by Asharq Al-Awsat - Beirut-A seminar organized by Lebanon’s Maronite League is expected to adopt several recommendations that encourage the return of Syrian refugees to their country. The officials who participated in the seminar, which concluded on Friday, are now working on issuing the recommendations early next week. They include the importance of “finding practical solutions to the refugee crisis and its repercussions, and coming up with decisions that can be implemented.”

Among the participants were United Nations Special Coordinator for Lebanon Sigrid Kaag, representatives of U.N. agencies, international law experts and organizations that work on Syrian refugee affairs. During the seminar, there were converging viewpoints on the right of the displaced Syrians to return home, particularly after the creation of safe zones in Syria.

The head of the Maronite League, Antoine Klimos, told Asharq Al-Awsat newspaper that the Lebanese “can no longer stand still as the refugee crisis unfolds.”

They are the Debutante Girls: daughters of the wealthy, connected families of Lebanese high society, college-educated women making an entrance in a lavish evening event. “It’s a way to present yourself to society,” photographer Natalie Naccache tells TIME. “But it’s also a way to be a princess for a night.”

Known as the Paris of the Middle East, Lebanon was the epicenter of nightlife in the mid-1900s. And then the war hit, followed by an influx of Syrian refugees and sectarian tension. Despite the tense political climate, Naccache says it’s a culture that persists. “This ball is their way of carrying on, no matter what is going on in their country,” she says. “This was them retaining their little Paris of the Middle East.”

by Michael Karam

Where in Copenhagen can you park like that?" The fearsome hi-viz-clad female traffic warden barked at my friend who was picking me up from the airport in the Danish capital. The normal, well-oiled machine that is Danish traffic had been thrown a curve ball by the unannounced building works at the airport entrance and my friend, while technically infringing the traffic law, had only pulled over momentarily to get her bearings.

But apparently that’s enough to incur the wrath of authority in this neck of the woods. A card outlining how the temporary traffic flow worked was thrust through the passenger window and we were sent on our way with a warning.

I tried my best to mollify the situation by explaining to my friend that the incident should be seen as an example of why Danish society is so envied. "Take Lebanon for example," I said cheerily. "The government is only now trying to implement a plan to introduce proper pavements and a public transport system. Imagine."

• Kif Leswing

Earlier this week, Apple announced a new type of wireless headphones at a media event in San Francisco. It called them "AirPods."

That name would have sounded familiar if you read Apple trademark applications. In fact, it was hiding in plain sight since at least early 2015, when an Apple-aligned holding company first registered the trademark.

However, "AirPods" was registered under a dummy corporation called "Entertainment in Flight." 

In the run-up to Apple's big reveal, Rennick Solicitors trademark lawyer Brian Conroy definitively linked Entertainment in Flight to Apple — and discovered a few other names Apple wanted to make sure it could name future products after, like Beats' EP headphones, which were announced shortly after the event.