by Sylvie Briand, Mariam Saidi spends her days creating clay busts of her beloved son who vanished without a trace 26 years ago, aged only 16, in the midst of the savage civil war which tore through Lebanon. Sitting in her little apartment on the outskirts of Beirut, the mother of five clutches a faded photograph of Maher Kassir and recalls how he disappeared after becoming embroiled in the sectarian violence which blighted the country.

Maher is only one of an estimated 17,000 people who vanished during the brutal 1975-1990 conflict which claimed the lives of more than 150,000 at the hands of Lebanese militias or the Syrian and Israeli armies.For this 59-year-old Shiite, the civil war has still not truly ended and all she can do now is sit in her home in the popular Sfeir district and pray that one day she will discover what happened to her boy. Maher had joined the fight against Israeli forces who entered Lebanon and on June 17, 1982, he was barricaded in a science university building alongside other communist party fighters. The building, also in the Sfeir district, was attacked by Israeli troops, backed by Lebanese Christian militants and her son was captured, Saidi said.

The head of the Arab League has failed to break a deadlock between Lebanese political factions on the distribution of cabinet posts, which is holding back the election of a new president. Amr Moussa met Saad Hariri of the majority March 14 camp, his ally Amin Gemayel and Michel Aoun, from the opposition, for a second day in Beirut. "It is a given that the opposition will have 10 ministers in the new government, but the question is how to split the remaining 20 portfolios," Moussa said on Monday before leaving the Lebanese capital. The opposition wants enough seats in the new government to give it veto power over cabinet decisions, a plan rejected by the March 14 bloc. He said that both sides shared broad agreement on the need for changes to the country’s electoral law. Lebanese deputies were due to hold a session on Tuesday to elect a new president. But the parliamentary speaker announced on Monday that the vote had been postponed – for the 15th time – to March 11.

The lengthy meeting did not result in a breakthrough, but certain conditions were set between the rival parties for consideration ahead of Monday’s meeting. According to Ghattas Khoury, a close aide of Hariri, "there are still no positive signs." Khoury did not, however, rule out that the ongoing talks "are constructive in a way to remove some obstacles."  The so-called quartet talks are taking place at the Lebanese parliament in downtown Beirut, amid tight security. Mussa also held talks with Speaker of Parliament Nabih Berri, Hariri and Prime Minister Fouad Seniora on Sunday.  Mussa’s latest attempt at mediation in Lebanon focusses on efforts the implementation of a three-point Arab plan to solve the deepening political crisis.

Daily star, BEIRUT: Property consultants Cushman & Wakefield ranked Beirut as the 37th most expensive office location worldwide and the third most expensive among four cities in the Middle East and Africa region included in the rankings. The survey, which was carried by Lebanon This Week, the economic publication of the Byblos Bank Group, covered 58 cities around the world. Beirut was the 35th most expensive city globally and the second most expensive in the region in the 2007 survey. The study evaluates 203 key office locations in 58 countries. The location with the most expensive occupancy cost in each country is then included in its annual rankings .

On a global basis, Beirut ranked immediately behind Budapest, Bucharest, Istanbul and Lisbon and was considered more expensive than Prague, Bratislava in Slovania and Calgary in Canada. The cost of office space in Beirut was 342 euros ($500) per square meter per year in 2007, close to the global average of 345 euros but markedly higher than the regional average of 245 euros. The rates reflect rent in addition to municipal tax, service charges and value-added tax. According to Cushman & Wakefield, Beirut’s drop in the rankings from last year was due to a lack of growth in the office sector. It said there was little change in the market during 2007 and a certain amount of stagnation due to the ongoing political problems.