Introduction to the evening news 18-01-2013

Former PM Omar Karami prevented a huge strife from taking place in Tripoli, when he considered that the gunshots that targeted the convoy of his son, Minister Faisal Karami, in al-Tal region, are a mistake made by gunmen. However, this mistake injured 5 of Karami's bodyguards, and killed one bodyguard of Sheikh Hussam al-Sabbagh.            

Amid conflicting reports emerging about the incident, Interior Minister Marwan Charbel stressed that Minister Karami was not a target, but when the gunmen recognized him, they intended on shooting him.              

Accordingly, Minister Karami escaped death, but until when will Tripoli remain a "suspended city".           

On the other hand, at a time when the arms became spread without limits, when the "Orthodox gathering" draft law became an opportunity for citizens to appear on media and reduce themselves with their sectarian affiliations, a little space of hope emerged when a Lebanese couple, Kholoud Sukkariyah and Nidal Darwish, succeeded in signing the first civil marriage contract in Lebanon.                

The legal opinion on which the couple relied proved that there is no deadlock when it comes to equality between the citizens, and that the political authority is the only party hindering the efforts deployed to fight against discrimination between genders and sects. This is what happened during yesterday's cabinet session where discrimination against the Lebanese woman was approved.                         

The story of Koloud and Nidal resembles that of Samira Soueidan, the mother who was granted the right to pass on her nationality to her children in 2009, but somehow the result was the transfer of the judge to another position, depriving Samira's children from the nationality.


All these developments and more in our detailed news bulletin