Shane Snow, Contributor

Until a decade ago, there was one way to perform a heart bypass surgery: by stopping your heart. The surgery, called Coronary Artery Bypass Grafting, is a heart attack prevention method that basically calls for a doctor to install a new tube for blood to flow to the heart because the old tube is clogged from too many cheeseburgers. Because the heart needed to be stopped to install the new tube, the surgery often led to complications.

There was good news. At the turn of the millennium, doctors figured out a new way to do the surgery without stopping the heart. This would help a whole lot of people live complication-free lives and not die from heart attacks — if doctors could learn to do it. But the tricky new CABG surgery took practice. A group of business researchers started following heart surgeons around the U.S. as they practiced the technique in order to answer a pressing question: How do people learn from their mistakes?

ABU DHABI, 17th April, 2016 (WAM) -- The Sheikh Zayed Book Award announced today the decision of its board of trustees and scientific committee naming Lebanese-born French novelist Amin Maalouf winner of this year’s Cultural Personality of the Year Award in recognition of his achievement as a novelist who has conveyed in French some key moments in the history of Arab and other Eastern peoples to the entire world.

He shed light on distinguished personalities dedicated to promoting harmony and dialogue between the East and the West. The award is given in recognition of Maalouf’s ability to recreate unique experiences and adventures in an extraordinary literary style that amalgamates distinctly Arabic narrative and modernist Western styles in creative works and intellectual research.

Naharnet, French President Francois Hollande concluded on Sunday a two-day trip to Lebanon where he met with senior officials and visited a Syrian refugee camp in the eastern Bekaa region.

In the morning, he held separate talks with Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi and later Army Commander General Jean Qahwahi. Al-Rahi reiterated during the meeting the need to elect a a president to fill the vacuum that has persisted since 2014.

He revealed according to Voice of Lebanon radio (93.3) that he sensed a “seriousness” from Hollande to end Lebanon's crisis. “Officials should search for the real reasons why parliament has not been able to hold electoral sessions,” he remarked from the Snoubar residence, the headquarters of the French ambassador to Lebanon.

• Elena Holodny
  

Saudi Arabia threatened to sell up to $750 billion worth of US assets held by the Kingdom if Congress passes a bill that would allow the Saudi government to be sued over 9/11, reports The New York Times' Mark Mazzetti.

Saudi Foreign Minister, Adel al-Jubeir, personally passed on the message last month during a trip to Washington, according to The Times. The foreign minister was referring to the Justice Against Sponsors of Terrorism Act, (JASTA) which would let victims of 9/11 and other terrorist acts sue foreign sponsors of terrorism.

As Vice News noted when it was reintroduced in September, the Senate bill would pave the way for a lawsuit to proceed over Saudi Arabia's alleged role in the 9/11 terror attacks.