It’s a sunny spring day in Beirut. Where can the little girl who wants to kick around a ball or the little boy who wants to ride his bicycle go? How about the mother who wants to enjoy a good book in the sun, or the father who wants to lie on the grass […]

  Lebanon’s newly formed coalition government of Prime Minister Tammam Salam easily won a vote of confidence in parliament Thursday, after two days of often heated exchanges between lawmakers over Hezbollah’s arsenal and its role in Syria.   Officials said 96 MPs of the 128-member chamber backed the Cabinet after a lengthy debate over its […]

  Joseph is a figure in the Gospels, the husband of Mary, the mother of Jesus and the step father of Jesus. In Roman Catholic, Eastern Orthodox and Anglican Christian traditions, he is regarded as Saint Joseph. The Pauline epistles, generally considered the earliest extant Christian records, make no reference to Jesus’ father; nor does the […]

  We understand that when those who are kidnapped praise their kidnappers, and when victims thank criminals, it is possibly out of fear or simply the price of freedom. But it is impossible to understand those who showered the al-Nusra Front with gratitude because it released the Maaloula nuns who had been kidnapped in Syria. […]

  Phalange leader Amin Gemayel visited President Michel Suleiman at Baabda Palace on Tuesday a day after holding talks with the prime minister on his party’s reservations over the cabinet’s policy statement and amid hints that it is set to withdraw its threat to quit the government.   Several ministers and lawmakers representing the Phalange […]

  Last week a story appeared in a Lebanese daily alerting the country’s multimillionaires that Beirut Boat 2014, “Lebanon’s biggest boat and yacht show”, was “making a return this spring at the Port of Beirut’s Pier 1”. The event, we were told, would be “the ninth instalment of the expo, which brings together owners, buyers […]

  BEIRUT: Lebanon’s real estate market has entered a slowdown phase, particularly in the capital, where developers are offering discounts of up to 15 percent on residential units under construction.   However, on the outskirts of Beirut, investors can still profit from prices that are ascending, albeit at slower pace, mainly in the Metn and […]

Damascus, Syria, Mar 15, 2014 / 06:03 am (CNA/EWTN News).- As today marks the third anniversary of uprisings which led to civil war in Syria, Catholic leaders there and in neighboring Lebanon have reflected on its devastating effect on both countries. “It creates a huge impact on (the Lebanese) in all aspects, and in terms of security issues…it’s had a huge impact,” Wadih Daher, assistant to Archbishop Issam John Darwish, told CNA in a March 13 interview. Daher spoke on behalf of the bishop, who leads the Melkite Greek Archeparchy of Furzol, Zahle and the Bekaa, on Lebanon’s border with Syria.

Conflict began March 15, 2011, when demonstrations protesting the rule of president Bashar al-Assad and his Ba’ath Party sprang up nationwide. The following month, the Syrian army began to deploy to put down the uprisings, firing on protesters. Now, three years on, an estimated 140,000 persons have died in what has become a civil war. The U.N. quit counting the bodies last July, leaving its estimates at 100,000, saying it could no longer verify its sources.

Because of the civil war, half of Syria’s population have fled their homes. 6.5 million Syrians are believed to have been internally displaced by the war, and there are 2.5 million Syrian refugees living in nearby countries, most of them in Lebanon, Turkey, and Jordan. Of those 2.5 million, more than 1 million are in Lebanon, a country whose population, three years ago, was slightly over 4 million. Now, one in every five residents of Lebanon is a refugee from Syria.

  Lebanon slipped into the 10th place among 11 Arab countries in terms of macroeconomic risks in 2014, Cairo-based investment bank EFG Hermes said. The bank’s “Macroeconomic Heat map for 2014” report said that Lebanon’s ranking fell from ninth place in 2012 and 2013, compared with its 7th place ranking in 2011. EFG Hermes attribute the fall […]