Labour to accept Hezbollah ban but queries Javid’s motives

Spokesman says party will not oppose measure but cites lack of sufficient evidence

Labour has said it will not seek to block the government’s decision to ban the political wing of Hezbollah in the UK, but suggested the move by Sajid Javid was motivated by his leadership ambitions rather than actual evidence.

Membership of the Lebanon-based group’s military wing is already outlawed, but the proscription will now be extended to its political arm, the home secretary announced on Monday.

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Arab world’s first female interior minister hails ‘point of pride for women’

Raya al-Hassan is one of four women taking cabinet jobs in new Lebanese government

The Arab world’s first female interior minister has hailed her appointment as a “point of pride for all women”.

Raya al-Hassan is one of four women to take cabinet jobs in the new Lebanese government, a record for the country and three more than in the last government, in which even the minister for women was a man.

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‘They would smash your head to death’: escaping homophobia in the Middle East

Youssef heard the shots that killed his boyfriend. Resettled in Australia, his is one of four stories told in a new documentary

“I tried to escape, and then one of them hit me. Hazem never allowed anyone to lay a hand on me.”

Youssef’s breath shortens with each word, his face disguised from the camera as he relives the moment his partner sought to shield him from a group of men on a Baghdad street.

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‘No one can guarantee our safety’: Syrians stuck in squalid exile

Despite appalling conditions in Lebanese camps, most refugees say it is unsafe to go home

In knee-deep snow and biting cold, 10-year-old Saleh Qarqour had almost finished shovelling a path to the tent that had been his family’s home for the past six years. Elders and children huddled around a heater inside. Chimney smoke wafted from the town of Arsal in the valley below.

Over the ridge behind them was the Syrian frontier, from which the Qarqour family and nearly everyone else in this Lebanese border town had fled. Their homes ever since had been makeshift tents, their frugal lives sustained by aid and goodwill, which, on this frozen ledge above Lebanon, was fast running out.

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‘Real risk’ of refugees freezing to death in Syria after rains destroy shelters

As temperatures fall, aid workers warn of danger to at least 11,000 people across Idlib, with storms also battering camps in Lebanon

At least 11,000 child refugees and their families are facing a weekend of freezing temperatures with no shelter, after torrential rains across Syria’s Idlib province swept away tents and belongings.

Aid workers warn there is a real risk people will simply freeze to death as temperatures have already dropped to -1C, amid a shortage of blankets and heating fuel.

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Too little, too late? The battle to save Tripoli’s futuristic fairground

Designed by Brazilian modernist Oscar Niemeyer, Lebanon’s international expo site has been abandoned since civil war broke out in the 1970s

“It could collapse at any time,” says the architect and activist Wassim Naghi. The facade of the unfinished, subterranean space museum in Tripoli, Lebanon, is visibly decaying and its steel reinforcements are rusted – but that may not be its biggest problem. “The ageing concrete’s carbonation is invisible,” explains Naghi when we meet in his office in the centre of the city. “We don’t know how bad it really is.”

Situated beneath an elevated concrete helipad, the museum was part of a planned permanent international fair designed by the Brazilian architect Oscar Niemeyer in the early 1960s that was expected to accommodate more than 2 million visitors a year. The 100-hectare (250-acre) site’s 15 existing buildings also include a domed theatre, an atrium, an arch and collective housing. A 717-metre-long boomerang-shaped canopy was designed to house the permanent exhibition, alongside a separate, traditionally styled pavilion for exhibitions relating to Lebanon.

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Iran denies any of its troops killed in suspected Israeli strike in Syria

Military official dismisses report that 9 Iranians among 21 killed in Thursday raid on alleged Hezbollah weapons depot as 'a sheer lie' Iran on Saturday denied any of its troops were killed in a suspected Israeli airstrike in Syria, after a report said nine Iranians were among the dead. Reports that Iranians were killed in Thursday's strike are "a sheer lie and quite baseless," the official IRNA news agency quoted an unnamed military official as saying.

Syrian government declares capital fully under its control

In this file photo released on Sunday, April 22, 2018 by the Syrian official news agency SANA, smoke rises after Syrian government airstrikes and shelling hit in Hajar al-Aswad neighborhood held by Islamic State militants, southern Damascus, Syria. Syria's military said Monday, May 21, 2018, that it has liberated the last neighborhoods in southern Damascus held by the Islamic State and has declared the Syrian capital and its surroundings "completely safe" and free of any militant presence.

Pruitt’s round-the-clock security has cost taxpayers nearly $3 million

Dozens Suffocate in Syria as Government Is Accused of Chemical Attack - BEIRUT, Lebanon - Dozens of Syrians choked to death after a suspected chemical attack struck the rebel-held suburb of Douma, sending a stream of patients with burning eyes and breathing problems to medical clinics, aid groups said on Sunday. Scores feared dead in Syria 'chemical attack' as US demands international response - An alleged chemical attack reportedly killed scores of civilians, including children, in Syria on Saturday, with the US describing the reports as "horrifying".

Skowhegan bull chase an example of how not to react, experts say

Dozens Suffocate in Syria as Government Is Accused of Chemical Attack - BEIRUT, Lebanon - Dozens of Syrians choked to death after a suspected chemical attack struck the rebel-held suburb of Douma, sending a stream of patients with burning eyes and breathing problems to medical clinics, aid groups said on Sunday. Scores feared dead in Syria 'chemical attack' as US demands international response - An alleged chemical attack reportedly killed scores of civilians, including children, in Syria on Saturday, with the US describing the reports as "horrifying".

Manhattan prosecutor returns 3 ancient sculptures to Lebanon

Three ancient sculptures are being returned to their rightful owners in Lebanon as the Manhattan district attorney forms a new antiquities trafficking unit. Lawmakers in Colorado and New Mexico are revisiting their sexual misconduct policies as legislatures nationwide confront claims that they haven't done enough to protect victims.

Billionaire Clinton Foundation Donor Denied Entry Into US Because Of Terror Ties

The multi-million dollar Clinton Foundation donor was denied entry into the U.S. last year because of his ties to a Lebanese organization that has allegedly given money to the terrorist group Hezbollah, The Los Angeles Times reports . The news, which was based on interviews and government documents, comes weeks after emails surfaced showing that in 2009, a Clinton Foundation adviser asked Hillary Clinton's State Department deputy chief of staff, Huma Abedin, for a favor on Chagoury's behalf.

Former Iran president writes to Obama over $2B court ruling

This Oct. 23, 1983 file photo shows the scene around the U.S. Marine Base near Beirut Airport following a massive bomb blast that destroyed the base and caused a huge death told rising to 239, in Beirut, Lebanon. Iran's former hard-line President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has written a letter to President Barack Obama, that was posted Monday, Aug. 8, 2016, on a website associated with the former president's office, asking him to "quickly fix" a U.S. Supreme Court ruling that could cost Iran some $2 billion.