A former ice-cream seller has been sentenced to life imprisonment for the murder of two Irish peacekeeping troops in south Lebanon 40 years ago.
A Lebanese military tribunal convicted Mahmoud Bazzi (76) of the murders of Pte Thomas Barrett, from Cork, and Pte Derek Smallhorne, from Dublin, on April 18, 1980.
The tribunal subsequently reduced the life sentence to 15 years in prison, with hard labour.
Bazzi was deported back to Lebanon from the United States five years ago and has been before the tribunal since then.
The two murdered soldiers and their comrade, Pte John O’Mahony, were in their last week of a six-month tour of duty with Unifil (United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon) when they were sent out as part of a group to provide supplies to a post near the border with Israel.
The Media Line Staff
Al-Nahar, Lebanon, December 18
French President Emmanuel Macron was supposed to visit Lebanon next week, as part of a series of visits he has been conducting to Beirut following the port disaster in August. During his last visit, Macron gathered representatives of Lebanon’s political echelon at the French embassy in Beirut and presented to them a political-economic reform initiative, sponsored by France. Those in the room unanimously agreed to accept it, in light of the deteriorating conditions in Lebanon. However, since then, nothing has happened. Despite announcing their approval for Macron’s stimulus plan, these lawmakers and business tycoons did what they do best: allowed the initiative to drown in Lebanon’s political bureaucracy. The cancellation of the current visit, caused by the fact that Macron tested positive for COVID-19, places an even greater question mark over the French initiative. In his planned visit, Macron was slated to meet French fo
th Anniversary of the UN.
Prior to sharing my thoughts with you, I would also like take this opportunity to congratulate “Cyprus Youth DiplomaCY” for their invaluable contribution to public discourse, for facilitating young people’s meaningful engagement in political, economic and academic discussions. Rest assured that your role in promoting the vision and views of young people in these fields is greatly valued.
Dear friends,
2020 marks a special anniversary for the United Nations. On October 24
th 1945, after six long years of brutal war and unprecedented bloodshed, the Charter of the United Nations was ratified and the United Nations was born. Today, we celebrate its 75
Chinese peacekeepers to Lebanon dispose expired ammunition for Serbian counterparts
2020-12-10 17:16
By Ding Wendong, Zhao Wenhuan
BEIRUT, Dec. 10 Recently the 19th Chinese peacekeeping multi-function engineering contingent to Lebanon successfully carried out the disposal and destruction of expired ammunition for friendly peacekeeping troops in Naqoura of south Lebanon. This batch of ammunition mainly included signal bombs, smoke bombs, and self-propelled rocket launchers with warheads.
This was the first ammunition destruction mission carried out by the contingent since its deployment in August this year, which had started on November 30 and ended on December 8.
In early November, the Chinese contingent received an order from the command of the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) to destroy a batch of expired ammunition for the Serbian peacekeeping troops in Lebanon.