BEIRUT, (Reuters) – A Lebanese central bank circular to be issued on Tuesday will reduce the pressure on U.S. dollar demand at currency exchange offices, central bank governor Riad Salameh said on Monday after meeting President Michel Aoun. Salameh said the central bank was securing the foreign currency needs of the private and public sectors […]

Facebook has begun hiding “like” counts from its users, in a test aimed at curbing the site’s potential negative impacts on mental health. The experiment makes the number of likes, reactions and views on a post only visible to its author. It’s so far just testing in Australia, following a similar trial on Instagram which […]

By Asharq Al-Awsat —  Hundreds of Lebanese protested in Beirut on Sunday against an economic crisis that has worsened over the past two weeks, with a drop in the local currency for the first time in more than two decades. Some of the protesters in the capital’s downtown blasted Lebanese political leaders, blaming them for […]

This is an opinion article does not represent khazen.org 

by Jeremy Bowman — fool.com — Amazon.com (NASDAQ:AMZN) has become a trillion-dollar company for one reason above all others: its strength as a disruptor. Starting out with traditional retail, Amazon has waged war on established industries including book publishing, supermarkets, enterprise computing, cable TV, and logistics. Now, healthcare seems to be securely in its sights. For a while, Amazon’s intention to disrupt healthcare has been coming into focus. The company acquired online pharmacy PillPack last June and launched a joint venture last year with JPMorgan Chase (NYSE:JPM) and Berkshire Hathaway (NYSE:BRK-A) (NYSE:BRK-B) that is focused on health insurance. But Amazon just made its biggest move yet to break into the $3.7 trillion healthcare industry.

It just introduced Amazon Care, a virtual and in-person clinic currently only available to Amazon employees in Seattle and their families. The service provides help with issues like colds and infections, preventive-care visits, and tests for things like sexually transmitted infections. Amazon is partnering with Oasis Medical, a family practice clinic in Seattle, to provide the service. Though this is just a pilot program for now, it’s clear from the company’s history where it’s going with Amazon Care. It’s also evident why Amazon has a better chance of disrupting the industry than anyone else does.

A time-tested start-up formula

After a number of adventures — successful and unsuccessful — into different industries, Amazon has developed a playbook for disruption. The company puts the customers first, inventing on their behalf, and then tests its ideas internally, building the new business for Amazon employees before opening it up to the general public. The best example of this is Amazon Web Services (AWS), by far the company’s most important business outside of e-commerce. AWS started almost accidentally as the company began building the internal cloud infrastructure to handle its own massive computing demands. By 2003, the tech giant began to realize it had built a group of infrastructure services that would be desirable to outside developers and companies. The AWS team developed the idea over the next few years before formally launching what’s now known as AWS in 2006.

New York City (CNN)The US has denied permission for Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif to visit a colleague receiving treatment in a New York City hospital. But it would have been allowed if Iran released a US citizen held in detention, a US administration official tells CNN Friday. The Iranian Foreign Minister is under tight […]

The proportion of consumers surveyed by the central bank who reported receiving three or more job offers this summer is the biggest since records began in 2014. Of those polled by the New York Federal Reserve Bank in July, 2.8% reported the multiple job offers, while almost 16% received one or two offers of employment […]

al-monitor.com — Hanan Hamdan — BEIRUT — A scarcity of US dollars is causing a crisis for Lebanese citizens. In a Sept. 25 statement, the Syndicate of Gas Station Owners reiterated its commitment to uphold the 48-hour deadline it had given to the concerned parties to find a solution for fuel traders to the dollar shortage. “Any new deadline would be tantamount to a declaration of bankruptcy of all station owners,” the statement warned. This comes against the backdrop of a Sept. 24 statement by the governor of the central bank, Riad Salameh, confirming that he would issue a circular next week regulating the financing and importation of wheat, medicine and fuel in dollars. Salameh took his decision after consulting President Michel Aoun, Prime Minister Saad Hariri, Finance Minister Ali Hassan Khalil and other ministers. The hydrocarbons sector had threatened to stage a sudden and open strike if the consultations with Hariri and the concerned parties fail to provide the dollar liquidity needed by fuel traders to buy their goods.

Fadi Abu Shakra, the representative of the union for fuel distributors and gas stations in Lebanon, told Al-Monitor that consultations are ongoing to avoid the strike. Yet he also pointed out that “97% of gas stations abided by the one-day strike carried out by the hydrocarbons sector in Lebanon on Sept. 18, with a full abidance by oil importers.” Hariri met delegations from the Association of Petroleum Importing Companies, the Syndicate of Gas Station Owners and the Syndicate of Tankers on Sept. 23. At a press conference following the meeting, association President Georges Fayad announced that Hariri promised to meet with other officials and was inviting the delegations to discuss the proposed solution Sept. 25. Fayad said that as a result, “We will freeze our strike for 48 hours.”

BEIRUT (Panorama.am) —Queen Rania of Jordan was photographed wearing a dress by Lebanese Armenian fashion designer Krikor Jabotian, which the latter proudly posted to his Facebook page on September 24. Jabotian jumpstarted his career within the creative department at Elie Saab following his graduation from the École Supérieure des Arts et Techniques de la Mode […]

By BASSEM MROUE | Associated Press  — BEIRUT — A Lebanese citizen who was detained in Greece on suspicion of involvement in a 1985 TWA hijacking and set free after it turned out to be a case of mistaken identity is in good health and expected to fly back to Lebanon, the man and his wife said Tuesday. Mohammed Saleh’s wife, Leila, said by telephone from her home in the southern Lebanese port city of Sidon that she spoke with her husband, who also sent her his photos as proof that he is fine and staying in a hotel while he completes necessary paperwork ahead of his return home. The 65-year-old man was arrested Thursday on the resort island of Mykonos, where he stopped during a cruise. The name on his passport came up on a European police computer system as that of a man wanted by Germany over the hijacking, in which an American was killed.

The police statement said German authorities were unable to identify the suspect and finally said Monday afternoon that they wouldn’t be seeking his extradition because he was not the man they wanted. The Greek police never released the man’s name. On Tuesday morning, Saleh sent a short text message: “I am still working on the release documents. I am free but there are some measures in order to get a visa.” Saleh needs a visa now to be able to go to Athens as those going on cruises don’t need one since they only spend a few hours on the island.

BEIRUT, Sept 23 (Reuters) – Lebanese central bank governor Riad Salameh said on Monday that Lebanese banks were meeting customer demand for U.S. dollars which are still available at ATMs in most banks, if not all of them. “Dollars are available in Lebanon and the talk that we see in social media and sometimes in […]