By Yassmine Alieh business news LB Aigle Azur, a French airline company, will start direct flights from Paris Orly to Beirut Rafic Hariri International Airport (BRHIA)on June 23.  Middle East Airlines (MEA), which has a code-sharing agreement with Air France, is the only carrier so far on the Paris-Beirut route.  A high-ranking source at the […]

by naharnet

The United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL)
marked Monday the 39th anniversary of its establishment with a ceremony
at its Headquarters in Naqoura highlighting “the Mission’s commitment to
providing a safe and secure environment for the local population in
southern Lebanon,” a UNIFIL statement said. “Since 2006, UNIFIL successfully facilitated the
development of communities and civil society, while simultaneously
assisting the Government of Lebanon in extending its authority in the
South of the country,” said the UNIFIL Head of Mission and Force
Commander Major-General Michael Beary. “Our work, conducted in conjunction with our valued
strategic partners and colleagues in the Lebanese Armed Forces, has also
created an environment for economic development and investment,
activities that will, in time, facilitate meaningful economic growth for
the growing population of South Lebanon,” he added. In attendance at the ceremony were representatives of
the Lebanese Armed Forces (LAF) and other security agencies, the
Governor of Nabatieh Mahmoud al-Mawla, local mayors and religious
leaders.

Beary and Brigadier-General Mohamed Janbay, representing
LAF Commander, laid wreaths at the UNIFIL cenotaph paying tributes to
the memory of the 325 U.N. peacekeepers from all around the world who
have “given their lives in the cause of peace in southern Lebanon since
UNIFIL’s establishment in 1978,” the UNIFIL statement said. During the ceremony, UNIFIL’s leadership and the LAF
representative awarded 45 military staff officers with the U.N. Medal
for their contribution to fulfilling the Mission’s mandate. In addressing the ceremony, the UNIFIL Force Commander
highlighted the Mission’s continued presence in south Lebanon as “a
clear demonstration of the U.N.’s commitment and enduring support to
Lebanon and its people.” “I will never tire from expressing my admiration of the
residents of the South. UNIFIL and its 40 different Troop Contributing
Countries have been welcome guests since 1978 throughout our entire area
of operations,” Beary said.

By dailystar.com.lb

by Frank T. McAndrew, The Conversation

Recently, my wife and I went through one of the more excruciating
experiences of our lives – the euthanasia of our beloved dog,
Murphy. I remember making eye contact with Murphy moments before she took
her last breath – she flashed me a look that was an endearing
blend of confusion and the reassurance that everyone was ok
because we were both by her side. When people who have never had a dog see their dog-owning friends
mourn the loss of a pet, they probably think it’s all a bit of an
overreaction; after all, it’s “just a dog.” However, those who have loved a dog know the truth: Your own pet
is never “just a dog.” Many times, I’ve had friends guiltily confide to me that they
grieved more over the loss of a dog than over the loss of friends
or relatives. Research has confirmed that for most people,
the loss of a dog is, in almost every way, comparable to the loss
of a human loved one.

Unfortunately, there’s little in our cultural playbook – no grief
rituals, no obituary in the local newspaper, no religious service
– to help us get through the loss of a pet, which can make us
feel more than a bit embarrassed to show too much public grief over our
dead dogs. Perhaps if people realized just how strong and intense the bond
is between people and their dogs, such grief would become more
widely accepted. This would greatly help dog owners to integrate
the death into their lives and help them move forward. An interspecies bond like no other What is it about dogs, exactly, that make humans bond so closely
with them?

For starters, dogs have had to adapt to living with humans over
the past 10,000 years. And they’ve done it very well: They’re the
only animal to have evolved specifically to be our companions and
friends. Anthropologist Brian Hare has developed the
“Domestication Hypothesis” to explain how dogs morphed from their
grey wolf ancestors into the socially skilled animals that we now
interact with in very much the same way as we interact with other
people.

Bodyguards protect Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri, center left with hand on mouth, from water bottles thrown by demonstrators in downtown Beirut, Lebanon, Sunday, March 19, 2017. Demonstrators pelted the prime minister’s car with water bottles on Sunday as protests against new taxes and a stagnant public wage scale gained force in the city. Hariri […]

By: middleeastmonitor.com

Anger flamed across Lebanon as lawmakers
approved five new taxes on Wednesday, including increasing the VAT from
10 per cent to 11 per cent. The tax increases come in the latest wave
of austerity measures to offer public sector workers – including police
officers and teachers – new salary packages. Tax payers held protests across the
country, angered by the measures and calling for the government to
tackle corruption within the political system to fund development rather
than increase excises. Another large-scale protest is due to take place in Beirut tomorrow.

Some 6,000 people are expected to join the march which is organised by the Lebanese Communist Party. The political group is calling on the
government to “escalate social spending on health, education and
development, wages and create jobs.” “We are protesting in rejection of
unfair tax policies that pull money out of the pockets of the poor to
finance waste and theft and corruption of power.”

The Daily Star – BEIRUT: Activists gathered in front of the Higher Islamic Shiite Council south of Beirut Saturday to decry the infringement of women’s custody rights. Activists from Protecting Lebanese Women and their supporters demanded the council to lift the minimum age of paternal custody for children of divorced couples to something closer to […]

by AFP – BEIRUT: An animal rights group in Lebanon is caring for three dehydrated, maggot-infested Siberian tiger cubs that were rescued on their way to a zoo in neighboring war-ravaged Syria. Animals Lebanon said Saturday that its members rescued the cubs earlier this week after they had spent more than a week cooped up […]

by Alex Leary, Times Washington Bureau Chief, Instead of attending a fundraising weekend skiing in Montana, Sen. Marco Rubio, 2016 US presidential candidate is in the Middle East this week for an “oversight” visit. “This weekend, I am in the Middle East on an official visit conducting oversight of U.S. programs abroad as a member […]