Introduction to the evening news 20-02-2013

The Orthodox Gathering draft law won over the other proposals and paved its way toward its adoption in the upcoming parliamentary elections.             

On the other hand, the "law of ransom payments" kidnapped the thirteen-year-old Mohammed Nidal Awadah from outside his house, while the "law requiring prepayment for hospital admission" kidnapped the life of a child in the north. These are different forms of abduction, but the tragedy remains the same:                 

One-and-a-half-year-old Mou'men Khaled al-Mouhammad was not admitted to a hospital in the north because of the financial situation of his parents who were unable to pay the hospital fees. Accordingly, death was faster than money and took his life away.                   

However, thirteen-year-old Mohammed Nidal Awadah was waiting for his school bus, but again the abductors' car was faster, and a one million dollar ransom is the condition for his release.                     

Similarly, the Orthodox Gathering proposal "held the elections as a hostage", unless one of the two following developments takes place: the presentation of an alternative within one week or filing an objection against it with the constitutional council in case it was approved.                     

On another note, Prime Minister Najib Mikati re-demanded the delivery of the telecom data during today's cabinet session, where the objection to such demand almost led to escalatory steps.                   

On the judicial level, the most prominent development was the issuance of the indictment in the case of Samaha-Mamlouk, where Judge Abou Ghaida demanded capital punishment for former Minister Michel Samaha and two accomplices involved in terror plots across Lebanon.                

On the Union's level, the movement staged by the Union Coordination Committee seems to take the path of escalation with the absence of a serious promise from the government.

All these developments and more in our detailed news bulletin


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