BY Daily Star Lebanon

Daily Star BEIRUT: Family and friends filled the Saint Nicolas Church in Beirut’s Ashrafieh area Sunday as they said their final goodbyes to one of Lebanon’s most beloved singers and composers, Melhem Barakat, who passed away two days ago.

His coffin arrived from the nearby Hotel Dieu Hospital at around 10 a.m. to the Greek Orthodox church, where a funeral mass was held by Orthodox Archbishop of Beirut Elias Aoude at around 1 p.m. It arrived in a black hearse with a large picture of the late singer on top, as loudspeakers played his songs.  His life-time friend and Lebanese poet Nizar Francis helped carry the coffin inside the church.

Many Lebanese singers and politicians were present at the funeral mass.  "We are going to miss a lot of his songs, words and laughter...It's not only a loss for his town, family and fans, but one for all music," Lebanese singer, Ragheb Alama said.  The renowned singer passed away Friday at the age of 71, after battling an illness.

The funeral convoy later departed to the Mount Lebanon town of Kfarshima, the home town of Barakat, where he will be buried. Hundreds of people joined in the funeral procession in the town, which took place around 3 p.m. Barakat was one of the few Arab singers to perform in colloquial Lebanese Arabic, a stylistic choice that he defended throughout his career.

The Lebanese musical icon also launched an acting career, appearing in several films in the 1980s and participating in many of the acclaimed Rahbani Brothers’ musicals. When the musical legend wasn’t singing, he was composing songs and collaborating with famed artists such as Ghassan Saliba, Majida Al-Roumi, Najwa Karam and Carol Sakr. He is survived by his three children from his first marriage Majd, Waed and Ghinwa, and a son named Melhem Junior from his second.

BEIRUT -- Lebanon's state news agency says Lebanese singer and composer Melham Barakat, who was highly esteemed and popular across the region, has died. National News Agency said Barakat, 71, died Friday at a Beirut hospital where he was admitted weeks earlier.

Barakat rose to prominence more than three decades ago. He was influenced by the late Egyptian composer Mohammed Abdul-Wahhab, who was widely regarded as one of the Arab world's best songwriters. Among Barakat's most popular songs are "Two Moons at my Door," and "Habibi Inta (You are my Love)". He was married twice and is survived by four children.

By Daily Star: The esteemed singer and composer, who began his long career in the 1960s, was admitted to the Hotel Dieu Hospital in Beirut more than a month ago, local media reported. Barakat was one of the few Arab singers to perform in colloquial Lebanese Arabic, a stylistic choice that he defended throughout his career. The Lebanese musical icon also launched an acting career, appearing in several films in the 1980s and participating in many of the acclaimed Rahbani Brothers’ musicals.

By Lisa Barrington and Tom Perry | BEIRUT

Lebanon's central bank chief said he was satisfied with the country's foreign currency reserves, which have been boosted to record highs by months of financial engineering, and had no plan for further operations to boost them.

"Today we are at a historical, record high," Bank of Lebanon Governor Riad Salameh told the Reuters Middle East Investment Summit.

Foreign currency reserves excluding gold rose to $41 billion by mid-October from around $35 billion before the financial operations involving the Ministry of Finance, central bank and local banks began in June.

We are at a satisfactory level which will allow the country to fund its needs for the public and the private sector," Salameh said. "The engineering we are talking about has achieved its purpose and has been now ended."

By John Ziegler 

Yesterday, I examined the ten most undereported stories about Donald Trump during this campaign, which I believe would have done great damage to his candidacy if they had been given appropriate attention by the all-too-easily-distracted news media. Today, I have complied a similar list of topics, in no particular order, to which the news media has given short shrift regarding Hillary Clinton.

1) Benghazi. Before Donald Trump was a serious threat to make this election all about him, it was assumed/hoped by most conservatives that at least a significant portion of the dialogue would be about how Hillary handled the loss of four Americans under her watch at Benghazi. And yet, despite a major motion picture having focused attention on the heart-breaking story, almost nothing has been made of it during this election. I guess, as Hillary infamously said in one of her testimonies about the episode, “what difference, at this point, does it make?!”

2) Bill’s Presidency. You would think that if someone’s spouse had been President of the United States for eight years that their record might come up if that person ran in a general election for the very same job. However, you would think wrong. At least based on the fact that about the only thing we ever hear about Bill’s presidency these days is that the economy was good. Nothing about why he was impeached (no, not the sex, it was the perjury and obstruction of justice), his outrageous last-second pardons (specifically of Marc Rich), his unwillingness to kill Osama bin Laden, or how the Republican Congress was responsible for much that got done.