by Joseph A. Kechichian, Senior Writer – gulf news

Beirut: A few days after Lebanon President Michel Aoun suspended all
parliamentary activities for a month, the publicly lauded but privately
condemned decision garnered fresh controversies, as Speaker Nabih Berri
hailed the Maronite Patriarch Mar Bisharal Al Rai’s latest position on
the electoral law. The powerful patriarch considered the
controversial 1960 electoral law as the best available alternative to
resolve the country’s ongoing political crisis, and prevent granting
another extension to the present parliament.

Berri criticised the
latest hybrid electoral law format proposed by Free Patriotic Movement
chief Gibran Bassil, who has asked his ally Lebanese Forces (LF) leader
Samir Geagea to give it a “chance”, after the LF and Druze leader Walid
Jumblatt voiced reservations about it. Jumblatt lashed out at the
proposal, which involves sectarian voting in the first round, as
“divisive” and the product of a “sick mentality”. A similar idea was
initially proposed by Nabih Berri several months ago, but it was no
longer deemed useful.

The latest proposal regarding the electoral
law would see voting taking place in the current 26 districts with
voters only allowed to vote for candidates from their own sects. Two
candidates for each sectarian seat would thus qualify for the second
round during which voting would take place in 10 newly-defined electoral
districts and according to a non-sectarian proportional representation
polling system.

by Sarah Maisey – thenational.ae

A fashion juggernaut rolled into Muscat for Condé Nast’s
third annual International Luxury Conference, with renowned designers
including Elie Saab, from Lebanon, as part of it. Founded and hosted by Vogue’s
international editor, Suzy Menkes, the event brought the leading lights
of the luxury industry together for a gathering featuring presentations
from chief executives, designers and bloggers. Alber Elbaz
(formerly of fashion house Lanvin), Indian fashion designer Manish Arora
and blogger Hudda Kattan (recently named the third-most influential
beauty blogger in the world by Forbes) were among them, along with the bosses at Jimmy Choo.

Saab took time out to talk about his rise to haute couture fame. “Breaking
into Paris was very hard for me, it took a long time,” he says. “I
started as a designer alone and didn’t know much about the industry. I
had to learn it all.” He opened his atelier in Beirut in 1982,
with the Lebanese civil war raging around him. Inspired by the style and
elegance of his city in its heyday, the 18-year-old Saab launched his
label, drawing on the experience of those around him. “When
I started there were no fashion designers in the region, but … in
Beirut there were high- quality dressmakers and tailors,” he says. “I
went to them with a clear vision of what I wanted.”

His elaborate
designs soon gained attention and international acclaim slowly
followed. In 1997, he was the only non-Italian invited to join the
National Chamber of Italian Fashion (Camera Nazionale della Moda
Italiana) in Italy and went on to launch his first ready-to-wear
collection in 1998. Saab’s true passion lay in haute couture, so it was
with pride that he accepted an invitation in 2000 to join the Chambre
Syndicale de la Haute Couture in Paris. “We have our prêt-à-porter [ready-to-wear] studio in Paris, but our base for haute couture is in Beirut,” he says.”Some of my team members have been with me since the beginning and we have come up together. It is beautiful.”

This story by Carol Hills originally appeared on PRI.org on April 13, 2017. It is republished here as part of a partnership between PRI and Global Voices.

Some advice from an Arab son. If your career choice is to become a comedian, don’t expect your dad to be very excited. Here’s how Lebanese-American Nemr Abou Nassar’s dad responded: “You
want to become a clown?” No, explained Nemr, a stand-up comedian. His
dad remained skeptical. “Oh, you’re going to stand up and be a clown!” The riff goes on. Nemr’s father buys a horn, the kind you put on a
bicycle, and for the next eight years, he squeezes it every time his son
visits: “Everybody, the clown is here.” Then Nemr makes it onto the cover of Rolling Stone and suddenly his
father changes his tone. “This is my son the comedian. I always told him
follow your dreams.” But instead of Rolling Stone, he pronounces
“Throwing Stones,” in a thick Arabic accent.

This was the May 2014 cover of Rolling Stone (Middle East). Credit: Rolling Stone

Nemr says his father is a huge fan, “as much as an Arab father would
be a fan of his son because it’s against Arab culture to ever encourage
your children. It’s a constant thing to keep them humble.” His father’s
only no-go zone is swearing. “If there’s the funniest joke in the world
and somebody drops an f-word, he just shuts down. He doesn’t like that.” But all those jokes about him? Nemr says his father just nods, “as long you’re making money.” The Arab father topic is intentional. Nemr performs in English across
the Arab and Muslim world and now in North America. Right now, he’s on a
world tour,
everywhere from Oklahoma to Saudi Arabia. “You don’t really need to be
from anywhere to actually relate to a father who has high expectations
for their son.”

Nemr’s global reach reflects his own experience. Born in Lebanon in
1983, his family moved to San Diego, California, when he was 2, during
his country’s long civil war. But just nine years later, his family
moved back to Beirut. He found American issues like drugs and missing
children too scary, telling his son: “In Beirut, the only danger is war.
We can run away from that and hide.”

by dailystar.com.lb

Standard Chartered expects modest GDP
growth in Lebanon in 2017 compared to 2016, thanks to the positive
political environment following the election of a president.  “We
expect GDP growth to pick up marginally to 1.5 percent in 2017, from an
estimated 1.0 percent in 2016, as private-sector confidence improves
due to political progress at end-2016. The latest survey data supports
this view,” Standard Chartered said in its latest report on Lebanon.

It
also noted a minor improvement in Lebanon’s PMI. “Following the
election of President Michel Aoun and Prime Minister Saad Hariri’s rapid
formation of a coalition cabinet, the PMI rose to 47.7 in January from
an all-time low of 43.8 in October 2016 (at the end of the 29-month
presidential vacuum). Construction permits also recovered in Q4, growing
6 percent year-on-year after a 22 percent contraction in Q3,” the
investment bank said. However,
Standard Chartered does not see further improvement in business
sentiment due to the fact that the current government will resign once
parliamentary elections are held this year.

“Beyond
improved confidence and business sentiment, we do not expect
game-changing structural reforms or economic improvements, particularly
given that the current government is temporary. The political road map
is not yet complete, and we think the policy focus will be on amending
the electoral law to allow scheduled parliamentary elections in May.
This should lead to the formation of another cabinet,” it explained. The
bank released its report prior to recent political developments that
will almost certainly see the election schedule delayed.

By Monica Showalter – With
the pathetically humiliating failure of North Korea’s missile launch in
the wake of a very big puffy buildup, the shark tank must be working
overtime over in Pyongyang. You wouldn’t want to be one of the North
Korean minions who worked on that wretched fizzle-out that has
humiliated the vicious little dictator on the world stage. He gets mean
when the world is laughing. And what a coincidence, it happened as Vice President Pence makes his way to South Korea.  And
more interesting still, an intriguing leak of sorts has come to light:
That the U.S. hacked the launch, ensuring its failure. It comes from
former British foreign secretary Malcolm Rifkind, who served under Prime
Minister John Major, speaking with the BBC in a buried lede if there ever was one. 

“It
could have failed because the system is not competent enough to make it
work, but there is a very strong belief that the US – through cyber
methods – has been successful on several occasions in interrupting these
sorts of tests and making them fail,” he told the BBC.

Riftkind
qualified himself by saying that there have been other successful
launches. But the hacking possibility took precedence in the popular
press. The infomation was mined out by The Sun and front-paged on the Drudge Report, both of which have far greater reach and are sure to reach Kim Jong Un’s ears, if the BBC report doesn’t.

by Cadie Thompson

The United Airlines incident has sparked outrage about the practice of overbooking in the airline industry. On Tuesday, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie even sent a letter to the Trump administration asking for the regulations to change so airlines could no longer oversell tickets for a flight. But normally, overbooking is actually beneficial to customers, industry experts told Business Insider. “By overbooking it actually does help keep the fares down because the
airlines are able to maximize the amount of revenue they are able to
collect and generate as much profit as they can,” said Henry Harteveldt,
president and travel industry analyst for Atmosphere Research Group,
told Business Insider. “But if they didn’t overbook it’s possibly they may have to charge more,” he said. Overbooking is also beneficial to consumers because it allows the
more flexibility in their travel plans, Vinay Bhaskara, Airways senior
business analyst, told to Business Insider.

“Frequently, the people who benefit the most from overbooking are the
last few people to buy, The ones who are not able to make plans in
advance,” Bhaskara said. “Often times those seats are available at the
last minute are only available because that flight can be overbooked.
The airline knows some people are going to be missing the flight.” Ultimately, though, overbooking is done because airlines want to
ensure that they are making the most money on every seat. So they use
historical data to help them predict how many people will likely miss a
flight on a certain route. And most of the time it works.

In fact, in 2016, some 51,000 passengers were involuntary denied
boarding (that doesn’t include those who volunteered) on US airlines.
While that may seem like a big number, it’s actually a tiny fraction
(about .0062%) of the 823 million passengers who flew with US airlines
last year. “They take a look at the history, how many people are booked, how
many people showed up, and how many empty seats did the plane leave
with. It’s game theory, if you will. What they are trying to do is make
sure that that plane leaves with every seat filled without the need to
inconvenience everybody and it works most of the time,” Harteveldt said.

SourceNaharnet Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi urged the political authority in Lebanon to stop obstructing the political process in the country for their own personal gains, as he assured that the Christian community does not stand in a weak position. “The political authority can’t keep on dividing (state) posts and obstructing everything under the pretext of […]

Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri meets with a US Congress delegation at the Grand Serail on Wednesday. (Dalati & Nohra)

by  english.aawsat.com Beirut – A delegation from the US Congress visited Beirut on
Wednesday and discussed with Lebanese officials US aid to the country. Prime Minister Saad al-Hariri met with the delegation at the Grand
Serail, where talks focused on several issues, including US aid to the
Lebanese security apparatuses. Headed by US Republican Congressman Harold Rogers, the delegation comprised six congressmen.

A statement by the US embassy in Beirut said: “Representative Harold
Rogers (R-KY) led a delegation of six Congressmen including
Representatives David Price (D-NC), Ken Calvert (R-CA), Chuck
Fleischmann (R-TN), David Joyce (R-OH), and Evan Jenkins (R-WV) to visit
Lebanon on April 12.” “The delegation met with Prime Minister Saad Hariri and Lebanese
Armed Forces Commander Joseph Aoun during their visit and discussed the
close relationship and security cooperation between the United States
and Lebanon,” the statement added. The statement also said that the delegation’s visit underscored
Washington’s support for Lebanon, the Lebanese Armed Forces, and
Lebanon’s legitimate security institutions. Hariri met the delegation in the presence of the US Ambassador to
Lebanon Elizabeth Richard, the premier’s media office said in a
statement.