Editorial: Numbers turn into names

The number of dead reported after the Paris attacks have become names of people killed by hatred and violence.

In the shocking aftermath of the Paris terror attacks last week, it was all about the numbers.

How many were dead? How many were injured? How many lives had been torn apart?

Once again, terror had gripped the world and the devastating attacks that claimed lives in Lebanon and many other places this year continued.

In Paris, that figure was 129. There was also the number of those responsible for the attack.

It started with seven suicide bombers and has now grown to about 20, including that initial number. Some are dead, some have been arrested and others are at large.

But the numbers are now being replaced by the faces - the faces, the names and the stories.

First it was the faces of evil - the young men, so filled with hatred and belief that they were fighting a just cause - the Belgian mastermind, Abdel-Hamid Abu-Oud and his equally sinister sidekick Salah Abdeslam.

Most importantly there are the faces of the innocent - those people, many of them young and full of life, who were brutally slain.

Newspapers and websites are full of them and their stories - stories of hope, happiness and endless possibilities.

Nick Alexander, Thomas Ayad, Elodie Breuil, Guillaume Decherf, Elsa Veronique Delplace San Martin, Asta Diakite, Elif Dogan, Fabrice Dubois and Thomas Duperron are just some of the names.

Some of the tributes to them and others killed include: "everyone's best friend - generous, funny and fiercely loyal" ,"artistic and free-spirited" and "appreciated for his humour and kindness".

People who loved and were loved - killed by hatred and evil.