BEIRUT: Tourism Minister Michel Pharaon announced his plan to launch a five-year national strategy aimed at boosting rural tourism in Lebanon.  The minister announced his plan during a visit to Nabaa al-Safa to check on the waste cleaning work implemented by the “Darb Al Jabal” association in cooperation with volunteers from Ain Zahalta and the […]

  The Lebanese government has been reportedly cautioned by several countries to control the situation in southern Lebanon after another rocket attack rocked northern Israel for the fourth consecutive day. A rocket fired from Lebanese territory hit northern Israel on Monday night, the Israeli army said. There were similar attacks in the past four days. […]

  The militant group Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) has been destroying the artistic and religious heritage of Iraq and Syria as they continue to impose their fundamentalist Sunni doctrine on the lands they’ve occupied. Recent reports, which have been hard to independently confirm, have reported that ISIS most recently destroyed the alleged […]

  Despite Lebanon’s increasingly unstable political situation, students from around the globe seek its universities, eager to immerse themselves in Arab culture and the Arabic language.   The American University of Beirut and the Lebanese American University are among the schools that offer intensive Arabic language programs throughout the summer. Upon acceptance, students take an […]

LOS ANGELES, CA (Catholic Online) – "The situation was already bleak but now it has got a whole deal worse. For the first time the ever, the bishops have raised the doomsday scenario of an Iraq emptied of Christians" John Pontifex, spokesperson for the UK branch of the organization says
Church In Need has been in close contact with the bishops of Iraq. Bishops there have watched their people flee from the cities. Their churches have been torn to the ground and innocent men, women and even children, Christian and Muslim, being brutally killed.
Let’s all pray for our Christian brothers and sisters in Iraq —
Chaldean Catholic Patriarch Louis Raphael I Sako of Baghdad described the Christians exodus and went on to suggest that Christianity in Iraq was coming "to an end," the Vatican Radio reported.
"This is very serious. We are losing our community. If Christian life in Iraq comes to an end, this will be a hiatus in our history," he said. The head of the Chaldean Catholic Church, which is in full communion with Rome, said the future of Iraq’s Christians is under threat: "In 10 years there will perhaps be 50,000 Christians left." Areas taken over by ISIS have Christians being taxed for being non-Muslims. Many cannot afford to pay it. Horrifying reports arose last week of a man being forced to watch as ISIS militants raped his wife and daughter after the family was unable to pay the tax. He later committed suicide.

  On June 20 1962, Baalbeck Studios was born, established by Palestinian bankers and businessmen Yousef Beidas and Badie Bulos. During the 1960s and ’70s the studio went on to become one of the region’s most-prominent audiovisual production hubs, working with famous writers, actors and directors and collaborating with international studios.   The outbreak of […]

  Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi expressed anger on Sunday over the ongoing delay in electing a new head of state as reports said that he intends to propose the names of new candidates to fill the vacant post. “The Patriarch’s anger is increasing over the ongoing presidential vacuum,” al-Rahi’s visitors quoted him as saying in comments […]

  The United States moved Thursday to blacklist a group of companies it said covertly helped Lebanon’s powerful Hezbollah militia acquire components for surveillance drones. The U.S. Treasury placed sanctions on Beirut-based Stars Group Holding, which it said purchased electronics and other technology via offices in China and Dubai to support Hezbollah’s military operations.   That […]

  BEIRUT: When MohammadKoubeissi readied his epileptic patient for a routine exam, he did not know he was about to discover the on-off switch for consciousness. As the director of George Washington University’s Epilepsy Center zapped a region called the “claustrum” deep in the patient’s brain with a mild electric current, a blank stare took hold […]

  The security situations in Iraq and Gaza continue to deteriorate, the war in Syria shows no signs of abating, and Libya slips nearer and nearer to civil conflict—but Secretary of State John Kerry has trained his eye on two separate crises in the region. Resolving an elections dispute in Afghanistan and reaching a landmark […]