Lebanese photographer made 'Lebanon, USA' his mission

by mprnews.org -- Riham Feshir -- One day, photographer Fadi BouKaram was Googling the word "Lebanon," hoping to browse the web for information about the country he grew up in. Instead, he found Lebanon, Ore. It was one of 47 towns named Lebanon in the United States. It occurred to him to visit them all, taking photographs of residents and documenting the towns' histories. For the towns he was able to research, BouKaram found the name was biblical. It came from people settling in the United States in the 18th century. "They would be walking and they would see greenery and they would assume that these were cedar trees, or it would remind them of cedar trees," he said. "And given that Lebanon and the cedar tree are kind of closely associated, in my country and in the Bible, they called the town Lebanon and the emblem of the town would often be the cedar."

In 1955, seven American mayors were invited by the Lebanese president at the time, Camille Chamoun, to spend two weeks touring the country. Each was given a cedar sapling to take home and plant. BouKaram continued to read about Lebanon, Ore. And Lebanon, Penn. And Lebanon, Ill. There once was a Lebanon, Minn., but now it's called Apple Valley. He thought that he'd take his tour of all the Lebanons one day, when he retired. But in 2016, he changed his mind about the timing. "I was on a business trip to Baghdad," he explained. "That didn't go well, and it made me reconsider things in life ... I thought, 'Life's too short, and I want to go on that trip.'" So he started in San Francisco, where he went to graduate school. He found an RV in Seattle and headed east. His friends warned him that people might not be as friendly as he'd hoped. But, aside from his RV being stolen in Albuquerque, N.M., people were very friendly. "It's the kind of hospitality that reminded me of small villages in Lebanon ... places back home that also barely exist anymore," he said. The tour also coincided with the 2016 presidential election, so there were a lot of political conversations. Yes, he noticed the rural-urban divides. His photos reflect that. It was a common theme among all the Lebanons. They were all small towns — one had a population of 26. (When BouKaram was invited to a gathering where the "whole town" was expected to attend, it was literally the whole town.)

BouKaram thinks his work shows "a side of American life that few other Americans get to see." It has attracted online followers everywhere. Sharon Mansur, an Arab-American dance and visual artist in Winona, Minn., invited BouKaram for a residency program and is featuring photos from his tour until the end of October. The photos are on display in Winona through Oct. 26. Mansur is leading "The Cedar Tree Project," which explores identity through the lens of Arab and Arab-American artists. BouKaram's tour this year is a little different from the one he did in 2016. He's going back to plant cedar trees, because only one from the seven that were originally planted in the 1950s has survived. He's planting new ones to reestablish that connection with the country Lebanon. He's in South Dakota now. Then it's off to Nebraska, Kansas and Oregon. He's still photographing people and telling their stories. And this time, he's driving in a van, not an RV.

Wife of Israeli prime minister goes on trial for fraud

JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s wife, Sara, appeared in court on Sunday for the first hearing in the fraud trial against her, in which she is alleged to have misused state funds in ordering catered meals. According to the indictment, Sara Netanyahu, along with a government employee, fraudulently obtained from the state more than $100,000 for hundreds of meals supplied by restaurants, bypassing regulations that prohibit the practice if a cook is employed at home. Netanyahu denies any wrongdoing. She was charged in June with fraud and breach of trust and of aggravated fraudulent receipt of goods. If convicted, Sara Netanyahu could face up to five years in prison. Looking tense, Netanyahu made no comment to reporters who had packed the tiny courtroom. She sat on a bench behind her lawyers. “Can we ask them to move the cameras away?”, she asked the lawyer for the other defendant, who replied: “You’re used to it.” “Not like this,” Netanyahu answered. She shook her head as the prosecutor described the gravity of her case. The session, however, dealt mainly with procedural matters. The judge set a meeting with the prosecutors and the defendants’ lawyers for Nov. 13 in which he said he hoped all sides could narrow their differences “or even resolve the case”. But a settlement at this stage appears remote because the prosecutors would likely demand Netanyahu plead guilty, something her lawyer has ruled out. She was not asked at the hearing to enter a plea.

Turkey concludes Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi killed by ‘murder’ team, sources say

This article does not necessarily represent opinion of khazen.org - There was a strong denial from the Saudi-Arabia officals about these accusations.

By Kareem Fahim - Washington post ISTANBUL — Turkey has concluded that Jamal Khashoggi, a prominent journalist from Saudi Arabia, was killed in the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul last week by a Saudi team sent “specifically for the murder,” two people with knowledge of the probe said Saturday. Turkish investigators believe a 15-member team “came from Saudi Arabia. It was a preplanned murder,” said one of the people. Both spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the ongoing investigation. They offered no specific evidence to back up the account. Earlier Saturday, however, Turkey’s Anadolu news agency said the Istanbul public prosecutor’s office had opened a probe into Khashoggi’s disappearance. Turkish authorities have said that Khashoggi never left the consulate. Saudi Arabia had vehemently denied that Khashoggi, who contributed to The Washington Post’s Global Opinions section, was detained after he entered the mission.

In an interview with Bloomberg News last week, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman said Khashoggi had left the consulate shortly after he arrived Tuesday. Saudi officials have yet to provide any evidence for that assertion. The Saudi consul-general in Istanbul allowed reporters from the Reuters news agency to tour the consulate Saturday, to show that Khashoggi was not inside. “I would like to confirm that . . . Jamal is not at the consulate nor in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, and the consulate and the embassy are working to search for him,” the consul-general, Mohammed al-Otaibi, was quoted as saying. Later Saturday, the Saudi Press Agency released a statement saying that an unidentified official at the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul dismissed the reports that Khashoggi had been killed in the consulate. “The official strongly denounced these baseless allegations, and expressed doubt that they came from Turkish officials that are informed of the investigation or are authorized to comment on the issue,” the statement says, in part. It goes on to say that a “security delegation of Saudi investigators” arrived in Istanbul on Saturday, and that they were there to assist in investigating Khashoggi’s disappearance. The United States is aware of The Post report but cannot confirm it, and does not know where Khashoggi is, a senior U.S. official said Saturday. The official spoke on the condition of anonymity because the official was not authorized to discuss the case on the record. U.S. officials did not immediately comment on the Turkish conclusions.

Why there aren’t many Arab Nobel science laureates

by middle-east-online.com -Khadija Hamouchi- The Nobel science prizes are done for another year and in 2018, just as in most of the past 117 years, there were few surprises for the Arab world. No Arab scientist was among this year’s laureates. The Arab world has produced precious few Nobel laureates in physics, chemistry and medicine, including Egyptian-American chemist Ahmed Zewail in 1999, the first Arab to win a Nobel in the science category. The most recent winner from the region was Turkish-American chemist Aziz Sancar in 2015, who stressed he wasn’t Arab but “a Turk.” There were two members of the Lebanese diaspora in the West — the half-Lebanese, Brazil-born, Britain-based Peter Medawar in 1960 and Lebanese-American Elias James Corey in 1990. That makes four, all of whom have deep and abiding educational connections to the West and three who don’t count as Arab.

In fact, there seems more chance of an Arab from the region and based in it to win the Nobel Peace Prize than for science. Why? “In the Arab world, we have not given great minds a great environment,” said Osama AbdelKarim who runs MaterialSolved, a start-up that helps researchers transform data into a visual story. “Behind one [Nobel]-winning scientist, there are teams of hundreds of researchers working on a project.” The Arab world, however, doesn’t give its scientists such resources and “in Egypt, many researchers cannot even work full time on research but have to tutor to financially sustain themselves,” AbdelKarim said. The point is underlined by the Arab Thought Foundation, an NGO advancing economic, social and cultural development. In its annual report on scientific research, the foundation said scientific research in the Arab world is heavily underfunded with investment in university infrastructure, research centres, human resources and the protection of intellectual property lagging far behind other regions.

In 2012, Saudi Arabia spent 0.25% of its GDP, Tunisia 0.68% and Qatar 0.47% on research and development. Even the private sector in Arab countries is said to be hesitant about investing in scientific research because it has little faith in it. Research by Sana Almansour, an associate professor at Princess Nora bint Abdul Rahman University in Riyadh, said the region is beset by the poor application of information technology, a lack of strategic planning and an overdependence on foreign expertise. AbdelKarim said the poor regional environment for science means it cannot “attract foreign researchers from, say, South Korea.” He has a point. In 2005, Harvard University produced more scientific papers than 17 Arabic-speaking countries put together. UNESCO’s 2009 Science Report stated that Egypt produces 0.3% of all scientific articles in the world; Lebanon generates 0.04%; and Morocco, Algeria, Libya and Tunisia each 0.03%. Those numbers have likely not changed significantly in recent years. Unsurprisingly then, Arab scientists are fairly limited in their ability to make groundbreaking medical discoveries, consider the laws of physics or develop transformational methods in chemistry.

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Lebanese Parliament Speaker ‘Pessimistic’ on Govt. Formation Prospects

Asharq Al-Awsat-- Lebanese parliament Speaker Nabih Berri expressed on Saturday his pessimism over the prospects that a new government will be formed soon amid the ongoing disputes between the rival Christian parties of the Free Patriotic Movement (FPM) and Lebanese Forces (LF) over the distribution of portfolios. Five months after parliamentary elections were held, Berri said that the process of forming a new government returned “to zero”. "We have gone back to zero," Berri told Lebanese newspaper al-Akhbar. "There had been signs of a resolution, but after yesterday's statements I have become pessimistic." Throughout these five months, there has been no sign of the concessions sought by Prime Minister-designate Saad al-Hariri that would enable the formation of a unity government that can get to work on badly needed economic reforms. Politicians are warning that Lebanon faces an economic crisis.

On Friday the Christian parties clashed over how power should be divided in the government, casting doubt over Hariri's prediction on Thursday that an agreement would be reached soon. Caretaker Foreign Minister and head of the FPM Jebran Bassil set on Friday a new condition for the government formation by proposing that each parliamentary bloc be granted one minister for every five seats won in the May elections. His new standard would allow his parliamentary bloc to take six ministers in the new cabinet, in return of only three to the LF. The LF rejected the new conditions and said Bassil was not responsible for forming the new cabinet. “The only standard we will follow is the popular one, which allows us to receive one third of Christian ministers,” it added.

Lebanese Christian clash overshadows Hariri optimism on new government

BEIRUT (Reuters) - Lebanon’s leading Christian parties clashed on Friday over how power should be divided in a new unity government, casting doubt over Prime Minister-designate Saad al-Hariri’s prediction that one will be agreed soon. Five months since a parliamentary election, there is no sign yet of the concessions sought by Hariri to allow the formation of a government that can set about badly needed economic reforms. Politicians are warning Lebanon faces economic crisis. Hariri said on Thursday the government would be formed within a week to 10 days because the economy could not tolerate further delay. He called on all sides to make concessions.

But there was no compromise on Friday from the two leading Christian parties: the Hezbollah-allied Free Patriotic Movement (FPM) and the anti-Hezbollah Lebanese Forces (LF) party. Their rivalry is seen as the main obstacle to a deal. At a news conference, FPM leader Gebran Bassil said he wanted the government formation accelerated, before reiterating a government blueprint that is at odds with the LF’s demands. Bassil said the FPM bloc should be allotted six seats in the cabinet of 30 ministers. In addition, President Michel Aoun, the FPM founder and his father-in-law, should get five. Citing the election results, he said the LF should get three. In a sharply worded response, the LF said Bassil - Lebanon’s caretaker foreign minister - is not “the one who sets the criteria” for the government formation. This was up to Hariri and Aoun, it added.

The LF says the election result entitles it to one third of the Christian representation in government. The LF nearly doubled its seats in the 128-seat parliament to 15. The FPM and its allies form a bloc of 29 MPs. Asked if there was a “glimmer of hope”, as Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri was quoted as saying this week, Bassil said: “I don’t like to create artificial optimism for the people.” The standoff reflects decades-old rivalry between Aoun and LF leader Samir Geagea, enemies in the 1975-90 civil war. Lebanon’s political system allots government seats according to sectarian quotas: half of the seats go to Christians and half to Muslims. The May 6 election produced a parliament tilted in favor of the Shi’ite Muslim Hezbollah and its allies, who together won more than 70 seats.

There has also been tension over Druze representation. Walid Jumblatt has demanded all three of the cabinet seats reserved for his sect. Aoun is meanwhile demanding one for his Druze ally Talal Arslan, also a Hezbollah ally. The IMF wants to see immediate and substantial fiscal adjustment to improve the sustainability of Lebanon’s public debt, which stood at over 150 percent of gross domestic product at the end of 2017. Last month, Lebanese Eurobonds suffered their worst shock in a decade, adding raising pressure on Beirut to reform. While expressing general concern about the state of the economy and growth, policymakers have repeatedly said the Lebanese pound - pegged at its current level for two decades - is stable and underpinned by high foreign currency reserves. Additional reporting by Tom Perry, Ellen Francis, Laila Bassam; Writing by Tom Perry; Editing by Mark Heinrich Our Standards:The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.