By BROOKE ANDERSON
The nominations haven't been announced yet, but Lebanese designers are already busy making dresses that will likely appear on celebrities during next year's award season.

"This is the time of year we start our [haute] couture collection for Paris fashion week in January," says George Chakra, who designed Helen Mirren's dress when she won the 2007 Oscar for best actress. "It's usually from these fashion shows that celebrities pick their dresses."
 

At the beginning of the year, Lebanese designers Elie Saab and Rabih Kayrouz participated in the semi-annual weeklong haute-couture fashion show in Paris as part of the prestigious Chambre Syndicale de la Haute Couture. Zuhair Murad, Mr. Chakra and Georges Hobeika showed their collections on their own during the same week, making the total of Lebanese designers who debuted their work in Paris at least five. Mr. Chakra calls this phenomenon "the Lebanese invasion," similar to the 1980s when Japanese designers burst onto the scene.

On 9 December 2009, a criminal court judge (single judge) in Batroun sentenced a Lebanese woman who beat the Filipino maid who was working at her home to 15 days of prison, to a fine of fifty thousand Lebanese Pounds, and to payment to Jonalin Malibago, the Pilipino maid, of ten million and eight hundred Lebanese Pounds in compensation.

Al-Akhbar newspaper declared it “victory of the judiciary” and hailed it as an important step on the road to fighting racist behavior of some Lebanese. What gave the sentencing importance is the presence of the victim in her home country, the Philippine. The judge refused the request of the Lebanese woman to bring the victim in front of the court.

BEIRUT - Lebanese Prime Minister Saad al-Hariri's government won a resounding vote of confidence from parliament on Thursday, paving the way for his expected visit to Syria for talks with the country's president.