By Donna Abu-Nasr -Bloomberg- Lebanese and Iraqi security services have uncovered an Iraqi network that spread false information about Lebanese banks in order to extort them, and several of its members have been arrested, Lebanon’s official National News Agency said Tuesday. The agency cited an Iraqi statement issued by the national intelligence service on Monday. […]

by catholicnewsagency.com — Islamabad, Pakistan (CNA).- Imran Khan has emerged as the victor in a general election held in Pakistan Wednesday, July 25. The professional cricket player-turned-politician has previously voiced support for the country’s controversial blasphemy laws. While votes are still being tallied in some areas, Khan’s centrist Tehreek-e-Insaf (Movement for Justice) have won 115 […]

by star-magazine.co.uk — The human rights lawyer, who married Hollywood superstar George Clooney in 2014, founded her educational initiative the following year to help girls from her native Lebanon realise their potential. This year (18), Amal and assessors at the Aurora Humanitarian Initiative, an organisation founded on behalf of the survivors of the Armenian Genocide, […]

French-Italian musician Carla Bruni (C) and her husband, former French President Nicolas Sarkozy (R) pose for a photograph with Beiteddine Art Festival president Noura Jumblatt (L) at the Beirut airport on July 29, 2018. AFP / ANWAR AMRO Singer Carla Bruni-Sarkozy, the former French First Lady, performs at the Beiteddine Art Festival near Beirut, Lebanon, […]

BEIRUT, (Xinhua) — The World Bank has provided Lebanon with 2 billion U.S. dollars for the country’s development, the National News Agency reported Monday. “The World Bank is always ready to help Lebanon by funding its development and productive projects,” said Farid Belhaj, the World Bank’s vice president for Middle East and North Africa. Belhaj’s […]

JERUSALEM (REUTERS) – Russia cannot compel Iranian forces to quit Syria, Moscow’s ambassador to Tel Aviv said on Monday, rebuffing Israel’s long-standing demand that it should work to ensure their total withdrawal from the country. Ambassador Anatoly Viktorov said Moscow could equally do nothing to prevent Israeli military strikes against Iranian forces in Syria, which […]

Beirut- Asharq Al Awsat –Saudi Chargé d’Affaires in Beirut, Walid al-Bukhari, stressed Saturday that Lebanon’s stability has always been and will remain a priority for all Lebanese and Arabs, indicating that the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia wants Lebanon to remain an independent, sovereign, free, secure and prosperous Arab country. Bukhari was speaking during the “Third […]

The Daily Star BEIRUT: A Kuwaiti court Sunday sentenced an Egyptian man to death by hanging for stabbing and killing his Lebanese wife, local media reported. The man, said to be in his 40s, was sentenced for stabbing his wife multiple times in front of their children in August 2017. He later turned himself in. The […]

by bytheeast.com -Tina Abou Riz- Beit Beirut before the renovation. Lebanon represented the Arab world’s cultural hub, through its various “annual arts festivals and vibrant gallery scene”. However, in recent times, due to the country’s economic instability, coupled with political upheaval and a lack in state funds to support arts, Lebanon was left behind in this field. As Lebanese cultural heritage gathered dust behind closed doors while others like the UAE flourished with “state-funded museums” with the affiliation to “world-class institutions”, namely “Louvre Abu Dhabi and Guggenheim Abu Dhabi”. These architectural and arts centres have beckoned tourists from across the globe. However, changing times are upon Lebanon, as recently Beirut city has seen several museums being inaugurated, refurbished or re-opened, while the plans of building “four art and archaeological museums set” in the coming five years is signal towards a “new phase in Lebanon’s cultural development” to revive Lebanese cultural heritage. Lebanon has winessed significant excavation expeditions all over the country, whereby reinforcing its “archaeological richness”. The National Museum of the country, based in Beirut, complements the small ones present in the excavation sites. The former features “a large collection of priceless artefacts” obtained from all over the country which ranges from “prehistory to the end of the Ottoman Empire” time frame. After a spell of forty years, in 2016, the locked doors of the National Museum re-opened whereby leading the visitors to its basement. The government of Italy had provided a grant of “€1.2 million” for the refurbishing cost. Among the artefacts displayed in the basement are “funerary art that includes a human tooth dating back 250,000 years, unique 7,000-year-old Phoenician marble sarcophagi and 13th century mummies from the Qadisha Valley”.

Furthermore, there are plans of expanding the museum to house “temporary exhibitions and workshops” space besides a cafe area. With the expanding Lebanese cultural heritage drive through various projects, private and state initiatives are coming together in the country. The “Lebanese Heritage Foundation”, a charitable organisation has taken up the responsibility of “raising funds”. Taking the Lebanese cultural heritage revival drive forward, Beirut History Museum too is set to open in the coming five years. This museum also holds “major archaeological” assets which will be displayed in “a glass building designed by the Pritzker-prize winning Italian architect Renzo Piano”. Besides exhibiting the archaeological richness of Lebanon, the new museum will have the task of recounting “the history of Beirut across the centuries”. The building, thus designed by Piano, will be enclosed within an “archaeological garden”, while Khoury added: “It is glass so that it doesn’t close the view from Martyr’s Square to the Petit Serail, down to the sea”.

by hindustantimes.com — Lebanese environmentalists on Saturday sank 10 old tanks and armoured vehicles to the bottom of the Mediterranean Sea in a novel attempt to attract divers and create new habitats for marine life. Three km off the coast of the city of Sidon, a huge crane on the back of a ship manoeuvred […]