Professor deported from US back in Lebanon: family

Update Professor deported from US back in Lebanon: family
Demonstrators hold signs as they protest the deportation of Assistant Professor of Medicine Dr. Rasha Alawieh of Brown University at the State House in Providence, Rhode Island, on March 17, 2025. ( AFP)
Short Url
Updated 18 March 2025
Follow

Professor deported from US back in Lebanon: family

Professor deported from US back in Lebanon: family
  • Rasha Alawieh was a kidney transplant specialist and professor at the Ivy League Brown University
  • She was detained on Thursday after spending weeks on holiday in Lebanon

BEIRUT: A Lebanese professor is back in her home country after she was expelled from the United States for attending the funeral of Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah during a trip to Beirut, her family said Tuesday.

Rasha Alawieh, a kidney transplant specialist and professor at the Ivy League Brown University, was detained on Thursday at Logan International Airport in Boston and deported the following day, US media reported.

A member of Alawieh’s family said that “after she was detained by Homeland Security at Boston airport, she was asked whether she had participated in the funeral of former Hezbollah secretary-general Hassan Nasrallah” on February 23.

Alawieh, 34, responded by saying she had joined the many thousands who gathered on the road outside the stadium where the funeral was held, but that she “did not attend the ceremony inside the stadium,” said the family member who did not wish to give their name.

“Pictures were found on her phone of Hezbollah figures” and she was accused of being sympathetic to the group, the family member added.

“Her life’s dream is to return to the United States because her whole future will be at risk.”

She was detained on Thursday after spending weeks on holiday in Lebanon, where she had received a residence visa from the US embassy granted to foreigners with special skills, the family member said.

The Department of Homeland Security on Monday posted on X saying that Alawieh “traveled to Beirut, Lebanon, to attend the funeral of Hassan Nasrallah – a brutal terrorist who led Hezbollah, responsible for killing hundreds of Americans over a four-decade terror spree.

“Alawieh openly admitted to this... as well as her support of Nasrallah,” it added.

The White House later shared the Homeland Security post with the message “Bye-bye, Rasha.”

Thousands participated in Nasrallah’s funeral in Beirut last month, which came months after he was killed in an Israeli strike on Beirut in September.

Iran-backed Hezbollah had delayed the funeral until a ceasefire with Israel and the withdrawal of the majority of Israeli troops from south Lebanon.


US strike on Yemen fuel port kills at least 58, Houthi media say

US strike on Yemen fuel port kills at least 58, Houthi media say
Updated 7 sec ago
Follow

US strike on Yemen fuel port kills at least 58, Houthi media say

US strike on Yemen fuel port kills at least 58, Houthi media say
  • The US has vowed not to halt the large-scale strikes begun last month, unless the Houthis cease attacks on Red Sea shipping

WASHINGTON: US strikes on a fuel port in Yemen killed at least 58 people, Houthi-run Al Masirah TV said, one of the deadliest since the United States began its attacks on the Iran-backed militants.

The United States has vowed not to halt the large-scale strikes begun last month in its biggest military operation in the Middle East since President Donald Trump took office in January, unless the Houthis cease attacks on Red Sea shipping.

Al Masirah TV said 126 people were also wounded in Thursday’s strikes on the western fuel port of Ras Isa, which the US military said aimed to cut off a source of fuel for the Houthi militant group.

Responding to a Reuters query for comment on the Houthis’ casualty figure and its own estimate, the US Central Command said it had none beyond the initial announcement of the attacks.

“The objective of these strikes was to degrade the economic source of power of the Houthis, who continue to exploit and bring great pain upon their fellow countrymen,” it had said in a post on X.

Since November 2023, the Houthis have launched dozens of drone and missile attacks on vessels transiting the waterway, saying they were targeting ships linked to Israel in protest over the war in Gaza.

They halted attacks on shipping lanes during a two-month ceasefire in Gaza. Although they vowed to resume strikes after Israel renewed its assault on Gaza last month, they have not claimed any since.

In March, two days of US attacks killed more than 50 people, Houthi officials said.


Lebanon says one killed in a renewed Israeli strike near Sidon

Lebanon says one killed in a renewed Israeli strike near Sidon
Updated 2 min 18 sec ago
Follow

Lebanon says one killed in a renewed Israeli strike near Sidon

Lebanon says one killed in a renewed Israeli strike near Sidon
  • Israel has continued to carry out near-daily strikes in Lebanon

Beirut: Lebanon’s health ministry said an Israeli strike on Friday hit a vehicle near the southern coastal city of Sidon, killing one person.
Despite a November 27 ceasefire that sought to halt more than a year of conflict — including two months of all-out war — between Israel and Hezbollah, Israel has continued to carry out near-daily strikes in Lebanon.
“The attack carried out by the Israeli enemy against a car on the Sidon-Ghaziyeh road resulted in one dead,” said a health ministry statement on the fourth consecutive day of Israeli attacks on the south where Israel says it has targeted Hezbollah militants.
An AFP journalist said the Israeli attack hit a four-wheel-drive vehicle, sending a pillar of black smoke into the sky.
The Lebanese army sealed off the area as firemen fought the blaze.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the strike, but the Israeli military has said it was behind previous attacks this week that it said killed members of the Iran-backed Hezbollah movement.
Hezbollah, significantly weakened by the war, insists it is adhering to the November ceasefire, even as Israeli attacks persist.

Echos Of Civil War
50 years on, Lebanon remains hostage to sectarian rivalries
Enter
keywords

Gaza rescuers say 15 killed in Israeli strikes

Gaza rescuers say 15 killed in Israeli strikes
Updated 7 min 56 sec ago
Follow

Gaza rescuers say 15 killed in Israeli strikes

Gaza rescuers say 15 killed in Israeli strikes
  • On Thursday the civil defense agency reported the deaths of at least 40 residents in Israeli strikes

GAZA CITY: Gaza’s civil defense agency said Friday that 15 people, including 10 from the same family, had been killed in two overnight Israeli strikes.
Civil defense spokesman Mahmud Bassal said on Telegram that “our crews recovered the bodies of 10 martyrs and a large number of wounded from the house of the Baraka family and the neighboring houses targeted by the Israeli occupation forces in the Bani Suhaila area east of Khan Yunis,” in the southern Gaza Strip.
Bassal later announced that a separate strike hit two houses in northern Gaza’s Tal Al-Zaatar, where crews had “recovered the bodies of five people.”
The Israeli military, which did not immediately comment, has intensified its aerial bombardments and expanded its ground operations in the Gaza Strip since it resumed its offensive in the besieged Palestinian territory on March 18.
On Thursday, the civil defense agency reported the deaths of at least 40 residents in Israeli strikes, most of them in camps for displaced civilians, as Israel pressed its offensive.


Israeli military intercepts missile launched from Yemen

Israeli military intercepts missile launched from Yemen
Updated 18 April 2025
Follow

Israeli military intercepts missile launched from Yemen

Israeli military intercepts missile launched from Yemen
  • Iran-backed Houthi militia have regularly fired missiles and drones targeting Israel

JERUSALEM: The Israeli military said Friday it had intercepted a missile launched from Yemen, from where the Iran-backed Houthi militia have regularly fired missiles and drones targeting Israel.
“Following the sirens that sounded a short while ago in several areas in Israel, a missile launched from Yemen was intercepted,” Israel’s army said on Telegram, adding that aerial defense systems had been deployed “to intercept the threat.”


Cash crunch leaves Syrians queueing for hours to collect salaries

Cash crunch leaves Syrians queueing for hours to collect salaries
Updated 18 April 2025
Follow

Cash crunch leaves Syrians queueing for hours to collect salaries

Cash crunch leaves Syrians queueing for hours to collect salaries
  • Syria has been struggling to emerge from the wake of nearly 14 years of civil war, and its banking sector is no exception
  • The liquidity crisis has forced authorities to drastically limit cash withdrawals, leaving much of the population struggling to make ends meet

DAMASCUS: Seated on the pavement outside a bank in central Damascus, Abu Fares’s face is worn with exhaustion as he waits to collect a small portion of his pension.
“I’ve been here for four hours and I haven’t so much as touched my pension,” said the 77-year-old, who did not wish to give his full name.
“The cash dispensers are under-stocked and the queues are long,” he continued.
Since the overthrow of president Bashar Assad last December, Syria has been struggling to emerge from the wake of nearly 14 years of civil war, and its banking sector is no exception.
Decades of punishing sanctions imposed on the Assad dynasty – which the new authorities are seeking to have lifted – have left about 90 percent of Syrians under the poverty line, according to the United Nations.
The liquidity crisis has forced authorities to drastically limit cash withdrawals, leaving much of the population struggling to make ends meet.
Prior to his ousting, Assad’s key ally Russia held a monopoly on printing banknotes. The new authorities have only announced once that they have received a shipment of banknotes from Moscow since Assad’s overthrow.
In a country with about 1.25 million public sector employees, civil servants must queue at one of two state banks or affiliated ATMs to make withdrawals, capped at about 200,000 Syrian pounds, the equivalent on the black market of $20 per day.
In some cases, they have to take a day off just to wait for the cash.
“There are sick people, elderly... we can’t continue like this,” said Abu Fares.
“There is a clear lack of cash, and for that reason we deactivate the ATMs at the end of the workday,” an employee at a private bank said, preferring not to give her name.
A haphazard queue of about 300 people stretches outside the Commercial Bank of Syria. Some are sitting on the ground.
Afraa Jumaa, a civil servant, said she spends most of the money she withdraws on the travel fare to get to and from the bank.
“The conditions are difficult and we need to withdraw our salaries as quickly as possible,” said the 43-year-old.
“It’s not acceptable that we have to spend days to withdraw meagre sums.”
The local currency has plunged in value since the civil war erupted in 2011, prior to which the dollar was valued at 50 pounds.
Economist Georges Khouzam explained that foreign exchange vendors – whose work was outlawed under Assad – “deliberately reduced cash flows in Syrian pounds to provoke rapid fluctuations in the market and turn a profit.”
Muntaha Abbas, a 37-year-old civil servant, had to return three times to withdraw her entire salary of 500,000 pounds.
“There are a lot of ATMs in Damascus, but very few of them work,” she said.
After a five-hour wait, she was finally able to withdraw 200,000 pounds.
“Queues and more queues... our lives have become a series of queues,” she lamented.