Introduction to the evening news 03-12-2012

Jennifer Chedid, the child who survived death following the explosion that rocked Beirut's Achrafieh area, made her first appearance on Monday evening by lighting the Christmas tree in Sassine Square, giving sanguinity to a country which has lost all sense of hope.     

This as Tripoli is still on the search for those who went missing in the wake of the Talkalkh incidents.                        

Meanwhile it seems that citizens are being given the ultimatum by the ISF; one of security and one which pertains to their privacy in light of the "data war" that exceeded mobile calls and has now reached Facebook profiles.                                

On another front, the project of building a power plant in Deir Amar has suddenly become a new mystery among others related to the Lebanese administration.                        

But going back to Jennifer Chedid, the child who cheated death now appears lucky in the face of the many children who die on a daily basis in Syria.                   

Perhaps the last episode of the Syrian crisis was the one reported by Reuters News Agency saying that the Syrian foreign ministry spokesman defected, but Agence France Press quoted the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights as saying that Jihad Makdissi has been sacked, and has consequently left Damascus.                           

Regional developments in Syria pushed the UN to withdraw "all non-essential international staff" from Syria due to the worsening security situation.                            

And as Turkey scrambled fighter jets along its border with Syria, Turkish President Abdullah Gul and his ministers held talks with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin in Ankara, failing to reach any agreement regarding the Syrian situation.                 

In light of these regional developments, Israel decided not to backtrack on a settlement expansion plan as a response to the UN decision to recognize the Palestinian state. Instead the Netanyahu government re-launched a 2005 settlement plan which stipulates the building of 3000 housing units that would dissect the West Bank into two.                  

All these developments and more in our detailed news bulletin.


For the full report, please click on the VIDEO above.