Carlos Slim Helu
The population of Lebanon is, at upper estimates, around 4 million – not counting the million-plus refugees.
But Lebanese living in Lebanon is just a drop in the bucket: Multiply that by two or three and you’ve got the number of Lebanese expatriates; we like to spread around quite extensively!
Here are the top 10 Lebanese expat communities around the world by population size, based on estimates, along with some of the most famous people form each country who are of Lebanese descent.
Saudi Arabia cut off all diplomatic ties with Iran on Sunday, after Iranian protesters ransacked and set fire to the Saudi embassy in Tehran amid a row over the kingdom’s execution of a prominent Shi’ite cleric. The US State Department on Saturday criticized Saudi Arabia’s execution of Nimr al-Nimr.
It issued a statement expressing concern that Riyadh’s actions were “exacerbating sectarian tensions." On Monday, State Department spokesman John Kirby noted that Iran had arrested some protesters who ransacked the embassy, undercutting the Saudi claim that Iran’s government had an implicit hand in the embassy attack.
This comment, and the administration’s overall response to the spat, has led some experts to wonder whose side the White House is really on.
By Matt Hadro
.- As the number of displaced persons is at its highest worldwide, Catholics must remember that “extremely vulnerable” refugees often flee circumstances where their very lives are at risk, a bishop has said.
“People often forget that the Holy Family themselves were refugees fleeing into Egypt,” Bishop Eusebio Elizondo Almaguer, auxiliary bishop of Seattle, said in a Dec. 30 statement in advance of National Migration Week, which is observed Jan. 3-9.
“Likewise, refugees around the world, all of whom are extremely vulnerable, are fleeing for their lives,” added the chair of the U.S. bishops’ committee on migration. “As Catholics, we are called to welcome and support these families who also need our help.”
5 January 2016 – United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has condemned yesterday’s attack against two Israel Defense Forces vehicles in the general area of the Sheba’a Farms south of the Blue Line, which was claimed by Hizbollah.
“The Secretary-General expresses his concern at the retaliatory strikes by the Israel Defense Forces across the Blue Line in southern Lebanon, in the area of operations of the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL),” said a statement issued today by his spokesperson in New York.
Saudi Arabia’s growing international isolation and Iran’s rising regional influence have led the kingdom to "double down" on protecting its interests, according to a new analysis of the world’s top 2016 risks by Eurasia Group, the world’s largest political-risk consultancy.
That at least partly explains the kingdom’s decision to sever diplomatic ties with Iran on Sunday, after Iranian protesters ransacked and set fire to the Saudi embassy in Tehran over Saudi Arabia’s execution of prominent Shiite cleric Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr.
On Monday, Saudi Arabia moved to cut off all commercial ties with Iran, according to Reuters, and bar its citizens from traveling there.
"Saudi Arabia is in serious trouble, and they know it," Ian Bremmer, president of Eurasia Group, told Business Insider on Sunday.
Hezbollah set off a bomb targeting Israeli forces at the Lebanese border on Monday in an apparent response to the killing in Syria last month of a prominent commander, triggering Israeli shelling of southern Lebanon.
Israel has struck its Iran-backed Shi’ite enemy Hezbollah in Syria several times, killing a number of fighters and destroying weapons it believes were destined for the group, whose support for President Bashar al-Assad has been crucial in the country’s civil war.
Israel’s army said Monday’s blast, targeting military vehicles in the Shebaa farms area, prompted Israeli forces to respond with artillery fire. It made no mention of casualties.
by Joseph A. Kechichian
Beirut: Fouad Boutros, a leading civil servant who served Lebanon under presidents Fouad Shehab, Charles Helou and Elias Sarkis, and who filled the critical foreign policy portfolio at the height of the Civil War between 1976 and 1982, died at the age of 98.
Born on November 5, 1917, the highly respected attorney was one of Shehab’s proteges, which is why he was known as a ‘Shehabist’. As such, he worked tirelessly to forge a unique Lebanese identity in a country where sectarianism ruled.
Elected deputy in 1960 to one of the Greek Orthodox posts for Beirut, he served in parliament for a single four-year term. Boutros, the scion of a leading Beiruti family, was appointed deputy prime minister in 1966, and again in 1968 as well as 1976-1982, and held a variety of ministerial posts, most notably as Minister of Planning (1959-1960); Education (1959-1960); Tourism (1968); Defence (1966-1976, 1978); and Foreign Affairs (1968, 1976-1982).
Russia’s pattern of airstrikes in Syria indicate that it is preparing a "plan B" should the regime fail to restore a central Syrian state and be forced to retreat to a fragment of government-held territory along the Mediterranean.
"A second option [for Russia] is to fall back to the defensible parts of useful Syria after guaranteeing the safety of the Alawi canton," Joseph Bahout, a visiting scholar in the Middle East Program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, wrote of Russia in Carnegie’s "Syria in Crisis" blog.
"This is perhaps already a consideration, as the majority of Russian airstrikes concentrate on the contours of this area."
Since intervening on behalf of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in late September, Russia has used airstrikes to create a buffer zone between rebel-held territory in the southern Idlib province and the traditional homeland of the Assads’ Alawite sect in the Latakia governorate.
The airstrikes have also targeted rebel-controlled territory just north of Homs that borders this so-called Alawi canton.
Saudi Arabia will cut all diplomatic ties with Iran, the Saudi foreign ministry said on Sunday.
Saudi officials said that Iranian diplomats have 48 hours to leave the country, according to CNN.
Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir told a news conference that "Riyadh would not allow the Islamic Republic to undermine the Sunni kingdom’s security," according to Reuters.
He added: "The Iranian regime has a long record of violating foreign diplomatic missions."
The move comes after Iranian protesters attacked the Saudi embassy in Tehran, ransacking and setting fire to the building in retaliation for Saudi Arabia’s execution of a prominent Shiite cleric and 46 others on Saturday.
Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr, an outspoken critic of Saudi Arabia’s treatment of its Shiite Muslim minority, was executed on charges of inciting domestic terrorism and plotting to overthrow the Saudi government.
Population Movements to Keserwan - The Khazens and The Maans
ما جاء عن الثورة في المقاطعة الكسروانية
ثورة أهالي كسروان على المشايخ الخوازنة وأسبابها
Origins of the "Prince of Maronite" Title
Growing diversity: the Khazin sheiks and the clergy in the first decades of the 18th century
Historical Members:
Barbar Beik El Khazen [English]
Patriach Toubia Kaiss El Khazen(Biography & Life Part1 Part2) (Arabic)
Patriach Youssef Dargham El Khazen (Cont'd)
Cheikh Bishara Jafal El Khazen
Patriarch Youssef Raji El Khazen
The Martyrs Cheikh Philippe & Cheikh Farid El Khazen
Cheikh Nawfal El Khazen (Consul De France)
Cheikh Hossun El Khazen (Consul De France)
Cheikh Abou-Nawfal El Khazen (Consul De France)
Cheikh Francis Abee Nader & his son Yousef
Cheikh Abou-Kanso El Khazen (Consul De France)
Cheikh Abou Nader El Khazen
Cheikh Chafic El Khazen
Cheikh Keserwan El Khazen
Cheikh Serhal El Khazen [English]
Cheikh Rafiq El Khazen [English]
Cheikh Hanna El Khazen
Cheikha Arzi El Khazen
Marie El Khazen