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Hariri Meets Saudi Defense Minister in Riyadh

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March 30, 2017

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SourceNaharnet Prime Minister Saad Hariri held a meeting on Thursday with Saudi Deputy Crown Prince, Second Deputy Prime Minister and Defense Minister …

Tracing Beirut’s natural transformation into a tech-savvy regional hub

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March 30, 2017

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by By Tarek Ali Ahmad - Al Arabiya

Lebanon has broken through domestic and external challenges to emerge as one of the region’s most tech-savvy and lucrative hubs for small businesses and entrepreneurial start-ups. With a raging war in the neighborhood that is spilling over its borders, an election that refuses to kickoff, and sectarian strife that still plagues citizens to this day – the country has persevered to halt the “brain drain.” After Banque du Liban (BDL) launched Circular 331 in 2013, an injection of $400 million into the country’s start-ups – the digital scene began to flourish.

“Circular 331 has made more money available for start-ups, which has (as of September 2016) received $46.5 million in investment,” ZRE, a real estate development group that developed Beirut’s Digital District, General Manager Mouhamad Rabah told Al Arabiya English. Following this, local banks in Beirut would receive seven-year interest-free credit line from BDL that can be invested into treasury bonds with a 7 percent interest rate. This will commit the bank to invest in the knowledge economy. As of today, Lebanon is home to over 200 startups, only second behind the United Arab Emirates, with many more set to emerge.

Brain drain

Last year, BDL hosted one of the biggest tech conferences in the world – Accelerate. The conference served as a “platform for the stakeholders of the entrepreneurship sector to meet on a large scale and increase the awareness of what is going on, both to the local community as well as abroad.” Elsa Moughabghab, MBA Graduate with emphasis on entrepreneurship, told Al Arabiya English. “[Citizens] will benefit [from C-331] by creating jobs, and create/stimulate the sector, boosting the economy, putting Lebanon on the world map in terms of entrepreneurship, become more visible to attract foreign entrepreneurs and investors,” she added. This created greater awareness about Lebanon’s capabilities and talent across the globe. A country with affordable and talented people began attracting incubators and accelerators in Beirut.

In A Bullet-Riddled Mansion, A Beirut Architect Envisions A Museum Of Memory

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March 30, 2017

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Architect Mona El Hallak says the building was "demolished." But, she adds, "I looked, and I saw suddenly the sky, the blue sky, through this building. There was this amazing hope in this building."

by Alice Fordham - In the heart of Beirut, architect Mona El Hallak herds a group of students together outside a monumental mansion — a vast, elegant building whose yellow walls and graceful pillars are ravaged by thousands of bullet holes. "We are," she shouts over the cacophonous traffic, "at the intersection of Damascus Road and Independence Avenue." Once upon a time, nearly a century ago, this spot lay not at the center of today's energetic if dysfunctional city, but on the breezy outskirts of a much smaller Beirut — just the place where a wealthy family with exquisite taste might commission a fabulous home. So a building that would eventually become symbolic of all Beirut's elegance, wealth and violence was begun in 1924, says Hallak as she points to a chipped inscription over the door. "You can still see the etching in the stone." The sandstone building's architect was the famed Youssef Aftimos, born in the Chouf Mountains in the 19th century, when Lebanon was still part of the Ottoman Empire. Aftimos worked in Lebanon — and elsewhere — through the dawn of the 20th century as it morphed from Ottoman province to French colony and finally, an independent state in 1943. Many of the mansions built during the period he worked still lend central Beirut much of its charm, their shapes reimagining Ottoman and European styles: groups of three arches topping slender pillars and tall windows, red roofs, balconies overlooking the Mediterranean and airy salons where richly colored tiles glowed beneath crystal chandeliers.

For a wealthy family named Barakat, Aftimos dreamed up a mansion of ochre sandstone decorated with carvings made from another harder local stone known in Arabic as furne. It is really two houses, each with several apartments, joined together by an unusual central hall, straddling a corner that allowed light to pour into almost every room. The Barakats lived on the second floor, on the side with the best view down the hill to the Mediterranean, and rented out the other apartments. "And they lived happily ever after," Hallak says. "Until 1975."

That was the year when simmering tensions in Lebanon bubbled up into a civil war that would seethe — multifactional and fueled by regional powers — for 15 years. The death toll is still highly contested, but tens or even hundreds of thousands are believed to have died. When it was over, Beirut was a shattered city, in some areas every building was damaged or destroyed. Many families left, although some of the Barakats stayed and still live in Lebanon. Paul Barakat runs a carpet business next to a Beirut museum. He welcomed this visitor, although he politely declined an interview.

Car Bomb Blast Kills 3 People in Lebanese Town Near Syrian Border – Source

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March 30, 2017

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DAMASCUS (Sputnik) — According to the source, the blast occurred near the building of a former police station. All three passengers were killed in the blast and …