By reuters

Lebanon’s prime minister called on Thursday for “adequate and substantial” foreign investments worth nearly $10 billion to address the Syrian refugee crisis and upgrade the country’s crumbling infrastructure. At least 1 million people fleeing neighboring Syria’s war have poured into Lebanon since the conflict began in 2011, making up a quarter of the small country’s population and seriously straining its public services.

“In the coming three years, Lebanon needs no less than eight to ten billion dollars worth of new investments,” Saad al-Hariri told a news conference in Beirut. Hariri said that international contributions, “while appreciated … are not proportional to the large needs of displaced Syrians and host communities”. Hariri appealed for funding for a three-year plan aimed at equipping Lebanon to better withstand the refugee influx and shore up its economy.

By Naharnet.com

Prime Minister Saad Hariri presided Wednesday over a
Cabinet session at the Grand Serail, during which he stressed that the
government’s “priority” is the organization of parliamentary elections. At the beginning of the session, Hariri lauded President
Michel Aoun’s speech before the the diplomatic corps and “the national
inclinations it included.”

“I stress that our priority in the government is to hold
the parliamentary elections and that our agenda will never include –
neither secretly nor publicly – any intentions or desire to extend the
parliament’s term,” the premier added. “All political forces represented in the government are
concerned with realizing this approach, as much as they are concerned
with agreeing on a new electoral law based on unified standards that
ensure fair representation,” Hariri said.

The session had 32 items on its agenda. The issue of
amending the Lebanese Petroleum Administration’s financial system was
postponed to the next session, Information Minister Melhem Riachi said
after the session.

Asked whether the Cabinet discussed the issues of the
Costa Brava garbage landfill, flight safety at Beirut’s airport and the
bird-repelling devices that have been offered as a grant, Riachi said
the conferees tackled the topic and that it would be thoroughly
discussed by the competent ministerial panel. State Minister for Women’s Affairs Jean Oghassabian said
the Cabinet discussed “an idea for a reevaluation of the entire waste
management file.”

Speaker Nabih Berri and Interior Minister Nouhad
al-Mashnouq have warned that the country is likely headed to
parliamentary elections under the controversial 1960 electoral law due
to the parties’ failure to agree on a new law.

From yalibnan.com

A Progressive Socialist party delegation met with President Michel Aoun on Wednesday, where talks focused on the controversial electoral law, amid reports saying that the PSP leader MP Walid Jumblatt who favors the 1960 electoral law  headed to Baabda today ,  to meet with president Michel Aoun Jumblatt was accompanied by a  Progressive Socialist
Party delegation that included  MPs: Wael Abou Faour, Ghazi al-Aridi,
Akram Shehayyeb, Alaa Terro and Henri Helou. Jumblatt reportedly  planned to suggest some amendments to the 1960 electoral law which has been rejected by Aoun and his key ally Hezbollah  who prefer the proportional representation law

Aridi, who spoke to reporters after the meeting, said that  sectarianism and proportional representation law   do not together Insisting on diversity and partnership, Aridi remarked:
“If the standards are to adopt proper representation (for the upcoming
parliamentary polls), we hope that the opinion of the Druze community is
taken into consideration.”

Earlier, reports have said that the PSP delegation
carries ideas of amendments that Jumblatt believes would develop the
1960 law, and help “save everyone’s face.” They added that the MP is expected to put forward a
suggestion to create a new governorate that includes the Chouf and Aley
areas, and to reconsider the distribution of MPs in Beirut, North Lebanon, West and North Bekaa to ensure proper representation at parliament. Lebanon is divided into eight governorates (mohafazah): Akkar, Baalbek-Hermel, Beirut, Bekaa, Mount Lebanon, Nabatieh, North Lebanon and South Lebanon.

thenational.ae

ISTANBUL // When a gunman stormed the Reina nightclub on the
banks of the Bosphorus and opened fire on more than 600 revellers
welcoming the New Year, 21 of the 39 people killed were Arab nationals.
And although the suspect has finally been arrested after more than two
weeks, many business owners are wondering how much damage the enormous
death toll of Arab tourists will do to Istanbul’s tourism industry. “It
has been a really terrible season, and it does feel like there are less
Arabs tourists here,” says Mehmut, the owner of a cafe on one of the
side streets off Istiklal Avenue, an area catering to Arab tourists with
many signs in Arabic.

“I hope it feels this way because of the winter, and not because of what happened at the Reina.” Over
the past year, a string of terror attacks and increasing political
instability in Istanbul has caused the city’s once thriving tourism
industry to slow to a mere trickle. European – particularly German and
Russian – tourists who once enjoyed the rich historical sites of
Istanbul and the pristine beaches of the Aegean and the Mediterranean,
have increasingly opted not to visit Turkey, instead flocking to beaches
in Croatia and the Greek islands.

In
the absence of European tourists, Arab tourists – largely from the Gulf
states, but also from Lebanon, Egypt and North Africa – have been
keeping Istanbul’s tourism industry going. With plenty of natural
beauty, religious tourism, and – most importantly – largely visa-free
entry requirements, Istanbul and other cities in Turkey have remained
popular holiday destinations tourists from the Middle East. Tour
guides say visitors from countries in the region that have faced their
own share of political turmoil in recent years, are less concerned about
the risks of instability than European visitors.

By  Akin Oyedele The White House is worth $397.9 million, according to the real-estate listings firm Zillow. The home of every US president except George Washington gained 15% in value during President Barack Obama’s eight years in office, according to a release published Tuesday. Zillow said it first calculated the White House’s worth in 2009 […]

By independent.co.uk

Video footage of rare Syrian bears foraging for food has emerged from Lebanon, where they are believed to be extinct. A group of young people hiking in the Bekaa Valley in December took
the mobile phone video from a distance, in which a small cub can be seen
running around in the snow with its mother. The cub is estimated to be less than a year old, as after that
offspring fend for themselves. It is thought the bears must be
responding to unusual cold or a threat to be active during the winter.

The video has excited conservationists
as it marks the first sighting of the species in the country since
1958. The nearest other known location for the bear is 300 miles (500
kilometres) away in Turkey.  Assad Serhal, director general of the Society for the Protection of
Nature in Lebanon, called the finding “historic” and a “positive
development”. The Syrian bear was first identified in Lebanon in 1828, but changes
to its habitat and excessive hunting drove the species to extinction
about 100 years after it was first discovered.  There are just one female and one male left in the country at a
reservation in the Chouf mountains. Attempts to get the pair to mate
have been unsuccessful.

The Syrian bear, one of 16 types of brown bear worldwide, lives in
mountain ranges across the Middle East. Its conservation status is
generally classified as vulnerable in Iran, Iraq, Turkey, Azerbaijan,
Armenia, Turkmenistan and Georgia, but the species is officially extinct
in Lebanon, Israel, and as of 2009, in Syria.

by dailyStar.com.lb