Obama to Name Lebanese-American LaHood Transportation Secretary

Ray LaHood has said he wanted to write his memoirs now that he is retiring from the U.S. House of Representatives after 14 years. But it looks like the Peoria legislator will have to add at least another chapter, which he could title: “My Days as a Republican inside a Democratic White House.”
The 63-year-old LaHood, who fellow Illinoisan and President-elect Barack Obama is expected to select Thursday as his transportation secretary, would be the second Republican Obama invites to join his administration. Defense Secretary Robert Gates, whom Obama asked to remain in office, is the other GOP member tapped so far for the new Cabinet.

LaHood represents a district around Peoria, the central Illinois city where he was born — the grandson of a Lebanese immigrant and the son of a restaurant manager. After college, he taught social studies for six years at a junior high school.

In Congress, he gained respect for his grasp of parliamentary details, and he presided over impeachment hearings against then-President Bill Clinton in 1998.

LaHood was also in the forefront of efforts to make the floor of the House less partisan, and he sometimes ended up angering Republican leaders by refusing to follow the party line.

He and Democratic Rep. Rahm Emanuel — another Illinoisan whom Obama has picked as his chief of staff — often held dinners for small groups of lawmakers from both parties. LaHood explained earlier this year that the intimate dinners underscored something he believed in: That “to get things done on Capitol Hill, one must work in a bipartisan manner.”

LaHood — who serves on the House Appropriations Committee, the panel that oversees federal discretionary spending — has a reputation for getting things done for his constituents.(AP)

Lebanese Bride Dies in White

A Lebanese bride from the eastern city of Baalbek passed away last Sunday as her groom was heading to her parents’ house to give her a flower bouquet.
An Nahar daily said Tuesday that Zainab al-Masri, 24, was taking photos with her family members in the town of Hourtaala on her wedding day when she fell on the floor and immediately passed away.

The newspaper said the groom, Hassan al-Laqees, and his family went into a state of shock after learning the news.

The medical examiner, according to An Nahar, said al-Masri died of heart failure which prevented oxygen from reaching her brain.

Lebanese bombarded with more phone messages from ‘Israel’

BEIRUT: Lebanese citizens on Thursday reported receiving recorded phone messages asking for information about missing Israeli soldiers.

The message asks people to view an Israeli Web site or call a phone number in the United Kingdom if they have any information on the whereabouts of the missing troops.

The Web site, http://www.10million.org, belongs to a foundation set up by the Israeli government, according to the Associated Press. The site pictures five missing Israeli soldiers, including Ron Arad, whose plane was shot down over Lebanon in 1986. The Web site, in English, Arabic and Farsi, offers a $10 million reward for information on any of the missing troops.

One editor for The Daily Star and three Associated Press staffers were among those who received the calls on their mobile telephones Thursday. A foundation spokeswoman refused to say if it was behind the calls.

Last month, similar messages in Lebanon criticized Hizbullah’s leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah and prompted Lebanese outrage over what some officials said was the Jewish state’s tampering with Lebanon’s telecommunications system.Telecommunications Minister Jebran Bassil said last month that he wrote a letter of protest to United Nations chief Ban Ki Moon protesting over the messages, calling them a violation of UN Security Council Resolution 1701, which ended the summer 2006 war with Israel.

Israel’s Defense Ministry declined to comment on those claims. But an Israeli official told AFP that Israel uses “all sorts of methods to weaken Hizbullah” and that it was engaged in “intelligence and electronic warfare” against the group.

Many Lebanese had received similar phone messages urging them not to support Hizbullah during the course of the 2006 war, a conflict which killed more than 1,200 Lebanese, mostly civilians and more than 160 Israelis, mostly soldiers. – The Daily Star, with agencies

Belgian Naval Vessel to Patrol Lebanese Territorial Waters

The Belgian Naval vessel F930 Leopold, specialized with interception operations, left its homeport on Wednesday heading to the Mediterranean to patrol Lebanese waters and prevent illegal arms shipments in line with UNSCR 1701.
The vessel, which has a crew of 157 people, is to start its duty on Sept. 1 and leave the Lebanese territorial waters by Dec. 19, the Voice of Lebanon radio said.

It would operate under the command of the U.N. Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL).

UNSCR 1701, which ended a 34-day war between Hizbullah and Israel on Aug. 14 2006, bans illegal shipments of weapons to Lebanon to prevent Hizbullah from re-arming.

Lebanese army restores calm in Tripoli, arrests wanted gunman

TRIPOLI: The Lebanese Army shot and wounded a wanted suspect during a shootout in Tripoli’s Bab al-Tebbaneh neighborhood on Sunday, a security source told The Daily Star.

The source added that the gunman, Mohammad Ahmad al-Arour, had been wanted for opening fire on troops Saturday and was now in their custody.

The source added that the situation had remained calm in the northern city of Tripoli throughout the day until the arrest was made.

“Troops pursued Arour and arrested him after a 30-minute clash that left two soldiers wounded, one of them seriously,” the source added.

Meanwhile, the Lebanese Army restored calm in the northern port city after nine people were killed in deadly clashes, which sent 2,000 families fleeing to safer areas, a security official said on Sunday.

“Calm has been restored in Tripoli and no gunfire or firing of rockets has been recorded since 5 p.m. on Saturday,” the official told AFP, asking not to be identified.

All through Friday night, militants from the rival Sunni Muslim and Alawite communities battled with rocket-propelled grenades and automatic weapons in the latest violence to rock the Mediterranean city.

Bab al-Tebbaneh is a stronghold of the anti-Syrian parliamentary majority while the inhabitants of Jabal Mohsen mainly support the parliamentary opposition led by Hizbullah.

Tensions between the two communities date back to Lebanon’s 1975-1990 Civil War.

Around 60 army vehicles fanned out across Tripoli over the weekend, forcing the shooting to die down.

An army statement said its troops “will use force if necessary to protect civilians and their property and bar armed presence” on the streets.

“Our forces are conducting patrols and have established checkpoints to check the identities of all persons, so as to prevent any theft or infringement on private and public property,” the army statement added.

A 10-year-old boy and two women were among those killed on Friday while 50 other people were wounded after two attempts to secure a cease-fire went unheeded.

On Friday night, Lebanon’s newly-appointed Interior Minister Ziyad Baroud headed an

emergency meeting that joined officers of the Internal Security Forces’ (ISF) North Regional Command and ISF head Major General Ashraf Rifi.

“Tripoli is very dear to our hearts, and today we stand by the security forces, who are making every effort and sacrifice possible to be at the side of the people,” Baroud said after the meeting.

The interior minister stressed that security forces were working in coordination with the army command and under the direction of President Michel Sleiman.

Baroud said “firmness and decisiveness” were the tactics necessary to solve the sporadic violence in Tripoli.

“I think that this is what the people await, and we stand by them throughout the chaos, chaos that is totally unacceptable by all citizens,” he added.

Baroud refused to go into details on the military’s tactics “in order to preserve the security plan that was drafted and is being developed.”

“Over the next few hours, we will work to reduce damage and human and material losses,” he said.

In remarks published by the As-Safir daily on Saturday, Democratic Gathering leader MP Walid Jumblatt urged Tripoli’s feuding factions to halt acts of violence, saying factional violence “only serves foreign agendas.”

Jumblatt said the repercussions of such clashes would save no side, warning against the revival of extremist movements.

He said the Sunnis and Alawites “have a joint history of struggle in defense of Lebanon and its Arab belonging.”

Lebanon has been hit by sporadic outbreaks of violence despite a power-sharing deal between rival political factions in May which led to the election of Sleiman as president and the creation of a unity Cabinet.

The latest unrest came after the new Cabinet hit snags in deliberations aimed at drawing up a policy agenda ahead of a parliamentary vote of confidence which would enable the government to be officially installed.

“This is a political conflict between the Lebanese. Rather than go to the constitutional institutions they are reverting to the use of weapons,” an army official told AFP.

Many shops remained shuttered for the third consecutive day in Tripoli on Sunday and the streets were largely deserted as families who had fled the battle zones Friday waited for a return to calm before going home, an AFP correspondent said. – The Daily Star, with AFP