Archaeologists believe they have identified a new way of putting accurate dates to great events of prehistory. Rare and spectacular storms on the sun appear to have left their mark in forests and fields around the planet over the past 5,000 years.

Michael Dee, of Oxford University’s research laboratory for archaeology and the history of art, thinks evidence of such solar storms could help put precise years to some of the great uncertainties of history: the construction of Egypt’s Great Pyramid of Giza, the collapse of the ancient Mayan civilization in Central America, and perhaps even the arrival of the Vikings in the Americas.

Every tree maintains its own almanac in the form of annual growth rings. For decades dendrochronologists have been using tree-ring evidence and radiocarbon dating to build a timetable of events that confirm historical accounts, even those predating the first written chronicles.

By Wajdi Al Aridi - Al Sharq Al awsat

Beirut- Tourists coming from Gulf Arab countries were absent from the cities and villages of Mount Lebanon this summer, as one of the repercussions to the current crisis between Lebanon and Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries.

For the first time since the end of the Lebanese Civil War, tourists coming from Gulf States were absent from the towns and villages of Aley, Bhamdoun al-Mhatta, Sawfar and Broumana in Mount Lebanon, despite the fact that several Gulf nationals already own houses there.

The tourist boycott also reflected on the real estate sector, head of the Lebanese-Saudi Business Development Commission Elie Rizk said. “The probability of GCC nationals who are selling their belongings in Lebanon has reached 70 percent in the mountainous areas and 34 percent in Downtown Beirut,” Rizk said.

BEIRUT –  Egypt’s foreign minister says he is visiting Lebanon to help rival Lebanese political groups find common ground. Lebanon has been …

By Denisse Moreno, Epoch Times

It was April 2009 and Lebanese-Nigerian Billionaire Gilbert Chagoury had an urgent request. He needed to talk to someone at the State Department. While such a meeting might normally take days—if not weeks or months—to set up, if at all, Chagoury knew the right people.

Aides of then Secretary of State Hillary Clinton received an email on April 25, 2009, without a subject line. In the email, Doug Band, a top official with the Clinton Foundation, asked Clinton aides Huma Abedin and Cheryl Mills to connect billionaire Chagoury to “the substance person re Lebanon.” Just over four hours later, Abedin responded:

“It’s Jeff Feltman.
I’m sure he knows him.
I’ll talk to Jeff.”

Feltman was serving as Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs at the time, after having served as U.S. ambassador to Lebanon for 4 years. Impressing on Abedin the urgency of the matter he emailed her back 15 minutes later saying:

“Better if you call him.
Now preferable.
This is very important.
He’s awake I’m sure.”

Band had served in different positions in the White House while Bill Clinton was president. In 1999, President Clinton appointed him as “Special Assistant to the President.” Band continued to serve as Clinton’s chief adviser from 2002 to 2012. According to the Wall Street Journal, Band played a crucial role in negotiations with Barack Obama’s team in 2008 in convincing them to appoint Hillary Clinton as secretary of state.