Source: The National
Security & Justice
Southern Lebanon Endures Massive Damage: 40,000 Homes Leveled Across 37 Towns
Israeli forces have systematically destroyed entire neighborhoods in southern Lebanon, leveling more than 37 towns and wiping out over 40,000 residential units, according to Lebanon's National News Agency.
Tuesday, November 5, 2024
Gaps in Coastal Radar Enabled Israeli Raid in Batroun, Army Commander Says
Lebanon’s army chief, General Joseph Aoun, detailed to Caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati how Israeli forces likely exploited gaps in the country's coastal radar system during the recent raid carried out in Batroun. The briefing comes as Lebanese officials seek answers on how Israel’s elite Shayetet 13 unit carried out the landing undetected.
Monday, November 4, 2024
Opinion
The Emptying of Baalbek Is a Moment to Take Stock
“Large numbers of people continue to flee their homes every day, as Israel’s military operations in Lebanon have been going on unabated.” These disturbing words could be from almost any news report about Israel’s invasion of its northern neighbour over the past month. However, they can be found in a report by the Norwegian Refugee Council’s Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre issued on July 27, 2006.
Saturday, November 2, 2024
A Future Without Hezbollah
At the end of September, when Israel’s campaign to destroy Hezbollah was reaching its height, I met one of the group’s supporters in a seaside café in western Beirut. He was a middle-aged man with a thin white beard and the spent look of someone who had not slept for days. He was an academic of sorts, not a fighter, but his ties to Hezbollah were deep and long-standing.
Thursday, October 31, 2024
Sports
FC Barcelona Fears First Team Star Will Be Banned From Playing, Reports SPORT
FC Barcelona is concerned that one of its main first-team stars will be banned from playing at the turn of 2025 because of issues related to his registration and Financial Fair Play (FFP) limits according to SPORT, which cited anonymous sources.
Friday, November 1, 2024
Tottenham Forward Son Heung-min Crowned Asia’s International Player of the Year
Tottenham forward Son Heung-min was crowned as Asia’s International Player of the Year for the fourth time by the Asian Football Confederation at its annual awards ceremony Tuesday.
Wednesday, October 30, 2024
Thursday 29 February 2024 11:01:27
Germany Confirms Arrest Warrant for Former Lebanon Central Bank Chief Riad Salameh
German prosecutors confirmed for the first time that they are investigating claims against the former head of Lebanon's central bank and had issued an arrest warrant for him.
The Munich public prosecutor's office said it was investigating Riad Salameh, Lebanon's central bank chief from 1993 to 2023, together with his brother Raja and other suspects on charges including forgery, money laundering and embezzlement.
In July last year, The National revealed the full extent of the prosecution case against Mr Salameh, who is accused of embezzling $330 million from the financially stricken country. Previously unseen documents, obtained by The National from two independent sources, disclosed in detail how Mr Salameh is alleged to have siphoned the funds into Europe and the US, the companies created to execute the plan, the accomplices he is said to have used and the vast property empire he now controls.
The Salameh brothers deny all the charges.
Mr Salameh, 72, is being investigated in Lebanon and at least five European countries for allegedly taking hundreds of millions of dollars from Lebanon's central bank, to the detriment of the Lebanese state, and laundering the funds abroad.
German and other European prosecutors have visited Lebanon several times to question the Salameh brothers. Lebanon, however, does not extradite its own nationals.
The Munich public prosecutor's office said that part of the allegedly defrauded sum, which investigators put at €150 million ($162.3 million), was routed to Europe via a letterbox company in the British Virgin Islands and invested in real estate, including in Germany.
In an operation with partner authorities in France and Luxembourg, the prosecutor's office said three commercial properties in Munich and Hamburg with a total value of about €28 million had been confiscated.
Authorities also seized shares worth about €7 million in a Dusseldorf property company.
Germany is considered a major country in the world in which illegally earned funds are fed into the economy through money laundering.