BEIRUT, Oct 29 – Lebanon’s draft budget for 2008 forecasts a deficit equivalent to 6.3 percent of gross domestic product , the finance ministry said on Monday.A presentation of the draft budget, approved by cabinet on Saturday, forecast spending of 11,195 billion Lebanese pounds , revenue of 8,810 billion pounds and GDP of 37,826 billion […]

BEIRUT (AFP) – Come Monday, Beirut city officials hope to help ease the Lebanese capital’s nightmarish traffic congestion with the first parking meters installed since the end of the 1975-1990 civil war. Twenty of the coin- and card-operated machines will be inaugurated in a trendy shopping area of the city centre, which has for the most part been declared off-limits to parking for security concerns.

Colonel Joseph Doueihy, in charge of the traffic department at the interior ministry, told AFP that gradually more units will be installed throughout the capital as part of a major effort to regulate circulation.Funding for the project came from the World Bank."I think enforcement always leads to results because in the end citizens think of the bottom line, of their pockets," Doueihy said.

He said people who fail to feed the meters or who overstay the two-hour limit risk a ticket of 20,000 pounds (about 13 dollars) or even being towed."We have a special police force from the traffic department that will be enforcing the regulations," Doueihy said. "Our aim is to institute order and to ease the city’s traffic chaos."

Shops and businesses along the streets where the parking meters have been installed welcomed the measure, saying it should attract customers who are currently prevented from parking in the area which is roped off."At least with the parking meters, people will be able to stop for five or 10 minutes to carry out their business in the area," said Tony Attallah, a security agent at Bank of Beirut.

Kuwait’s Zain (formerly MTC) expects to bid in the upcoming auction for the two Lebanese mobile phone networks, the Arabic language al-Rai newspaper reported, citing Zain’s CEO. However, the company considered the governments expected price of US$6-7 billion to be at least double the realistic valuation of the network operators. The sale will be for […]

by Rouba Kabbara, BEIRUT (AFP) – Fires raged on Wednesday for the second time this month across hectares (acres) of forest in Lebanon, threatening the natural wealth of a country once known as the Switzerland of the Middle East. Emergency crews backed by army helicopters struggled to extinguish blazes which broke out on Tuesday in the mountainous northern regions of Qobayat, Ayto and Karm Saddeh, a civil defence official told AFP.

By Borzou Daragahi, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer, BEIRUT — Lebanese politics are notoriously cumbersome and convoluted. On Monday, squabbling politicians again delayed a decision on choosing a new president, this time putting it off until Nov. 12. The deadline before the country is hurtled into a constitutional crisis is Nov. 24, when President Emile […]

BEIRUT (AFP) – French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner began his visit to Beirut at the weekend by crashing a wedding party and dancing the dabke, or traditional Lebanese dance, with the bridal couple. Kouchner was dining at a fish restaurant in the Lebanese capital with friends and decided to pay a visit late Friday to the bridal […]

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