Pope calls for peace on last day in Lebanon

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On the last day of the Pope Benedict’s visit to Lebanon, he celebrated an open-air mass in front of around 350,000 pilgrims, as well as politicians from all sectors of the multi-faith country.

 

The pilgrims had come to Beirut from across the Middle East, where the service was held at an altar built on land reclaimed with debris from Lebanon’s 1975-1990 sectarian civil war.

 

The crowd cheered and waved Vatican as well as Lebanese flags as the Pope gave a speech in which he appealed for tolerance and religious freedom and for reconciliation between Christians and Muslims.

 

These have been the central themes of the visit which comes amid soaring sectarian tensions in the region, exacerbated by the conflict in Syria.

 

The pope also called on Christians not to leave the region despite war and growing pressure from radical Islamists.

 

 

Syria: UN mission says ceasefire is ‘non-existent’

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Syrian troops loyal to President Bashar al-Assad have made a push on a number of fronts in the fight against pro-democracy rebels, activists say.

Amateur footage purports to show Syrian government helicopters being fired upon by rebels in Aleppo. There are also reports of a huge offensive by land and air in the nearby town of Khan Sheikhoun, as well sustained heavy shelling and gunfire in the rebel stronghold of Homs.

In the midst of what is reportedly one of the bloodiest weeks of the Syrian uprising, the head of the UN monitoring mission, Major General Robert Mood said that they must stay, although they admit that the ceasefire they were sent to police is non-existent:

“Now we are in the situation in which we have the contacts and knowledge, but we have no ceasefire.”

The head of the 300-strong UN monitoring mission says it should now be restructured, conducting targeted tasks aimed at supporting political dialogue, which foreign powers say is the only way out of the crisis.

WikiLeaks to release ‘Syria Files’

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WikiLeaks says it will soon begin publishing more than 2 million emails from Syrian officials that will not only embarrass Damascus, but its opponents as well.

At a press conference at the Frontline Club in London, Sarah Harrison, a spokeswoman from the whistle-blowing website gave reporters details of what the emails contained.
She said that the release of the emails was not aimed at criticising one group or another, but would give people a greater understanding of their interests, in turn allowing people a greater understanding of the conflict:

“The Syria Files shine a light on the inner workings of the Syrian government and economy. But they also reveal how the West and Western companies say one thing and do another,” she said.

Italian newspaper L’espresso has already reported on one of those companies, Finmeccanica, which is 30 percent owned by the Italian government.

It sold  equipment to Syrian authorities which enabled interception-proof encrypted communications, a move it is claimed could not have been completed without the knowledge and agreement of Italian authorities.

Syria: Fighter pilot defects to Jordan

I liked this story a lot, a plot worthy of a film in which I could use words like ‘defector’ and ‘fighter jet’ you can see the video on the euronews website here, or read below.

Jordan’s government has granted political asylum to a Syrian pilot who flew across the border to defect on Thursday morning.

It is the first defection involving an aircraft since the uprising against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad began 15 months ago.

Jordanian officials say he landed his Russian-made MIG-21 fighter jet at King Hussein military air base in Mafraq, close to the country’s northern border with Syria, and asked for political asylum.

Syrian state television confirmed that communication had been lost with a pilot, which it named as Colonel Hassan Merhi al-Hamade, while he was on a training mission near the border.

Meanwhile, amateur video purported to show continued heavy fighting in Homs. The old city has become the epicentre of clashes between Assad’s forces and rebel fighters and has seen particularly intense fighting over the last 10 days.

That means aid organisations such as the Red Cross and its Syrian partner, the Red Crescent, have been unable to enter to help the sick and wounded who are trapped on the battlefield.