Maronite Patriarch Nasrallah Butros Sfeir called for "reflecting on the repercussions" of amending the law allowing 18-year-olds the right to vote prior to passing it. During his Sunday sermon at the Notre Dame Cathedral in Bkirki Sfeir said: "The issue of voters' age has become a subject of discussion. One has to contemplate repercussions before ratification." Lebanon's Parliament on Thursday approved a bill lowering the voting age from 21 to 18 but the measure will not come into effect in time for the June parliamentary election. The law needs to be cleared by the Cabinet within four months before being ratified. Lebanon's electoral law was amended last September ahead of the June 7 vote which will pit the March 14 Forces against the opposition. But MPs at the time refused to adopt some amendments including lowering the voting age and introducing a quota for women in Parliament. Also in his Sunday sermon, Sfeir said Pope Benedit XVI's Africa tour reflects the efforts of the Catholic church in assisting the continent's residents combat all sorts of aliments.
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Syria's Foreign Minister Walid al-Moallem said Saturday his country wanted stability in Lebanon and supported the holding of the June 7 legislative elections on time, adding that Damascus was ready to hold normal relations with all Lebanese leaders including Future Movement leader Saad Hariri saying: "We have a big heart, we forgive." In an interview with the pan-Arab satellite TV station al-Jazeera, Moallem mentioned his country's relationship with Progressive Socialist Party leader MP Walid Jumblatt saying: "Jumblatt has to decide what he wants, if he wishes to visit Syria we shall take that into consideration."He said that he had discussed the situation in Lebanon with visiting US Assistant Secretary of State for Near East Affairs Jeffrey Feltman, adding that they both agreed that Syrian-Lebanese relations "could not be altered due to geographic and historic facts."
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A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
