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Relative of Assad’s Wife Disappears in Lebanon

Head of Syrian Regime Bashar al-Assad (R) with his wife, Asma al-Assad [file photo]
Head of Syrian Regime Bashar al-Assad (R) with his wife, Asma al-Assad [file photo]
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Relative of Assad’s Wife Disappears in Lebanon

Head of Syrian Regime Bashar al-Assad (R) with his wife, Asma al-Assad [file photo]
Head of Syrian Regime Bashar al-Assad (R) with his wife, Asma al-Assad [file photo]

Reports said Tuesday that Merhef Akhras, the cousin of Syrian first lady Asma Assad, was “kidnapped” in Beirut last week.

The Lebanese National News Agency said that Akhras, the son of prominent businessmen Tarif Akhras, disappeared last Thursday under suspicious circumstances on the road between Aley and Chtaura while traveling to Damascus.

The man’s father is the cousin of Fawaz al-Akhras, the father of Asma Assad.

A local radio station reported that Akhras’ wife received a telephone call from the area of east Bekaa from her husband’s Syrian number, asking that she pay $2 million for his release.

Akhras’ car was found parked in Aley.

Local LBC television said that Akhras, who is in his 40s, had moved to Lebanon three years ago.

According to Syrian opposition figures, Tarif owns several food factories, including rice and sugar in Homs.

One opposition source said that Tarif acts on behalf of Asma in several investment projects in the banking, real estate and food industries.

In 2014, Britain’s High Court ordered a 12 month jail term for Tarif due to breach of contract in a deal with Archer Daniels Midland for food imports to Syria.

Akhras had failed to pay $26 million to ADM for corn and soybeans supplied by the commodities house for import to Syria in 2011.

EU and Swiss sanctions were imposed on Akhras for giving support to Syrian authorities.

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WHO Sends Over 1 Mln Polio Vaccines to Gaza to Protect Children 

Displaced Palestinians, who fled their houses due to Israeli strikes, look out from a window as they take shelter, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas, in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip, July 24, 2024. (Reuters)
Displaced Palestinians, who fled their houses due to Israeli strikes, look out from a window as they take shelter, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas, in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip, July 24, 2024. (Reuters)
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WHO Sends Over 1 Mln Polio Vaccines to Gaza to Protect Children 

Displaced Palestinians, who fled their houses due to Israeli strikes, look out from a window as they take shelter, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas, in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip, July 24, 2024. (Reuters)
Displaced Palestinians, who fled their houses due to Israeli strikes, look out from a window as they take shelter, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas, in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip, July 24, 2024. (Reuters)

The World Health Organization is sending more than one million polio vaccines to Gaza to be administered over the coming weeks to prevent children being infected after the virus was detected in sewage samples, its chief said on Friday.

"While no cases of polio have been recorded yet, without immediate action, it is just a matter of time before it reaches the thousands of children who have been left unprotected," Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said in an opinion piece in Britain's The Guardian newspaper.

He wrote that children under five were most at risk from the viral disease, and especially infants under two since normal vaccination campaigns have been disrupted by more than nine months of conflict.

Poliomyelitis, which is spread mainly through the fecal-oral route, is a highly infectious virus that can invade the nervous system and cause paralysis. Cases of polio have declined by 99% worldwide since 1988 thanks to mass vaccination campaigns and efforts continue to eradicate it completely.

Israel's military said on Sunday it would start offering the polio vaccine to soldiers serving in the Gaza Strip after remnants of the virus were found in test samples in the enclave.

Besides polio, the UN reported last week a widespread increase in cases of Hepatitis A, dysentery and gastroenteritis as sanitary conditions deteriorate in Gaza, with sewage spilling into the streets near some camps for displaced people.