Latest news with #Lebanon-based
Business Recorder
5 days ago
- Business
- Business Recorder
Cherat, Bestway interested in Attock Cement as Pharaon mulls exit: Bloomberg
Pharaon Investment Group Ltd., a Lebanon-based company exploring a strategic sale of its stake in Attock Cement Pakistan Ltd (ACPL), has attracted initial interest from several major players in the cement and energy sectors, including Cherat Cement and Bestway Group, reported Bloomberg, citing people familiar with the matter. According to the report, Pakistani cement giants, including Cherat and Bestway, are among suitors considering bids for the stake. Meanwhile, Kot Addu Power Co. from the energy sector has also been evaluating ACPL 'and may explore a joint offer with a local building materials producer like Fauji Cement.' Earlier, Pharaon Investment Group informed its stakeholders that certain prospective investors had expressed interest in acquiring its shareholding in ACPL and also indicated their intention to submit binding offers. PIGL shared that Standard Chartered Bank has been appointed as a financial advisor for the divestment process. Last year, it was reported that Pharaon Investment was exploring strategic options, including a potential sale, in relation to its investment in the cement business in Pakistan. Attock Cement Pakistan Ltd was incorporated in Pakistan on October 14, 1981, as a public limited company. The company is a subsidiary of Pharaon Investment Group Limited Holding S.A.L, Lebanon. Its main business activity is the manufacturing and sale of cement.
Yahoo
21-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Palestinian, Lebanese leaders agree on disarming Palestinian factions
BEIRUT, Lebanon, May 21 (UPI) -- The Lebanese and Palestinian presidents agreed Wednesday to support Beirut's efforts to enforce the state's monopoly on weapons by disarming Palestinian factions, preventing the use of Lebanese territory for attacks on Israel and enhancing cooperation to combat terrorism and extremism in refugee camps. A joint communique issued after Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas met with his Lebanese counterpart, Joseph Aoun, shortly after arriving in Beirut for a three-day visit stated that both leaders affirmed the principle that weapons should be exclusively in the hands of the Lebanese state and emphasized the importance of respecting Lebanon's sovereignty, independence and territorial integrity. "The era of weapons outside the authority of the Lebanese state has come to an end, especially since the Lebanese and Palestinian peoples have, for decades, borne heavy costs, enormous losses and great sacrifices," the communique stated, as read by the spokeswoman for the Lebanese presidency, Najat Sharafeddine. It added that the Palestinian side affirmed "its commitment not to use Lebanese territory as a launching pad for any military operations and to respect Lebanon's declared policy of non-interference in the affairs of other countries and staying away from regional conflicts." Aoun has remained firm since he was elected to the country's top post in January on his pledge to disarm all militias and impose the state monopoly on weapons. Hezbollah, which was greatly weakened during Israel's recent destructive war, and the Lebanon-based Palestinian armed factions, are thus to relinquish their weapons due to the dramatic regional shifts and mounting international pressure. The Lebanese Army has begun gradually taking control of positions held by the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine-General Command outside the 12 overcrowded and impoverished refugee camps across various regions of Lebanon. These camps are controlled by Abbas's mainstream Fatah movement, the Islamic Resistance Movement, or Hamas, and other smaller armed factions. Aoun and Abbas also agreed to strengthen cooperation to combat terrorism and ensure that Palestinian camps "do not become safe havens for extremist groups," according to the statement. Sharafeddine said the two sides agreed on "a unified vision" concerning the disarming of the Palestinian groups and are to form a political-security committee that will also address the issue of the Palestinian refugees and their social and humanitarian conditions. During the meeting with Aoun, Abbas reiterated that the Palestinians "are temporary guests" in Lebanon and that the Palestinian Authority does not want to keep "weapons neither inside nor outside the camps" or engage in any illegal activity. But the Palestinian president does not control all the factions and cannot speak on their behalf. For this, he called for engaging groups outside the Palestinian Authority framework in a dialogue "based on the principle that there should be one state, one law, one army and one legitimate weapon." He was mainly referring to Hamas, whose fighters in Lebanon have joined Hezbollah in the war it launched in support of Gaza in October 2023. A Hamas source said his group and other Palestinian factions "are open to any dialogue" that would achieve "common grounds" to consolidate security and stability in the country. The focus would be "on the weapons inside the refugee camps," the source told UPI, emphasizing that "these are light personal weapons." "No one is against the Lebanese state's monopoly over arms," he said. "The only time Hamas used its weapons [in Lebanon] was during the Gaza support war under the supervision of Hezbollah." Early this month, the Lebanese Army arrested several Lebanese and Palestinians suspected of firing rockets into northern Israel on March 22 and March 28 in violation of the cease-fire accord that went into effect a month earlier. The rocket attacks provoked additional Israeli retaliatory strikes. After Lebanon's Higher Defense threatened Hamas with strict measures, the group handed over the rocket fire suspects to the Lebanese Army. "Firing rockets was a mistake. ... It was an individual act because of Israeli atrocities in Gaza and not a decision by Hamas," the source said. While he acknowledged that there are "some wanted individuals" by the Lebanese authorities inside certain camps -- primarily in the largest shantytown, Ein el-Helweh, on the outskirts of the port city of Sidon in southern Lebanon -- he dismissed any connection to terrorism that could threaten Lebanon's security." The mechanism to remove the weapons of the Palestinian groups is still not in place. "How would this happen? Who would take control of security inside the camps? It is still unclear," the source asked rhetorically. According to a census conducted by Lebanon several years ago, some 170,000 Palestinian refugees are living in the country. However, the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East, or UNRWA, estimates that no more than 250,000 Palestine refugees currently reside in the country, out of nearly 500,000 registered with the agency as of February. In a report released last March, UNRWA highlighted a very high poverty rate among Palestinians in Lebanon, recorded at the beginning of 2023. The report noted that the refugees are barred from working in several key professions, prohibited from owning property or businesses, and excluded from employment in the public sector.
UPI
21-05-2025
- Politics
- UPI
Palestinian, Lebanese leaders agree on disarming Palestinian factions
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas (R) speaks with Lebanese President Joseph Aoun as he signs a guest book at the presidential palace in Baabda, near Beirut, Lebanon, on Wednesday. Abbas arrived in Beirut for a three-day official visit to meet with Lebanese officials, as well as discuss issues related to the Palestinian refugee camps. Photo by Wael Hamzeh/EPA-EFE BEIRUT, Lebanon, May 21 (UPI) -- The Lebanese and Palestinian presidents agreed Wednesday to support Beirut's efforts to enforce the state's monopoly on weapons by disarming Palestinian factions, preventing the use of Lebanese territory for attacks on Israel and enhancing cooperation to combat terrorism and extremism in refugee camps. A joint communique issued after Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas met with his Lebanese counterpart, Joseph Aoun, shortly after arriving in Beirut for a three-day visit stated that both leaders affirmed the principle that weapons should be exclusively in the hands of the Lebanese state and emphasized the importance of respecting Lebanon's sovereignty, independence and territorial integrity. "The era of weapons outside the authority of the Lebanese state has come to an end, especially since the Lebanese and Palestinian peoples have, for decades, borne heavy costs, enormous losses and great sacrifices," the communique stated, as read by the spokeswoman for the Lebanese presidency, Najat Sharafeddine. It added that the Palestinian side affirmed "its commitment not to use Lebanese territory as a launching pad for any military operations and to respect Lebanon's declared policy of non-interference in the affairs of other countries and staying away from regional conflicts." Aoun has remained firm since he was elected to the country's top post in January on his pledge to disarm all militias and impose the state monopoly on weapons. Hezbollah, which was greatly weakened during Israel's recent destructive war, and the Lebanon-based Palestinian armed factions, are thus to relinquish their weapons due to the dramatic regional shifts and mounting international pressure. The Lebanese Army has begun gradually taking control of positions held by the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine-General Command outside the 12 overcrowded and impoverished refugee camps across various regions of Lebanon. These camps are controlled by Abbas's mainstream Fatah movement, the Islamic Resistance Movement, or Hamas, and other smaller armed factions. Aoun and Abbas also agreed to strengthen cooperation to combat terrorism and ensure that Palestinian camps "do not become safe havens for extremist groups," according to the statement. Sharafeddine said the two sides agreed on "a unified vision" concerning the disarming of the Palestinian groups and are to form a political-security committee that will also address the issue of the Palestinian refugees and their social and humanitarian conditions. During the meeting with Aoun, Abbas reiterated that the Palestinians "are temporary guests" in Lebanon and that the Palestinian Authority does not want to keep "weapons neither inside nor outside the camps" or engage in any illegal activity. But the Palestinian president does not control all the factions and cannot speak on their behalf. For this, he called for engaging groups outside the Palestinian Authority framework in a dialogue "based on the principle that there should be one state, one law, one army and one legitimate weapon." He was mainly referring to Hamas, whose fighters in Lebanon have joined Hezbollah in the war it launched in support of Gaza in October 2023. A Hamas source said his group and other Palestinian factions "are open to any dialogue" that would achieve "common grounds" to consolidate security and stability in the country. The focus would be "on the weapons inside the refugee camps," the source told UPI, emphasizing that "these are light personal weapons." "No one is against the Lebanese state's monopoly over arms," he said. "The only time Hamas used its weapons [in Lebanon] was during the Gaza support war under the supervision of Hezbollah." Early this month, the Lebanese Army arrested several Lebanese and Palestinians suspected of firing rockets into northern Israel on March 22 and March 28 in violation of the cease-fire accord that went into effect a month earlier. The rocket attacks provoked additional Israeli retaliatory strikes. After Lebanon's Higher Defense threatened Hamas with strict measures, the group handed over the rocket fire suspects to the Lebanese Army. "Firing rockets was a mistake. ... It was an individual act because of Israeli atrocities in Gaza and not a decision by Hamas," the source said. While he acknowledged that there are "some wanted individuals" by the Lebanese authorities inside certain camps -- primarily in the largest shantytown, Ein el-Helweh, on the outskirts of the port city of Sidon in southern Lebanon -- he dismissed any connection to terrorism that could threaten Lebanon's security." The mechanism to remove the weapons of the Palestinian groups is still not in place. "How would this happen? Who would take control of security inside the camps? It is still unclear," the source asked rhetorically. According to a census conducted by Lebanon several years ago, some 170,000 Palestinian refugees are living in the country. However, the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East, or UNRWA, estimates that no more than 250,000 Palestine refugees currently reside in the country, out of nearly 500,000 registered with the agency as of February. In a report released last March, UNRWA highlighted a very high poverty rate among Palestinians in Lebanon, recorded at the beginning of 2023. The report noted that the refugees are barred from working in several key professions, prohibited from owning property or businesses, and excluded from employment in the public sector.
Leader Live
16-05-2025
- Politics
- Leader Live
Salman Rushdie attacker jailed for 25 years for attempted murder
A jury found Hadi Matar, 27, guilty of attempted murder and assault in February. Sir Salman did not return to the western New York courtroom for his attacker's sentencing but submitted a victim impact statement. During the trial, the 77-year-old author was the key witness, describing how he believed he was dying when a masked attacker plunged a knife into his head and body more than a dozen times as he was being introduced at the Chautauqua Institution to speak about writer safety. Before being sentenced, Matar stood and made a statement about freedom of speech in which he called Sir Salman a hypocrite. Matar received the maximum 25-year sentence for the attempted murder of the author and seven years for wounding a man who was on stage with him. The sentences must run concurrently because both victims were injured in the same event, District Attorney Jason Schmidt said. In requesting the maximum sentence, Mr Schmidt told the judge that Matar ' designed this attack so that he could inflict the most amount of damage, not just upon Mr Rushdie, but upon this community, upon the 1,400 people who were there to watch it'. Public defender Nathaniel Barone pointed out that Matar had an otherwise clean criminal record and disputed that the people in the audience should be considered victims, suggesting that a sentence of 12 years would be appropriate. Sir Salman spent 17 days in a Pennsylvania hospital and more than three weeks at a New York City rehabilitation centre. The author of Midnight's Children, The Moor's Last Sigh and Victory City detailed his recovery in his 2024 memoir, Knife. Matar next faces a federal trial on terrorism-related charges. While the first trial focused mostly on the details of the knife attack, the next one is expected to delve into the more complicated issue of motive. Authorities said Matar, a US citizen, was attempting to carry out a decades-old fatwa, or edict, calling for Sir Salman's death when he travelled from his home in Fairview, New Jersey, to target the writer at the summer retreat about 70 miles south west of Buffalo. Matar believed the fatwa, first issued in 1989, was backed by the Lebanon-based militant group Hezbollah and endorsed in a 2006 speech by the group's secretary-general, Hassan Nasrallah, according to federal prosecutors. Iranian leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini issued the fatwa after publication of Sir Salmann's novel, The Satanic Verses, which some Muslims consider blasphemous. He spent years in hiding, but after Iran announced it would not enforce the decree he has travelled freely over the past quarter of a century. Matar pleaded not guilty to a three-count indictment charging him with providing material to terrorists, attempting to provide material support to Hezbollah and engaging in terrorism transcending national boundaries. Video of the assault, captured by the venue's cameras and played at trial, show Matar approaching the seated Sir Salman from behind and reaching around him to stab at his torso with a knife. As the audience gasps and screams, the writer is seen raising his arms and rising from his seat, walking and stumbling for a few steps with Matar hanging on, swinging and stabbing until they both fall and are surrounded by onlookers who rush in to separate them. Jurors in Matar's first trial delivered their verdict after less than two hours of deliberation.
North Wales Chronicle
16-05-2025
- Politics
- North Wales Chronicle
Salman Rushdie attacker jailed for 25 years for attempted murder
A jury found Hadi Matar, 27, guilty of attempted murder and assault in February. Sir Salman did not return to the western New York courtroom for his attacker's sentencing but submitted a victim impact statement. During the trial, the 77-year-old author was the key witness, describing how he believed he was dying when a masked attacker plunged a knife into his head and body more than a dozen times as he was being introduced at the Chautauqua Institution to speak about writer safety. Before being sentenced, Matar stood and made a statement about freedom of speech in which he called Sir Salman a hypocrite. Matar received the maximum 25-year sentence for the attempted murder of the author and seven years for wounding a man who was on stage with him. The sentences must run concurrently because both victims were injured in the same event, District Attorney Jason Schmidt said. In requesting the maximum sentence, Mr Schmidt told the judge that Matar ' designed this attack so that he could inflict the most amount of damage, not just upon Mr Rushdie, but upon this community, upon the 1,400 people who were there to watch it'. Public defender Nathaniel Barone pointed out that Matar had an otherwise clean criminal record and disputed that the people in the audience should be considered victims, suggesting that a sentence of 12 years would be appropriate. Sir Salman spent 17 days in a Pennsylvania hospital and more than three weeks at a New York City rehabilitation centre. The author of Midnight's Children, The Moor's Last Sigh and Victory City detailed his recovery in his 2024 memoir, Knife. Matar next faces a federal trial on terrorism-related charges. While the first trial focused mostly on the details of the knife attack, the next one is expected to delve into the more complicated issue of motive. Authorities said Matar, a US citizen, was attempting to carry out a decades-old fatwa, or edict, calling for Sir Salman's death when he travelled from his home in Fairview, New Jersey, to target the writer at the summer retreat about 70 miles south west of Buffalo. Matar believed the fatwa, first issued in 1989, was backed by the Lebanon-based militant group Hezbollah and endorsed in a 2006 speech by the group's secretary-general, Hassan Nasrallah, according to federal prosecutors. Iranian leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini issued the fatwa after publication of Sir Salmann's novel, The Satanic Verses, which some Muslims consider blasphemous. He spent years in hiding, but after Iran announced it would not enforce the decree he has travelled freely over the past quarter of a century. Matar pleaded not guilty to a three-count indictment charging him with providing material to terrorists, attempting to provide material support to Hezbollah and engaging in terrorism transcending national boundaries. Video of the assault, captured by the venue's cameras and played at trial, show Matar approaching the seated Sir Salman from behind and reaching around him to stab at his torso with a knife. As the audience gasps and screams, the writer is seen raising his arms and rising from his seat, walking and stumbling for a few steps with Matar hanging on, swinging and stabbing until they both fall and are surrounded by onlookers who rush in to separate them. Jurors in Matar's first trial delivered their verdict after less than two hours of deliberation.
