IRAQ: The close fight

After a bloody battle with insurgents in Fallouja in April 2004 in which the two sides came to within a few dozen yards, Marine Capt. Douglas Zembiec said of his young Marines "they fought like lions."

Soon, the phrase came to apply to Zembiec and his own bravery and he became known as "the lion of Fallouja."

Strong, charismatic and thoroughly dedicated to his Marines, his family, and the American fight against terrorism, Zembiec served two tours in Afghanistan and was killed on his fourth tour to Iraq in May 2007 while leading an assault on an insurgent hideout in Baghdad. He left a wife and daughter.

He had been promoted to major but was restless with staff jobs and demanded combat assignments. Marines and journalists who knew him routinely swap "Zembiec stories" — about his humor, his courage, his career as a wrestler at the Naval Academy, and his unabashed joy at fighting his nation's enemies.

On Thursday, several high-ranking military officers gathered for a ceremony at Camp Victory in Baghdad to praise Zembiec and to dedicate a helicopter landing-zone in his honor.

Marine Maj. Gen. John Paxton remembered Zembiec's "discipline, endurance and reliability" and said it had been a privilege to know him.

Gen. David Petraeus, commander of Multi-National Force Iraq, called Zembiec a legend and "a courageous warrior" whose example inspires others.

"He was a true charter member of the brotherhood of the close fight," Petraeus said.

— Tony Perry in Al Asad, Iraq

Winter weather in Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, Israel, etc.

For once, it isn't just terrorist attacks and political intrigue making headlines in the Middle East, but a subject everybody can relate to: the weather. The whole area seems to be more at the mercy of a rare snowstorm than any political crisis.

In Jerusalem, the snowy weather almost overshadowed a government report on Israel's 2006 war on Lebanon. Large parts of the Holy City were covered in white, causing schools and stores to shut and children to engage in snowball fights. Public transportation was grounded.

In Amman, even adults gave in to the rare pleasure of pelting each other with snowballs after almost a foot of snow blanketed the city. Here, too, vital business also came to a standstill. News reports said that flights were grounded for a few hours Thursday at the Jordanian capital's international airport, where de-icing machines worked frantically to clear planes for takeoff.

Lebanon's central areas were cut off from its coastal cities. Snow blocked roads leading to the Bekaa Valley and covered most of the country's mountain villages. The snowstorm crippled an already poorly performing power system, increasing the long hours of electricity outtages in many areas.

The mountains surrounding Damascus were also blanketed in snow and many roads in Syria's rural areas were blocked.

— Raed Rafei in Beirut

Photo: A Syrian family enjoys the snowfall in the capital, Damascus. A wave of cold weather and snow storms is hitting the Middle East, closing mountain roads and hindering traffic in some regions in Syria, Lebanon, Jordan and Israel. Credit: LOUAI BESHARA/AFP/Getty Images

IRAQ: Bombs and mortars and ... earthquakes?!!

It's not enough that Iraqis have to contend with stray mortar shells and suicide bombers. On Wednesday, police and residents in Kut, south of Baghdad, reported three earthquakes. The first temblor at 2 p.m. shook the town for about a minute, but caused no serious damage. There was an aftershock at 2:15 p.m. and another quake just after 10 p.m.

Police in Kut said people were scared and remained indoors, though most assumed the tremors were the result of a bombing or large explosion. There were no casualties.

The Arabic language website, Council for the Development of Iraqi Gulf Relations, reported that witnesses heard announcements from the mosques, urging them to offer up a special prayer — called the Salat al Ayat — reserved for catastrophic events such as earthquakes and hurricanes.

One police official said they are waiting for a fourth earthquake. So far, nothing greater than 2.5 magnitude has registered on the U.S. Geological Survey website.

— Kimi Yoshino in Baghdad

MIDDLE EAST: Stop that download!

Two cables beneath the Mediterranean Sea have been damaged, which may seem quaint and old world, but the result is a major slow-down in Egyptian cyberspace. Connecting to the Internet may take minutes, surfing is a disaster. Bloggers, judging by the scenes at cyber-cafes, are restless balls of nerves, sipping espressos, their fingers still, forlorn. With limited accessibility, the Egyptian government has asked Internet users to stop downloading songs and movies, to make connectivity better for businesses.

"Two of our cables are affected; everyone will go onto a third cable," Mohammed Taymur, Egypt's Telecommunications Ministry spokesman, told AFP. "But that will not be enough bandwidth. The cable will be overloaded and no one will be able to get access. . . People should know how to use the Internet because people who download music and films are going to affect business who have more important things to do."

The guy downloading the most recent episode of Lost, or those unmentionable films that are short on dialogue but big on, shall we say, passion, may not find Taymur's argument convincing. They may find it LOL. But it's slow going, either way. The damaged cables are also affecting service across the Middle East, including Saudi Arabia and Yemen.  Repairs may take days. It took seven minutes to open up the page to write this post. How long it will take to actually file it, no one knows, but (my apologies to big business) here goes. . . .click

— Jeffrey Fleishman in Cairo

EGYPT: The endless clanging

Cairo is a symphony of clatter, ragged, loud, fuming, insane. It is relentless noise through the day — car horns, the tin hum of machines, the metal prattle of engines, the barking of vegetable vendors, the clop of hurried footsteps. The call to prayer can barely be heard through the cacophony; even the leaves shudder.

So it's not surprising to learn that, according to a study by the Egyptian National Research Center, Cairo's noise levels reach 90 decibels. Health officials advise 55 decibels as the maximum safe level. To beat the noise, one must roam deep into the night. Around 2 a.m., the clamor subsides, the traffic clears and the boats quiet on the Nile. The footsteps you hear are likely to be your own. But that can be deceptive. Cairo is a city of tricks. In the instant you're enjoying the silence, you can turn a corner, and suddenly, like a windstorm lifting from nowhere, you're scurrying through traffic.

— Jeffrey Fleishman in Cairo   

IRAQ: A picture is worth...

One Iraqi prisoner held by the U.S. military who would not say much during interrogation found another way to convey his feelings about America.

The prisoner secretly spent hours drawing a picture of New York's Twin Towers on the back of his prison jumpsuit — just as the towers looked before Sept. 11. Guards were amazed at the detail, since the prisoner had no materials in his cell.

Sensing the drawing was meant as a hostile act, guards seized the jumpsuit.

— Tony Perry in Al Asad, Iraq

IRAQ: From Mississippi to Mesopotamia

Maj. Gen. Jeff Hammond, who took command of U.S. troops in the capital and surrounding areas just a few weeks ago, likes to remind people that he is a simple guy from Hattiesburg, Miss., despite the complex job he has. That was clear in his opening statements to journalists invited to meet him last week over a lunch of roast chicken, potato salad, cole slaw and other traditional American fare.

"My No. 1 most important title that I have in my life is 'Daddy.' That outranks any other title such as major general. It gives you a perspective into what's important in my life," said Hammond, who has a 10th and an 11-grader back home and is on his fourth deployment.

With Army deployments now extended to 15 months, Hammond noted that things are not easy for those on the road, or those left behind. "Our families are equally as deployed back home. The challenges that go with raising a family in the absence of a key element of that family for 15 months is something most of us never really realize," he said.

But many in the Army's 4th Infantry Division, which Hammond commands, are being forced to confront the difficulty as the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan stretch the military's resources. According to Hammond:

12,747 of his soldiers are on their first deployment; 10,016 are on their second; 5,016 are on their third; and 2,247 are on their fourth. Since the division deployed late last year, 860 babies have been born to soldiers' families back home.

— Tina Susman in Baghdad

IRAQ: A marriage of inconvenience

The Marines and the tribal sheiks are working at strengthening an alliance in Anbar province to keep the insurgency on the run.

At a sumptuous feast this week in Haditha, a tribal sheik revealed what he said was the perfect plan: The tribes would find additional wives for Marines, and the Marines would encourage American women to marry members of the tribe.

"This way we will truly be brothers," announced the sheik.

On behalf of the Marine Corps, Maj. Kevin Jarrard, commander of Lima Company, 3rd battalion, 23rd regiment, politely turned down the offer.

The sheik, anticipating the turndown, had a backup plan. He said he will name his next three sons after Marine officers.

—Tony Perry in Haditha, Iraq

ISRAEL: Snow update

Indeed, white men can't jump.

— Batsheva Sobelman in Jerusalem

Photo: Snow storms have turned the Holy Land into a winter wonder land.

LEBANON: Saving face on Facebook

The Facebook craze in Lebanon is widespread. People here use the social networking website to share vacation photos and frivolous thoughts with their friends.

But sometimes what starts as a puerile joke on Facebook can turn into a real nightmare. Four Lebanese college students could actually face jail time for writing nasty remarks about their female classmate on Facebook.

Newspaper reports said that the four male students were detained for a week in January in their hometown of Zahle, a Christian enclave in the Bekaa Valley.

They were arrested after their classmate accused them of "defamation" over the Internet, which could be a serious offense in a society torn between its traditional roots and modern longings.

As proof, she presented a meticulously compiled document containing all the Facebook posts concerning her, which she printed out before the four accused erased them. These remarks were not released in the media.

Despite pressure from the students' friends and family against it, the girl in question has insisted on pressing charges against her classmates, maintaining that their crude comments had tarnished her reputation.

Advocacy groups saw this unprecedented case as a breach of freedom of expression, especially with the absence of laws pertaining to the Internet. The final hearing for the case is on Feb. 28. Whatever the verdict, one lesson seems clear in Lebanon: Don't mess with someone's reputation on Facebook.

— Raed Rafei in Beirut