President promises less armed conflict and more diplomacy Tells cadets: 'We have been through a long season of war' America should provide global leadership with less recourse to military might in future, Barack Obama announced on Wednesday, proposing a new foreign policy doctrine focused on soft power diplomacy and launching financial grants to fight terrorism through international partnerships instead....
Massive turnout for 'expatriate' voting in embassies before Syria's June election though many refugees boycott polls Hundreds of Syrians desperate to vote for Bashar al-Assad tried to rush their embassy near Beirut on Wednesday, scuffling with Lebanese troops using batons and sticks to beat the crowds back as voting abroad started ahead of Syria's national election on 3 June. Tens of thousands of Assad...
More than one million Syrians have been forced to seek refuge in the neighbouring country. Many families live in abandoned buildings such as shops or storerooms. They depend on the generosity of relatives and neighbours to survive Continue reading... ...
Earlier this year, artist George Butler spent several days in the refugees' 'tented settlements' of northern Lebanon. His portraits of the people and the often random possessions they brought with them when they fled their homes tell their own poignant tales. Picture captions by Nick Rice In March, I spent eight days drawing in the refugee camps or "tented settlements" as they are now called...
UN health body fears secondary infections may be rising, raising potential for global spread and stirring memories of Sars virus The World Health Organisation (WHO) will hold urgent talks next week on the often fatal Middle East respiratory syndrome (Mers) virus , after a sharp increase in infections in Saudi Arabia, and the first reported case in Lebanon. Continue reading... ...
Many migrant workers suffer terrible conditions in Lebanon, but poverty and lack of opportunity in Nepal drives them back When the 39 Nepalese migrant domestic workers spilled out of the arrivals gate at Kathmandu airport last month, many vowed to return to the country in which they had experienced terrible hardship. Some had been beaten and forced to endure slave-like conditions; the majority had...
Rights group says Lebanon, which has taken in one million refugees from Syria, is arbitrarily refusing entry for some arrivals Human Rights Watch and a UN refugee agency have expressed concern that Lebanon is blocking Palestinians fleeing Syria from entering the country. UNRWA, the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, said it was "concerned about the increased restrictions on Palestine refugees...
'Despite the suffering, children have an amazing ability to recover,' says Unicef as some of the 400,000 child refugees in Lebanon begin to receive education Each morning at 8am, Ahmed stirs from his blanket on the soil and walks about a mile to the morning shift. Sometimes his two sisters go with him. More children soon join him from nearby potato fields and tents, on their way to the first of the...
Palestinian families who have managed to escape the Syrian camp are now arriving in Lebanon with terrible stories of their suffering Lugging a plastic bag carrying the clothes and food scraps she could salvage, Umm Samir set out from her ruined home and crawled through the pre-dawn gloom on her second journey into exile in 68 years. In the difficult days since, she has made her way from the Yarmouk...
Australia's foreign affairs minister, Julie Bishop, announced on Monday that Australia would provide US$20m for children in Lebanon and Jordan who have fled across the borders as refugees because of the Syrian crisis. Bishop, speaking in Amman, Jordan, said the funding would go towards the No Lost Generation strategy Continue reading... ...
The New York Times did not report that a young Palestinian journalist had been arrested in Israel because it obeyed a gagging order issued by an Israeli court. The paper's delayed publication of the story about the detention of Majd Kayyal (see below) was revealed by its public editor, Margaret Sullivan. "Israelis who visit an Arab country in fulfilment of their journalistic duties, or to meet...
Three members of a Lebanese television news crew were shot dead in the Syrian town of Al-Maaloula, 60 km south of Damascus, on Monday (14 April). They were reporter Hajj Hassan, cameraman Mohammed Mantash and technician Halim Allaw, who worked for Al-Manar, a TV station owned by Lebanon's Hezbollah. Continue reading... ...
Allegations say GSK sales representatives bribed doctors by issuing free samples that they were then allowed to sell on GlaxoSmithKline, the UK's largest drug firm, is investigating claims that its staff in Jordan and Lebanon have bribed doctors. The inquiry comes after separate allegations of unscrupulous behaviour by staff in China, Iraq and Poland , with the last two of those cases both emerging...
Long-awaited bill originally drafted to protect women from violence has, bizarrely, endorsed a 'marital right to intercourse' Until last week, there was no legislation protecting women from domestic violence in Lebanon, a country that exonerates rapists who marry their victims . Continue reading... ...
The millionth Syrian refugee in Lebanon registered with United Nations refugee agency UNHCR on Thursday. A year ago there were 365,000 Syrian refugees in Lebanon and the country is struggling to cope with the number of people it has taken in. A UNHCR representative calls this a 'devastating milestone'...
Refugee agency describes figure as devastating milestone for a country already stretched to breaking point The number of refugees who have fled Syria and registered in Lebanon has exceeded 1 million, the UN has said. Refugees from Syria, half of them children, now equal a quarter of Lebanon's resident population, the UN high commissioner for refugees said, warning that most of them lived in poverty...
The US is the largest donor to Syrian refugees and has the largest resettlement program in the world. No more excuses When I met with Syrian refugees in Jordan and Turkey a few months ago, many were already struggling with the realization that they would not be able to return home any time soon. For some, home no longer even existed. "If we returned to Syria, we have nothing left," a father...
Cafes can be overflowing just hours after a bomb rocks the Lebanese capital as Beirutis compartmentalise and carry on ...
A project in Lebanon now schooling almost 150,000 child refugees shows that education beyond borders can be a reality – so long as governments play their part This week 148,000 Syrian child refugees in Lebanon are back in school. This is thanks to an innovative initiative that has dramatically changed the way we think of provisions for children in conflict. Having been deprived of an education by...
Air raids targeting Syrian army HQ kill one solider and wound seven – in response to ambush of Israeli paratroopers Israeli air force jets bombed Syrian army positions near the town of Quneitra in the early hours of Wednesday, killing one soldier and wounding seven, as analysts warned of the danger of the country's armed forces being sucked further into its northern neighbour's conflict. During the...