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 Location: Rome

WFP today welcomed a donation of US$350,000 from the Government of Cyprus for impoverished Palestinians suffering the effects of a faltering economy and restrictions on movement in the occupied Palestinian territories.

The donation was announced during a ceremony in Rome at which Sotos Zackheos, Permanent Secretary of the Cypriot Ministry of Foreign Affairs, signed a memorandum of understanding with WFP to lay the foundation of a long-term partnership.

New strategic partner > “The Republic of Cyprus recognizes through this cooperation agreement the importance of WFP’s interventions in those parts of the world that are plagued by war, poverty and disease,” Mr Zackheos said.

“Cyprus is acquiring a new strategic partner in its endeavours for the delivery of humanitarian and development assistance.”

“We are very grateful for this generous and timely contribution, and we look forward to developing a long-term partnership that reflects our shared vision of a world free of hunger,” said John Powell, WFP’s Deputy Executive Director.

Cash-strapped institutions > The Cypriot funding will assist 12,000 disabled and disadvantaged children, vulnerable women and elderly Palestinians in cash-strapped social institutions.

WFP supports more than 150 such institutions in the West Bank and Gaza Strip through the Ministry of Social Affairs and Catholic Relief Services.

Sharp decline > The sharp decline in international funding to the Palestinian Authority in January has had a severe adverse impact across the territories, while the hostilities of recent weeks and the repeated closure of commercial crossing points is exacerbating economic hardship.

WFP now has four days of emergency food stocks in its Gaza warehouses (500 metric tonnes) for an expanded caseload of 220,000 people. These will be supplemented over the next few days, assuming the key Karni crossing point remains open.

Basic needs > About 70 percent of Gaza’s 1.4 million people cannot afford to meet their basic food needs.

Power outages at the hottest time of the year persist following the destruction of Gaza’s main power station, which supplies half the territory’s electricity. Most Gaza residents now have power for less than eight hours a day. With fuel costs equivalent to about US$15 an hour, few can afford generators.

This is the second donation by Cyprus to WFP this year. In April, it gave US$50,000 to help victims of drought and HIV/AIDS in southern Africa.

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BEIRUT: Several developing countries are waiting for additional aid before they can begin evacuating citizens from Lebanon, while Western governments are losing patience with citizens who cannot decide whether to stay or evacuate.

“There is much thought and concern being given to Western foreigners, to the plight of internally displaced people in Lebanon, but really not anything about these migrants from poor countries who are in extremely difficult situations, far from home and family, without papers and money, and for some, shelter and food,” International Organization for Migration spokesperson Jemini Pandya wrote in an e-mail to The Daily Star.

Moreover, as evacuees leave Lebanon, Cyprus is starting to feel the pressure. Cyprus complained Friday it felt “left alone” by the international community over the unprecedented evacuation of foreign nationals from Lebanon to the tiny holiday island.

Since the sealift began in earnest on Monday, some 20,000 foreign nationals have come through Cyprus, the majority of whom have now left for home, putting massive pressure on facilities at the peak of the summer tourist season.

“Up until now Cyprus has been basically left alone and unassisted in its effort to help so many thousands of people,” government spokesman Christodoulos Pashardes said.

“This astonishingly large number is already challenging our acknowledged success so far,” he added, “and testing our infrastructure and the ability of Cyprus to effectively respond to this serious humanitarian problem.”

Cyprus has called for the immediate intervention of other countries, especially from the EU, to help it handle the thousands of people from poorer countries who need to be swiftly repatriated.

On Thursday, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) helped organize a bus convoy for 120 Sri Lankan nationals, many of whom were in Lebanon working as domestic help. On Friday another 154 Sri Lankans boarded buses destined for Damascus.

Sri Lanka says it has 5,000 migrants who have asked to be evacuated out of an estimated population of 90,000 in Lebanon. The IOM has been asked by the Philippine government to help 2,000 Filipino migrants in need of evacuation assistance. Ghana, which has no diplomatic presence in Lebanon, lists some 500 nationals in Beirut and an unknown number of citizens in Tripoli.

Other countries who are relying on IOM help for their evacuations are Thailand, Bangladesh, Moldova, Russia, Iraq and Vietnam. The IOM hopes to help all nations and appealed to wealthier nations Friday for $12 million which would be used to help evacuate 10,000 people.

The Sudanese government reported that there were about 4,500 Sudanese residents in Lebanon. 2,000 have already been bused to Syria, although there are reports some have found themselves trapped in the no-man’s land between the Syrian border and Lebanon without proper papers allowing them into Syria.

“The embassy is trying to help with papers. All Sudanese, whether legally or illegally in Lebanon, are being helped,” said the Sudanese ambassador’s secretary.

Nepal’s government is arranging a boat for its citizens for Monday with the Indian government. Some 4,000 Nepalese are in Lebanon, 90 percent of whom were working as housemaids. The boat will take an unspecified number of Nepalese and Indian citizens to Cyprus.

Mexico evacuated 24 citizens and their foreign relatives Friday in partnership with the Greek government. Some 128 Mexicans have already been evacuated on Greek boats.

Javier Gongora, head of the Cultural and Commercial Section of the Mexican Embassy, promised that Mexican evacuation operations will continue as long as necessary.

“Even if there is a small number who want to leave, we will arrange something,” Gongora promised in an interview with The Daily Star.

Other nations are no longer as patient and are growing frustrated as citizens register for evacuations and then waver about the actual decision. Some foreign nationals are waiting to see if the conditions around Beirut will worsen before deciding to board a boat.

“We have boats for tomorrow and Sunday. Beyond that, we are not sure. People should make up their minds as quickly as possible,” Australian Ambassador Lyndall Sachs told The Daily Star. Sachs oversaw Australia’s evacuation at Beirut Port Friday, which sent 750 citizens to Cyprus.

While many nations hope to finish evacuations from Beirut in the near future, governments are having a harder time reaching their nationals trapped in the South of the country.

The German Foreign Ministry on Friday said it has evacuated 4,200 Germans from Lebanon since the Israeli offensive began but was struggling to reach those in the South of the country.

Germany has only managed to evacuate 600 people from South Lebanon.

“The priority now is to evacuate those trapped in difficult conditions in the South,” Ministry spokesman Martin Jaeger told The Daily Star. “We are greatly concerned about them”.

EDITOR’S NOTE > Article by Iman Azzi Copyright The Daily Star, Lebanon. All rights reserved.

The President of the Republic Mr Tassos Papadopoulos received yesterday at the Presidential Palace, the Ambassador of Lebanon to Cyprus, Mr Michel el Khoury.

In statements after the meeting, Mr Khoury thanked the President of the Republic, the Government and the people of Cyprus for their efforts in assisting the people of Lebanon at this difficult phase of their history.

He said that the situation in Lebanon is, at the moment, very bad, noting that Lebanon is actually “a disaster zone”. Mr Khoury expressed the hope that there may be a solution to the problem his country is facing soon, and pointed out that the Government of Lebanon is determined to start rebuilding the territories that have been destroyed as soon as the hostilities end.

The Lebanese Ambassador also said that Cyprus, as a country with which Lebanon shares common values, can be Lebanon’s voice in the European Union.

Source: Government of the Republic of Cyprus Date: 21 Jul 2006

UPDATE >Lebanese ambassador expresses thanks to Cyprus for support

Lebanese Ambassador to Nicosia Michel el Khoury on Thursday expressed thanks for the Cypriot government and people’s support during the tough period of Israeli bombardment when he met with Cypriot President Tassos Papadopoulos.

In addition to the appreciation, he also expressed the hope that Cyprus can be the voice of Lebanon in the EU by saying that ” we share nearly the same problem like you.”

When asked about the current situation in Lebanon, he said that “It is very bad. Lebanon is actually a disaster zone. We can consider Lebanon now as a disaster zone.”

But he expressed the determination of Lebanon to rebuild the country, stressing that “despite all the destruction, Lebanon will live.”

The ambassador also confirmed that Lebanon had asked Europe and all the friendly countries to help stop Israel’s operations in the country.

The many thousands of extra people flooding into Cyprus because of the Lebanon crisis are putting a strain on the Mediterranean island’s infrastructure, the government has warned, and it could be reaching “maximum capacity”.

Cypriot authorities estimate that more than 20,000 people fleeing Lebanon have arrived on the island in less than a week, and say the numbers could swell to anything up to 100,000.

“Our set-up is functioning 24 hours a day - we have people on location and are using all the facilities at ports and airports, other facilities in hotels, in apartments, even in restaurants to receive people for a few hours,” Foreign Minister George Lillikas said.

“The problem is that this is peak season, end of July, and the hotels they have very high capacity already, and buses also, and the capacity at ports and airports is difficult.”

In particular, he wants more planes to make sure that Cyprus is just a temporary transit point for as many as possible.

‘Fully booked’

Many evacuees move on to other countries almost straight away - but others stay because of delays, or because they choose to do so.

Of about 2,600 Britons evacuated to Cyprus so far, for example, only 1,200 have returned to the UK, the RAF reckons - despite everyone being offered a flight.

There’s plenty of room - anyone who wants to come, please feel welcome
Stavros Lambrou
Pizza Plus restaurant, Limassol 

And thousands of extra people, in an island where the total population is only just over 800,000, and during peak holiday season, could make a big difference.

The US, for example, is putting up many of its 5,500 or so evacuated citizens in hotels “wherever there’s availability”, said an embassy spokesman.

But others are being put up in makeshift accommodation at the State Fair exhibition centre in the capital, Nicosia.

Larnaka, the busy port town where US citizens, and those of many other countries, first arrive, is certainly packed.

The streets are thronging and many hotels say they are indeed full. However, whether this is because of the Lebanon situation, rather than just normal tourist trade, is less clear.

“We don’t have availability, we’re fully booked already, but we’d be busy at this time of year anyway,” said a spokeswoman for the 193-room Golden Bay hotel in the town.

Another Larnaka hotel, Sun Hall, was also fully booked, but a spokeswoman said this was “definitely not because of Beirut”.

Business as normal

And about 70km (44 miles) away in Limassol, the port town where most British evacuees have been arriving, the picture was more mixed.

One hotel, the Amathus Beach Hotel, said it had had to turn some people away because it was so busy, and that was “partly to do with the situation”.

Others also said they were fully booked, but other hotels said they did have availability.

“Our hotel certainly isn’t full, nowhere near,” said one British holidaymaking couple, who did not want to be named.

“You wouldn’t know there was a problem at all, where we are. It’s fine.”

And other parts of the Cyprus infrastructure, such as shops, bars and restaurants, do not seem to be overly strained with extra business.

Stavros Lambrou, co-owner of the large 350-cover restaurant Pizza Plus in Limassol, laughed when asked if he had had any extra trade.

“No, it’s normal,” he said. “There’s plenty of room. Anyone who wants to come, please feel welcome.

“Limassol is not really any busier, I don’t think,” said his wife Toulla.

“I think most people who are staying, are just staying mainly for one or two days before heading back to their own country. They’re not really going out, just staying in their hotels.”

But whether buckling under the strain or not, Cypriots would want to carry on helping anyone who arrived, anyway, said Mr Lillikas.

“I know how the Cypriot people are,” he said. “We did our maximum, I think. We will continue anyway.

“It would not be in line with our tradition and customs to refuse to offer services to people in need.”

EDITOR’S NOTE > Article by Jenny Matthews Copyright BBC News. All rights reserved.

Cyprus’s capacity to absorb floods of evacuees fleeing Lebanon is being tested by modest infrastructure and limited human resources and the situation is reaching saturation point, officials warn.

While the island is well-placed to handle 2.5 million tourists staggered out over the year, an influx of more than 12,000 evacuees in the space of four days with thousands more set to come is placing tremendous pressure on the island, whose total resident population is less than one million.

Over-worked reception workers have not slept in days, harbours are working around the clock with extra workers and airports are running at four times their normal capacity.

Most evacuees are Europeans or Americans, but Cyprus’s real worry is what will happen when individuals from third countries start appearing. That means further immigration scrutiny, officials say.

“At the moment it is costing a few hundred thousand pounds (dollars) a day. We can’t sustain this on a long-term basis, but for the time being it is something we are coping with,” Finance Minister Michael Sarris told Reuters. “It will not break the bank. If it’s a week, we can absorb it,” he said.

LIMITED RESOURCES > Transportation and people are key concerns.

“We have people who have not slept for days. Cyprus does not have unlimited human resources. We are coping, but the question is until when,” Makis Constantinides, the permanent secretary of the Ministry of Communications told Reuters.

Cyprus wants its EU partners to open their ports and airports, and send more planes to facilitate swifter transfers.

“Without that, we wonder what will happen if people start coming to Cyprus from third countries where we have more scrutiny on the arrivals process,” Constantinides said.

The island is heavily reliant on tourism, which accounts for about 14 percent of its gross domestic product.

But business still looks brisk, and Sarris does not expect any significant fallout. “It’s part of the unknown that you have to factor in when you are running an economy,” said Sarris, a former World Bank senior manager drafted in to slash deficits and usher the island into the euro zone by 2008.

For hoteliers, it’s business as usual.

“This is an economy based on hospitality. It is what we do,” said Haris Loizides, head of the hoteliers’ association.

EDITOR’S NOTE > Article by Michele Kambas © Reuters 2006. All rights reserved.

From a second-story window in Tebnine in southern Lebanon, Joseph Salmassi said, he and his wife and daughter spent days watching buildings disintegrate around them under a storm of bombs and missiles, and wondering whether theirs would be the next to fall.

“We had to flee,” said Mr. Salmassi, an American citizen born in Lebanon. “We called the embassy so many times, and they said, ‘We can’t get to you.’ ”

So Mr. Salmassi, 53, said he paid $3,000 to hire two taxis to drive his family and relatives to Beirut, where they hoped to find a way back home to the United States. The ride from Tebnine to Beirut used to take 90 minutes and cost $5; this time, it took eight hours.

“We put white blankets on top of the cars, so the airplanes wouldn’t hit us,” he said. “There were cars lying on the side of the road with dead people in them.”

Mr. Salmassi, who owns a gas station in Dearborn, Mich., and was in Lebanon visiting his wife’s parents, made it safely to Cyprus this morning aboard the United States Navy amphibious assault ship Nashville, along with hundreds of other Americans fleeing the violence in Lebanon.

The ship is one of dozens of vessels shuttling foreigners from Lebanon across 150 miles of the Mediterranean Sea to this island nation.

Thousands of Americans, French, Italians, Indians, Swiss, Danes and others have streamed into Cyprus over the past few days, escaping the crisis in Lebanon and trying to catch flights home.

The rush, which is expected to intensify over the weekend, has overwhelmed Cyprus, and the government has called for international assistance.

“Up until now, Cyprus has been basically left alone and unassisted in its effort to help so many thousands of people,” Christodoulos Pashardes, a spokesman for the government, told reporters today. “This astonishingly large number is already challenging our acknowledged success so far, and testing our infrastructure and the ability of Cyprus to effectively respond to this serious humanitarian problem.”

Hotel rooms and supplies are in short supply, and airport runways here are full of planes flown in by various governments to evacuate citizens. The American presence is one of the most noticeable. Three thousand American evacuees were brought here today alone, and even though United States officials have decided to reroute some to Turkey instead, the pace of landings on Cyprus is still expected to accelerate.

With Beirut’s airport closed by the fighting, the great majority of evacuees come by sea, a journey of 8 to 10 hours on ships that are cramped and hot, according to passengers.

“It was long and very, very tiring,” Linda Zarifi, 22, of Austin, Texas, said after getting off a chartered cruise ship early Thursday morning.

The arrivals today included the first large group of Americans from southern Lebanon, where much of the fighting has been concentrated. They had been escorted to the cruise ship Orient Queen in armored convoys by American marines.

Still, most of the passengers reaching Cyprus appear to have come from the northern sections of Lebanon, which have not been greatly affected by the fighting so far. Many said they decided to leave as a precaution.

“You don’t know if you’re going to be in the wrong place at the wrong time,” said Kamil Saber, 42, of Somerset, New Jersey, who was on vacation in Lebanon. “You could be driving next to a truck that could be targeted. You never know.”

EDITOR’S NOTE > Article by Renwick McClean, International Herald Tribune via The New York Times. Copyright by their respective owners. All rights reserved.

For a complete coverage of what’s happening to the Middle East go to > http://www.nytimes.com/pages/world/middleeast/index.html

Baalbeck, also known as Heliopolis, is an ancient Roman city in northeastern Lebanon. Most visitors see Baalbeck on a day trip from Beirut, which is a scenic mountain drive away.

Editor’s Note > See related photo at our Flickr Photo Gallery

Baalbeck is situated on the eastern slopes of Lebanon’s mountain range in a wide and fertile valley known as the Beqa’a. In ancient times, caravan stations developed in this valley, especially at places with a year-round water supply, and they became agricultural centers. Baalbeck was one such site. It occupied the especially favorable spot at the highest level of the Beqa’a valley, at the source of two important rivers and along the main inland transportation road.

Although it was in Roman times that Baalbeck achieved its wide fame, the site was of political and religious importance long before the Romans arrived. The name “Baalbeck” derives from the Canaanite god Baal, whose name means “Lord.” Few specifics are known about the early history of Baalbeck, except that it was inhabited in the Bronze Age and a Canaanite city connected with the cult of Baal was established on the site. Baalbeck was almost certainly a great religious center.

The supreme god of the Canaanites was El, the sun god, who was represented by a bull. El’s wife was Ashera, goddess of the sea. This divine couple could not be approached directly, but only through the mediation of their son Baal, the Lord of rain, storms, and thunder. His symbols were a thunderbolt ending in a spear, ears of corn, and the bull. Baal had a son, Aliyan, who was the god of springs and floral growth, and a daughter, Anat, who was Aliyan’s faithful consort. Set against these positive forces was Mot (Death), the god of summer and drought, who helped fruit to ripen but also killed the vegetation, if not supported by Aliyan’s springs. Another important deity was Astarte, the goddess of love and fertility.

Canaanite mythology reflected the cycle of nature. Baal and Aliyan ruled the earth in winter and spring with plentiful rains and thunder. When the dryness of summer arrives, Mot attains superiority and kills Baal (the rain) and his son Aliyan (the springs). Aliyan’s sister and lover Anat retrieves his body from the underworld and buries it, then searches for Mot and kills him (representing the harvest). With the destruction of Mot the summer heat recedes, and in late autum Baal and Aliyan reappear with the live-giving rains and springs.

Ball was adopted by the Assyrians as Bel, and he can be equated with the Egyptian Seth, the Phoenician Reshef and the Aramaean Haddad. The triad of Baal, Aliyan and Anat had its parallels in the Greek Zeus, Hermes and Aphrodite and the Roman Jupiter, Mercury and Venus. The sequence of life, death and resurrection was also central to the popular cult of Adonis and Osiris, which came out of Egypt and flourished well into Roman times.

Along with the rest of this part of the world, Baalbeck was Hellenized after the conquests of Alexander the Great in the 4th century BC. The Greeks named Baalbeck “Heliopolis,” City of the Sun. To distinguish it from its important namesake in Egypt, ancient writers called it Heliopolis “in Phoenicia” or “in the Lebanon.”

The Roman general Pompey conquered much of the region in the 1st century BC, and Baalbeck became part of the new province of Syria. A few decades later, Mark Antony controlled of the East, and he gave Baalbeck and its surrounding region to Cleopatra. But in 31 BC Octavian (later known as Augustus) drove Antony and Cleopatra out of Syria and ushered in Rome’s golden age of stability known as the Pax Romana. It was in this context that the construction of the great Roman temples at Baalbeck began.

The Romans did not start from scratch. Archaeologists have discovered pre-Hellenistic remains of a sanctuary on the site, where Baal and the other Canaanite deities were worshipped. It centered around a natural crevice, which was probably the original sacred site before anything was built. Both the Ptolemies and the Seleucids added Hellenistic elements to the existing sanctuary.

The Roman Temple of Jupiter was constructed in the 1st century AD. An inscription on top of a column shaft indicates that it was nearing completion in the year 60. The Great Court was added in the early 2nd century. The temple was unique not only in its great size, but in its Eastern architectural influences and in its financing in large part by non-Romans, an indicator that the local people regarded the Heliopolitan Jupiter fully as their own. Construction of the Temple of Bacchus began in the later 2nd century under Antoninus Pius, after the cult of Bacchus had become popular in the empire. Construction of the great temple complex continued until the conversion of Constantine to Christianity in the early 4th century, when it came to halt with many details left unfinished.

Under Roman rule, the supreme god worshipped at Baalbeck/Heliopolis was Jupiter Heliopolitan, a complex fusion of a Baal and Jupiter. The statue that stood in the Temple of Jupiter at Baalbeck was described by ancient writers as holding a thunderbolt with ears of corn and being flanked by two bulls. He was part of a Helipolitan Triad of Jupiter, Mercury and Venus. The religious rituals at the temple were more Syrian than they were Greco-Roman, but the site did include an oracle that was consulted by emperors.

The most famous sight at Baalbeck is the Temple of Jupiter, whose six remaining columns are the largest anywhere in the Roman world. The famous statue of Jupiter Heliopolitan stood in the rear of the temple on a raised adytum (holy of holies), which only initiated priests could approach. The great temple was fronted by a hexagonal forecourt added by Philip the Arab (244-49), the layout of which can still be clearly seen.

The Temple of Bacchus is the best-preserved structure at Baalbeck, and in fact the best preserved Roman temple of its size anywhere. The Temple of Bacchus is larger than the Parthenon, with an interior span of 62 feet and a monumental gateway 21 feet wide and nearly 42 feet high. Although dwarfed by those of the Temple of Jupiter, the Bacchus temple’s stone blocks weigh tens of tons each. The temple’s size was matched by its quality in construction (the blocks fit together perfectly) and in elegant decoration. Some figurative reliefs depicting Greek gods have survived, though in a very damaged state. Yet, despite its clear importance, very little is known about the purpose of the impressive building. Even its dedication to Bacchus is far from certain. It is positioned oddly, a huge building that nevertheless stands in the shadow of the great complex of the Temple of Jupiter, pushed nearly to the end of the forbiddding wall that supports the Great Court.

The Temple of Venus is small and round, a major contrast with the giant rectangular temples of Jupiter and Bacchus. The Temple of Venus has six columns that probably once supported a dome. It is carved everywhere with niches, sculptures (now lost) and other elegant decorations.

The Hexagonal Forecourt is a six-sided area built between the Propylaea and the Great Court in the early 3rd century AD. It incorporated 30 granite columns. By the early 5th century, it had been covered with a dome and transformed into a church.

The Baalbeck International Festival of music and drama takes place among the Roman ruins of Baalbeck in July and August each year.

Related Links >

Baalbeck International Festival  http://www.baalbeck.org.lb/

Official site Lebanon Tourism  http://www.lebanon.com/tourism/baalbeck.htm