by gulfnews - Joseph A. Kechichian, Senior Writer Beirut: In a major development, Prime Minister Sa’ad Hariri secured a cabinet approval for the 2017 state budget, the country’s first since 2005. According to the Minister of Information, Melhem Riachi, the draft included a deficit, which was not revealed before the proposal reached parliament for final discussion and ratification. While Riachi asserted that “the deficit was greatly decreased,” a previous draft leaked to media outlets forecast a $5.2 billion (Dh19.1 billion) shortfall, or a little less that 10 per cent of gross domestic product. Riachi further revealed that the Minister of Finance, Ali Hassan Khalil, will hold a press conference to announce all of the details, provide actual numbers including the projected deficit, along with, expected revenues after President Michel Aoun and Prime Minister Hariri return from the Arab Summit in Jordan.

The Lebanese economy recorded significant losses in recent years, largely attributed to the ongoing wars in Syria, which frightened away Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) investors. GCC governments banned their nationals from travelling to Lebanon, which meant that the country lost hundreds of thousands of visitors, most of whom where generous spenders that lubricated the economy. Notwithstanding political spin, cabinet members bickered over every item, as differences between rival groups emerged. On Tuesday, the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Jibran Bassil affirmed that “new elements to promote tax justice and abolish protected monopolies were introduced” in the new budget although few understood what that actually meant.

He told his Free Patriotic Movement bloc that three of his demands, including tax on real estate profits, bank revenues, and on individual financial interest gains, were approved. He claimed that no new taxes will affect the poor although this too was unclear without concrete numbers. Lebanese officials struggled to produce this draft budget, which falls short of addressing sorely needed structural reforms to limit corruption, especially with respect to the ballooning electricity bill. The latter swallows between $ 1.5 and 2 billion year-in and year-out, without providing the energy required, which obligates consumers to subscribe to private suppliers as well. Lebanese politicians relied on ad hoc spending since 2005 without any oversight that, in the words of the London-based Economist, “often benefit[ed] special interests within the government’s various factions rather than paying for public-infrastructure investment.”

by naharnet – President Michel Aoun on Monday appointed former education minister Elias Bou Saab as international cooperation adviser, the Presidency said …

by Michael Karam - National AE 

Leaving Lebanon at the best of times can make you feel like you’ve been on an assault course. For some reason – maybe a burst of zeal in the wake of the appointment of a new president – the unsmiling security at Beirut’s Rafic Hariri International Airport has become more rigorous and less efficient. Passengers already endure five passport checks and two luggage scans, and now those travelling to the United Kingdom out of the Lebanese capital must put all electronic devices bigger than a mobile phone, such as laptops and tablets, in checked luggage. I don’t know how much time this will add to the general airport nightmare and I’m not even sure what difference it makes to passenger security; for surely a bomb in the hold will do as much damage as a bomb in the cabin.

My first reaction was that Lebanon only has itself to blame. Overall security measures at the relatively new terminal building have been criticised in recent years, especially as it is widely known that Hizbollah, the uncompromising Shia pol­itical party, wields huge influence at the airport. Then again, other countries with less shady reputations, the UAE being the most striking example, are affected by a similar US ruling on carry-on devices, so who knows? But is it really such a big deal? There has always been a hard and fast rule – often from swivel-eyed friends – that you never check in your laptop. I’ve done it twice. The first time nothing happened and the other time British Airways lost, but eventually found, my bag. Admittedly it was a bore to be without my computer, but I still reasoned that I was supremely unlucky and still work on the theory that the risk of damage, loss or theft is greatest only when taking a connecting flight when there is more opportunity for something to go wrong.

In any case, now that it is a requirement, airlines are going to bend over backwards to see that nothing goes wrong. Emirates is already taking steps to ensure passengers flying to the US can use their devices right up to the departure gate. But this didn’t stop Facebookers and the Twitterati from exploding with outrage and indignation at the new rulings. "What are we meant to do on a 14-hour flight without an iPad?" "How are we meant to work without our laptops?" and "How would the kids sit still without their devices?" Now I can rant and rage with the best of them, but on the issue of device addiction, I throb with the Luddites – even through, if I am being honest, I also spend too much time staring at my own phone. And it is probably because of this that I can’t help but feel that, while this enforced down time makes no sense, it is, if you think about it, really quite harmless. I almost welcome it.

by Áine Cain We measure temperature using Farenheit. We’re not about the metric system. We tip. We tend to do things a …