Last week a story appeared in a Lebanese daily alerting the country’s multimillionaires that Beirut Boat 2014, “Lebanon’s biggest boat and yacht show”, was “making a return this spring at the Port of Beirut’s Pier 1”. The event, we were told, would be “the ninth instalment of the expo, which brings together owners, buyers […]

  BEIRUT: Lebanon’s real estate market has entered a slowdown phase, particularly in the capital, where developers are offering discounts of up to 15 percent on residential units under construction.   However, on the outskirts of Beirut, investors can still profit from prices that are ascending, albeit at slower pace, mainly in the Metn and […]

Damascus, Syria, Mar 15, 2014 / 06:03 am (CNA/EWTN News).- As today marks the third anniversary of uprisings which led to civil war in Syria, Catholic leaders there and in neighboring Lebanon have reflected on its devastating effect on both countries. “It creates a huge impact on (the Lebanese) in all aspects, and in terms of security issues…it’s had a huge impact,” Wadih Daher, assistant to Archbishop Issam John Darwish, told CNA in a March 13 interview. Daher spoke on behalf of the bishop, who leads the Melkite Greek Archeparchy of Furzol, Zahle and the Bekaa, on Lebanon’s border with Syria.

Conflict began March 15, 2011, when demonstrations protesting the rule of president Bashar al-Assad and his Ba’ath Party sprang up nationwide. The following month, the Syrian army began to deploy to put down the uprisings, firing on protesters. Now, three years on, an estimated 140,000 persons have died in what has become a civil war. The U.N. quit counting the bodies last July, leaving its estimates at 100,000, saying it could no longer verify its sources.

Because of the civil war, half of Syria’s population have fled their homes. 6.5 million Syrians are believed to have been internally displaced by the war, and there are 2.5 million Syrian refugees living in nearby countries, most of them in Lebanon, Turkey, and Jordan. Of those 2.5 million, more than 1 million are in Lebanon, a country whose population, three years ago, was slightly over 4 million. Now, one in every five residents of Lebanon is a refugee from Syria.

  Lebanon slipped into the 10th place among 11 Arab countries in terms of macroeconomic risks in 2014, Cairo-based investment bank EFG Hermes said. The bank’s “Macroeconomic Heat map for 2014” report said that Lebanon’s ranking fell from ninth place in 2012 and 2013, compared with its 7th place ranking in 2011. EFG Hermes attribute the fall […]

  Lebanon’s new government agreed to a compromise policy statement on Friday that fell short of explicitly enshrining the militant group Hezbollah’s role in confronting Israel but which would give all citizens the right to resist Israeli occupation or attacks.   The agreement on the compromise language came after weeks of dispute brought the government […]

    Mar Elias Monastery and the Monastic Reform After the Lebanese congregation  met in the presence of Patriarch Youssef Dargham el Khazen and the apostolic representative Youssef el Semaani, they took a decision to separate monks and nuns living in the same monasteries. When the time came to transfer the Saint Elias Monastery nuns […]

  Questions about the fate of Malaysia Airlines Flight 370, which disappeared Saturday over Southeast Asia, continued Friday to hang in the air. Here is what we know — and don’t know — from hard data to conspiracy theories.   1. Where is the plane? As evidence grows that the plane could have flown for […]

  President Michel Suleiman said on Friday that Hizbullah’s involvement in battles in Syria weakened it, stressing that any endeavors to extend his tenure don’t serve the national interest. “The March 8 and 14 alliances have erred against me and they have both played with the nerves of the Lebanese people,” Suleiman said in an interview […]