Germany will not list Hezbollah as terrorist: minister

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by dw.com -- Germany will not declare Lebanon's Hezbollah movement a terrorist organization, a top official said Friday. Minister of State Niels Annen told news magazine Der Spiegel that the Iran-backed Shiite Islamist movement is a relevant factor in Lebanese society and part of the complex political landscape in the country. Read more: Iran's military power: What you need to know The comments come after Britain last month banned Hezbollah's political wing, accusing the movement of destabilizing the Middle East. "The British move is a national decision that has no direct impact on the position of the German government or the EU," said Annen, a top Foreign Ministry official.

The European Union had already added Hezbollah's military wing to a list of banned terrorists groups in 2013. Hezbollah is represented in the Lebanese parliament and holds three of 30 ministries in the government led by Western-backed Prime Minister Saad al-Hariri. The movement's armed wing has expanded its influence in recent years in Lebanon and Syria, where alongside Iran and Russia it backs the regime of Syrian President Bashar Assad. In Lebanon, it is considered to be more powerful than the Lebanese army. Hezbollah, or Party of God, was conceived by Muslim clerics in the 1980s in response to the Israeli invasion of South Lebanon in 1982. The Shiite group has a political and military wing.

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As caliphate crumbles, ISIS fighters rage over absent leader al-Baghdadi

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As the once-powerful Islamic State (ISIS) crumbles, and its desperate fighters make a last stand in its final enclave surrounded by U.S.-backed coalition forces, its ideological leader is nowhere to be found. ISIS militants who have surrendered to coalition forces believe that Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi has abandoned the struggle when his leadership is needed most. His absence is causing deep fissures within the crumbling terrorist organization, which, though eroded, still boasts between 28,000 and 32,000 soldiers. “He’s hiding somewhere, people were angry,” Mohammed Ali, an ISIS fighter from Canada who was captured by the U.S.-backed Kurdish-dominated Syrian Democratic Forces, told The Sunday Times. The ideological appeal of ISIS and Islamic extremism remains, but Baghdadi’s leadership vacuum and the receding territorial losses of what’s left of ISIS holdings in Syria diminish the influence of the once-powerful organization.

“Iraqi intelligence is following Baghdadi and we believe he never stays in one place for more than one day,” Abu Ali al-Basri, director general of Iraq’s intelligence office at the Ministry of Interior, told Fox News. “We have information he still moved from towns in Syria and entered the Iraq border through Anbar (province) with movement to bordering Salahuddin (province). Although Baghdadi remains far from the battlefield, he has continued to urge his loyal and ardent followers to carry on the fight. His most recent call to arms was in a series of audio clips released in August 2018.

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Lebanon warns neighbors against using disputed territory for EastMed gas pipeline

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BEIRUT (Reuters) - Lebanon on Thursday warned its Mediterranean neighbors that a planned EastMed gas pipeline from Israel to the European Union must not be allowed to violate its maritime borders. Beirut has an unresolved maritime border dispute with Israel - which it regards as an enemy country - over a sea area of about 860 sq km (330 square miles) extending along the edge of three of Lebanon’s southern energy blocks. Israel is hoping to enlist several European countries in the construction of a 2,000 km (1,243 mile) pipeline linking vast eastern Mediterranean gas resources to Europe through Cyprus, Greece and Italy at a cost of $7 billion.

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Lebanese family grieves loss of promising son, stabbed to death in Manchester

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by arabnews.com -- DUBAI: The family of a Lebanese student, who was killed in the UK’s northern city of Manchester, said they were expecting him home for tea when they got the knock at the door from police to tell them their son had been stabbed to death. Youssef Makki, 17, who was a student at Manchester Grammar School when he was stabbed in the chest on Saturday night, British national daily The Telegraph reported. Two unnamed 17-year-olds have been arrested and charged with his murder – it is thought they were known to the victim. Now the victim’s family have released an emotional statement expressing their grief. “Yousef was a loving and caring son and brother and he meant the world to his family,” the joint statement read. “He was a sporty young man, a dedicated student and so bright. He had everything to look forward to.” Makki lived with his mother Deborah, 54, and 15-year-old brother Mazen - his father Ghaleb is thought to be in Lebanon. “We are absolutely devastated and cannot believe that our son has gone. This senseless loss has affected the whole community. Yousef had only phoned home hours earlier to say that he would be home for his tea, but the next knock at the door were officers with the tragic news, it is every parent’s worst nightmare,” the statement continued. “We would appeal to anyone with information to contact the police and to help us find out what has happened on Saturday evening. Only recently had we talked about his promising life ahead of him and how he was looking forward to life. He was a promising student and loved by everyone,” the statement concluded.

Dr Martin Boulton, the High Master of the school, said Makki was a “young man of such promise,” and said: "It is impossible to make sense of such a senseless act.” Makki was found conscious lying in the road after the attack by David Beckham’s former bodyguard, Paul Hughes. “He had one stab wound to the chest. He was half lying in the road and he was conscious and one of my guys was talking to him. At first, he was responding to what my security officer was saying," Hughes said. The UK is experiencing a significant increase in knife crime – there were 39 children and teenagers killed with knives in 2018 – there have been 10 so far in 2019.

CEOs tell Trump they are hiring more Americans without college degrees

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by reuters.com --The White House hosted CEOs of major corporations who joined a Trump administration advisory board on workforce issues, including from Apple Inc, IBM Corp, Lockheed Martin Corp, Siemens USA and Home Depot Inc, who are part of a 25-member board co-chaired by President Donald Trump’s daughter and adviser Ivanka Trump and Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross. “We have a chance to employ so many more people - and not always with a college degree, a less than a four-year degree will get a very good paying job in the new economy,” said IBM Chief Executive Ginni Rometty. Apple CEO Tim Cook said nearly 50 percent of the people the company hired in the United States last year did not have a four-year degree.

“We never thought that the college degree was the thing that you had to have to do well,” Cook said, adding that “our founder was a college dropout,” an apparent reference to Steve Jobs. Cook said he believed “strongly” that computer coding proficiency should be a requirement before U.S. students graduate from high school. Lockheed Martin CEO Marillyn Hewson said of 14,000 people hired last year by Lockheed, half did not have a four-year degree and 6,500 were in manufacturing. The company has boosted workforce training, she said.

Trump said he wants to help companies find workers and he wants more high-skilled immigrants as U.S. unemployment remains low at 4 percent. “In one way, I love it,” Trump said of low unemployment. “But in another way, I don’t want to make it hard for you.” Last month, the Bureau of Labor Statistics said U.S. job openings reached a record high in December at 7.3 million. The White House says the job openings present “a mismatch between the skills needed and those being taught, requiring immediate attention to help more Americans enter the workforce.”

The advisory board members will work “to develop and implement a strategy to revamp the American workforce to better meet the challenges of the 21st century,” the White House said. Board members also include the chief executives of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the National Association of Manufacturers, as well as the governors of Iowa and Indiana, the president of the North America’s Building Trades Unions and the mayor of Charlotte, North Carolina, among others. Reporting by David Shepardson; Editing by Bill Berkrot

Google Finds It’s Underpaying Many Men as It Addresses Wage Equity

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by cnbc --- Google says it paid men less than women in certain positions, according to its annual analysis, with some male software engineers receiving less discretionary funding than women. Google compensated 10,677 employees an extra $9.7 million to offset the underpaid wages found in the study, the company wrote in a blog post, though it's unclear what percentage of those recipients were men. In 2017, Google said it increased compensation for 228 employees it found were underpaid, spending a total of about $270,000. Google's 2018 analysis found that in one group of lower-level software engineers men "received less discretionary funds than women," according to the post authored by Google's lead analyst for pay equity and people analytics, Lauren Barbato. Nearly half of the adjustment fund was spent on discrepancies in offers to new hires, Barbato wrote, which was the result of a new hire analysis Google conducted in the 2018 study.