World Bulletin / News Desk

Hundreds of Lebanese nationals staged a protest in the northern city of Tripoli on Saturday against plans to establish a car parking lot in place of an old Ottoman Serail, which stood atop a hill in the northern city.

The council of Tripoli had earlier approved the establishment of the parking lot in place of the Serail, which is bringing anger to the city.

More than 300 people gathered outside the council of the city to protest against the decision and the failure of the council to revive the Ottoman building.

Khaled Tadmori, the council’s head of monuments and heritage, said the council had reconsidered its initial decision to revive the Serail because of the presence of political pressure from former Lebanese Prime Minister Saad al-Hariri.

Alexandra Talty Contributor

fobes.com

Street art is ubiquitous in Beirut. Walk the city for a few days and one can see everything from small stencils promoting local DJs to larger murals that took artists days to complete. It appears in the all likely places, on highways and under bridges, but also on unused walls or next to buildings. Not even the stairs are safe, as one local group, the Dihzahyners, have shown with their now-famous stair “Paint Ups,” where they coat the otherwise plain staircases that litter the hilly city with beautiful colors and designs.

While all Beirutis are not necessarily out with their spray cans, street art is in the fabric of the cityscape, which is why, earlier this month, when the Lebanese government announced a new campaign regulating graffiti, many were worried that the until-now laissez-faire legality of street art was threatened.

In an attempt to alleviate sectarian tensions, the government announced on February 5 that political flags, banners and posters would be removed from Lebanese cities. Grafitti artists were caught in the cross hairs of this recent decision, as many speculated that the government was attempting to take down their art as well. Street art has flourished in Lebanon as it falls in a legal grey area and is, for the most part, allowed.

LOS ANGELES, CA (Catholic Online) – An unnamed Israeli minister with good ties with the U.S. administration "revealed the attack plan to John Kerry," according to the newspaper account.The Bethlehem-based news agency Ma’an has cited a Kuwaiti newspaper report this past weekend, President Obama threatened to shoot down Israeli jets before they could reach their targets in Iran.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was then reportedly forced to abort the planned Iran attack.The Netanyahu government decided to strike Iran some time in 2014 after Israel discovered the U.S. and Iran had been involved in secret talks over Iran’s nuclear program and were about to sign an agreement without consulting Israel.