hoteliermiddleeast.com

Hotel owners in Lebanon are seeking to attract new guests
from Jordan as a slow tourism season impacts the country’s hospitality
sector. The Lebanese Syndicate of Hotel Owners secretary-general Wadih Kanaan
said that a delegation from Lebanese hotels will head to Jordan in a
bid to encourage Jordanians to visit the country, the Central News
Agency reports.

He said that the delegation would try to persuade Jordanian officials
to reduce the airport tax claiming that it is too high and is
discouraging visitors from travelling to Lebanon.

An employee walks on newspapers after protesters attacked the office of
Saudi-owned newspaper Asharq Al Awsat in Beirut, Lebanon, April 1, 2016.

Gulfnews Joseph A. Kechichian, Senior Writer Following tensions that arose after a trained group of
rioters stormed Al Sharq Al Awsat’s Beirut offices — to protest a
cartoon deemed insulting to Lebanon — fresh threats against the Saudi
ambassador to Lebanon Ali Awadh Asiri, prompted the chancellery to adopt
new security measures.

According to the generally well-informed
Al Nahar daily, extra measures were adopted to what are strictly
enforced access limitations on Bliss Street, near the American
University of Beirut. Imposing stone barriers that are manned by the
Internal Security Forces prevent any vehicle from approaching the
embassy building, and visitors are screened via airport-style scanners,
before they can gain access to inner grounds. A large vacant lot next to
the embassy, a former parking lot, is permanently closed to prevent
potential car bombings.

BEIRUT (AP) — Beirut-based employees of the Saudi-owned Al-Arabiya
channel said the station has decided to shut down its Lebanon operation
amid tensions between Riyadh and Beirut.

The channels’ Beirut correspondent Adnan Ghamloush said the decision
to shut down “for security reasons” was communicated to the staff on
Friday through a lawyer, and effectively puts 27 employees out of work. He declined to give other details and the nature of the security threat remained unclear.

Al Arabiya, which is affiliated with the MBC group, provoked protests
by supporters of the Lebanese militant Hezbollah group in February
after the channel broadcast a comedy skit mocking the Hezbollah leader.

BRASILIA/SAO PAULO — Brazilian prosecutors on Thursday charged Joseph Safra,
the world’s richest banker, in connection with an alleged scheme to pay
bribes to government officials in return for waiving tax debts.In a statement, prosecutors said Safra had knowledge of a 2014 plan by executives at his Banco Safra SA
to pay 15.3 million reais ($4.2 million) in bribes to federal tax
auditors. The accusation is based on tapped phone calls between Banco Safra executive João Inácio Puga and tax officials, the statement added.

Safra, who alongside his family owns Banco Safra SA and a number of private-banking institutions including Switzerland’s J Safra Sarasin,
was not directly involved in the negotiations on the bribery plan, the
statement noted. Still, the conversations showed that Puga reported to Safra on the bribery talks, prosecutors said.