Here’s BBC Pop Up latest video from Lebanon. In this one, Benjamin Zand basically explores our red light districts. And just like he did with his video about drugs in Lebanon, he met with some local pimp who explained all about his “business” including lawfully locking up the women who work for him… and he interviewed some Syrian refugees who unfortunately had to turn to prostitution to survive.
The owner of Amhaz cell shops, Kamel Amhaz, was arrested two days ago for illegaly smuggling more than 1.5 million phones with an approximate value of $45 million since the year 2000. And just like everytime a significant figure is put behind bars, some supporters blocked some roads near Beirut airport and in Baalbeck to protest his arrest.
However, while the protests are justified at a time where people hit the streets for the silliest reasons, the timing of the arrest is totally unacceptable. I know it’s always better late than never, but how on earth can the authorities wait more than 16 years to arrest such guy while everybody knew everything about his illegal business during the past years! Hell even I wrote a couple of times about getting smartphones from his shops. And it isn’t like Amhaz was operating from secret places, his shops are well know and one of them is even at a mall in Beirut.
Seriously, how can you brag about such accomplishment in the media and not lose credibility?!
On a lighter note, I wish getting people in jail was a simple as writing about them!
News outlets reported yesterday morning that two kids were kidnapped in Hadath by gunmen while waiting for the school bus with their grandmother. As hours went by, the police claimed that their Australian mother was behind the whole thing since she was separated from the father and the two were apparently fighting over the custody of the kids.
Such affairs are not unusual in Lebanon and they sometimes get eventually settled between the parents at a police station, but I was quite surprised this morning to read that it wasn’t really that simple as it turned out the mother planned the abduction in coordination with some private child recovery agency from Australia that helps recover parentally abducted children, and wanted to get them out of Lebanon through the sea to Cyrprus. And it doesn’t end here, she even got the Australian 60 Minutes show involved to film the whole operation as it happens.
The Lebanese police however uncovered the whole thing and ended up arresting the abductors and 60 Minutes crew including presenter Tara Brown (the Australian media is currently buzzing about it by the way) while the mother managed to escape to the Australian embassy along with her children.
I’m not sure how legal this children recovery thing and if journalists are even allowed to document such operations, but it definitely sounds baffling! Let’s see how things will unfold for those in custody right now.
The guys at Nissan – Rymco are claiming they’ll be trying to reduce drunk driving throughout this month by allowing you to report intocixated people so they would come get them home in a Nissan while someone sober drives their cars safely. But don’t expect the hot police women to show up everytime you report someone!
via Gino
I actually found this news a bit surprising because it’s the first time for me to read about people getting arrested for hacking e-mail and Facebook accounts in Lebanon.
The department of Public Relations at the ISF General Directorate announced that investigations were carried out by the Cyber Crime and Intellectual Property Rights Bureau Unit based on more than 70 complaints filed by citizens regarding stolen and hacked electronic accounts (e-mail and Facebook among others). The hackers blackmail the account owners and steal their identity to get large sums of money.
During inquiries, the first man admitted to having carried out acts of piracy and stolen around 600 emails, blackmailing their owners and stealing their identity to get large sums of money by transferring recharge card dollars to cellphones and selling them. These amounts reached around $200.000 and all the electronic equipment used was seized. Source
Still, the police might have chased these two because they went so far with the blackmailing they did.
Anyway, I personally know some people who do such things just for the fun of it. They go to some cafe offering wireless internet for the purpose of “stealing” Facebook session. Some tools to use in the process are widely available and are pretty easy to use if you have enough IT knowledge.
These people better know that things can turn really bad now that the Cyber Crime unit out and about. So unless you know how to really cover your tracks, just keep away from these stuff!
