Khayrallah. “But we are all one people, and we all went through the same things to bring us here.”
To learn more about the Khayrallah Center, click here.
(BEIRUT, LEBANON) — United States Ambassador David Hale announced a $41.2 million to Lebanese public schools on Nov.5, which will be used to launch the “Improved Basic Education Services Program (IBESP)” in the country.
Hale and Lebanese Minister of Education Elias Bou Saab announced the contribution at the Daroun Mixed Intermediate Public School in Keserwan, which has been renovated by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID).
Hale says USAID will provide the funding for this new project, which will reportedly “(strengthen) classroom instruction, community engagement, and education management.”
According to the Lebanese National News Agency, nearly two-thirds of students in Lebanon attend private school, which creates a “quality gap” between citizens who can’t afford private school tuition.
The new U.S.-funded program seeks to “close the gap” by focusing on three specific tasks, including an emphasis on “reading skills,” providing “expanded” access for vulnerable children, and “managing education monitoring” systems in public classrooms.
“Over the past 10 years, America has invested more than $150 million in education to help this latest generation of Lebanese,” Hale said. “These initiatives are a testament to our joint belief in education, our cooperative and enduring relationship, and the resilience of your commitment to education in the face of political, economic, and security challenges.”
IBESP will reportedly be implemented by World Learning in partnership with Management Systems International, Ana Aqra’, and AMIDEAST. USAID will work closely with the Lebanese Ministry of Education and Higher Education and the Center for Educational Research and Development to ensure progress is “institutionalized” and “sustainable,” according to the National News Agency.
“We believe that Lebanese children will excel even more when they are better prepared with the basics, like reading, when they see their school as a sanctuary for learning, and when their communities actively participate in the process,” Hale said.
Examiner StaffComments Off on United States donates $41.2M to Lebanese public schools 1230
(BEIRUT, LEBANON) — A Lebanese priest convicted of pedophilia in 2012 by the Vatican broke his silence on Sunday, denying all crimes and accusing the Catholic church of corruption.
“People in the church were bribed and I have proof of this,” said Mansour Labaki in an interview with the Voice of Lebanon radio station.
Labaki said he was expecting the church to give him a fair trial, but was “surprised” to learn he was not allowed to respond to the accusations.
The priest was sentenced to a “life of penitence,” after the Vatican office charged Labaki with the sexual offenses on June 19, 2013. Labaki, 74, was also banned from exercising his ecclesiastical duties and participating in media and public appearances.
According to the French magazine, “La Croix,” the investigation into Labaki’s case began in 2011 after the Vatican envoy ordered French Catholic authorities to open a probe into the priest’s alleged abuses that had taken place in France.
The complaints were first filed by the priest’s estranged niece and three French women. The report went directly from French church authorities to the Vatican, reportedly bypassing civil criminal courts.
In April 2012, the Vatican convicted Labaki of sexually abusing at least three children, as well as soliciting sex. He was sentenced to a “life of prayer,” which he has been carrying out in a monastery in Lebanon.
He said he wished the court would listen to the testimonies of people who have worked with him and several students that he “raised” who, according to him, would attest his innocence.
Labaki filed an appeal last year, but the court held up the verdict. His lawyer has since filed a lawsuit with the Lebanese judiciary against those involved in accusations against Labaki.
Labaki is the founder of a spiritual movement called Lo Tedhal, wrote several books which won 15 international book prizes, and composed several hymns.
Examiner StaffComments Off on Lebanese priest convicted of pedophilia breaks silence 2271
(BEIRUT, LEBANON) — Ethiopian athlete Fikadu Girma defeated thousands of runners on Sunday at the 2014 Banque du Liban Beirut International Marathon.
Girma won the 42.195 kilometer race in 2:12.28, according to Race Director Wissam Terro. The first Lebanese to finish the race was Omar Issa with a time of 2:34.
Beirut Marathon Founder May El-Khalil and Olympic Champion Haile Gebrselassie.
In the female 42 kilometer race, Ethiopia’s Molahtas Tscja scored a team of 2:29.12, narrowly beating Kenya’s Monica Jepkoech who had a time of 2:30.
The first Lebanese woman to pass the finish line was Shirine Njeim who scored in a time of 3:09.Several of Beirut’s streets were shut overnight Saturday and Sunday morning to make way for the 37,153 runners from 94 countries who registered for the annual marathon. Terro says most of the runners participated in the five and 10 kilometer races.The event is organized by the Beirut Marathon Association, and sponsored by Lebanon’s Central Bank.
Two-time Olympic gold medalist Haile Gebrselassie of Ethiopia was invited by the Beirut Marathon Association as a special guest at the event. This year’s marathon was held under the slogan of “love, peace, run.”
Watch LBC’s preview report on the Beirut Marathon below:
(TYRE, LEBANON) — A 24-year-old Lebanese woman, Aya Hamad, gave birth to premature quintuplets at the Jabal Amel hospital in the Tyre suburb of Daabal.
The three girls and two boys – Ali, Hassan, Fatima, Zainab and Zahra – are in good health as they were born prematurely at the 30th week of pregnancy.
The quintuplets weighed between 1 kg and 1.3 kg and were in “stable, good condition,” the director of the hospital, Dr. Kamel Yassin told Beirut-based newspaper, The Daily Star.
Hamad’s doctor, Riad Ghareeb, told the Lebanese National News Agency that “she was infertile and had been undergoing treatment for the past two years.” He said the pregnancy happened “in a natural way.”
Hamad and her husband Hussein Fawwaz, who already have a 2-year-old son, urged the government to help them raise their six children amid the difficult social and economic situation.
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