by gulfnews – Joseph A. Kechichian, Senior Writer Beirut: Lebanon is the healthiest Arab country, according to the Bloomberg 2017 Healthiest Country Index. While Italy came in first among the 163 ranked countries, Lebanese came in at 32, perhaps because of its similar Mediterrean cuisine offerings. The renowned Lebanese cuisine includes an abundance of grains […]
by english.aawsat.com – Beirut – Lebanon’s electoral law crisis intensifies as various proposals submitted by Lebanese politicians have failed to please the different factions and groups. In light of the current deadlock, the country has two difficult options. The first is to extend the parliament’s term during a session scheduled on May 15, and the […]
by The New Arab A US military transport plane has been spotted at an airport in eastern Lebanon during a brief stopover leaving local residents in Zahle baffled. The US air force C-130 transport plane stopped briefly on the tarmac at Riyaq airbase, near Zahle, at around noon on Monday before taking off again around […]
MOSCOW
(Sputnik) — Lebanon is hoping to boost its trade with Russia threefold
to some $1.5 billion within two to three years by increasing exports,
Lebanese Minister of Economy and Trade Raed Khoury told Sputnik
on Wednesday. “Now, the trade is around $500 million
on Russia’s side and Lebanon $10 or $20 million. It makes me happy if we
go to eventually in 2-3 years to around $1.5 billion and Lebanon
[exports] go to around $700 million for our products,” Khoury said
on the sidelines of a business summit hosted by the Russian-Lebanese
Business Committee in Moscow. He explained that Beirut would like to boost its exports of agricultural products, such as olive oil and juices. “If we reach this figure and we will try
to work to have this figure in front of us — we’ll be very happy,” the
economy minister added.
Russia’s
embargo on EU imports imposed in 2014 briefly increased trade relations
between the two countries. However, the bilateral trade volumes have
since been dropping, amounting to some $540 million last year, compared
to $800 million in 2014, according to the Russian Federal Customs
Service data. The minister explained the drop by the recent dip in energy prices,
with oil and gas making up much of bilateral trade, as well as the
political turmoil in Lebanon which left the country in paralysis with no
president for two years. The impasse ended in late 2016 with Michel Aoun becoming the new president.
“The reason for [the drop in value of the total
trade turnover] is two things. First, 70 percent of this amount comes
from importation of fuel, gas and oil. The prices went down, as you
know, so the value went down, although the amount has not gone down. So
this is the first reason- because the price of oil went down. The second
reason is because Lebanon’s GDP has not been increasing lately because
of the socio-political events,” Khoury explained.
Lebanese designer Amal Azhari opened the Lebanese Fashion Week in the
presence of the Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri. (Supplied)
by Joseph A. Kechichian, Senior Writer – gulf news
Beirut: A few days after Lebanon President Michel Aoun suspended all
parliamentary activities for a month, the publicly lauded but privately
condemned decision garnered fresh controversies, as Speaker Nabih Berri
hailed the Maronite Patriarch Mar Bisharal Al Rai’s latest position on
the electoral law. The powerful patriarch considered the
controversial 1960 electoral law as the best available alternative to
resolve the country’s ongoing political crisis, and prevent granting
another extension to the present parliament.
Berri criticised the
latest hybrid electoral law format proposed by Free Patriotic Movement
chief Gibran Bassil, who has asked his ally Lebanese Forces (LF) leader
Samir Geagea to give it a “chance”, after the LF and Druze leader Walid
Jumblatt voiced reservations about it. Jumblatt lashed out at the
proposal, which involves sectarian voting in the first round, as
“divisive” and the product of a “sick mentality”. A similar idea was
initially proposed by Nabih Berri several months ago, but it was no
longer deemed useful.
The latest proposal regarding the electoral
law would see voting taking place in the current 26 districts with
voters only allowed to vote for candidates from their own sects. Two
candidates for each sectarian seat would thus qualify for the second
round during which voting would take place in 10 newly-defined electoral
districts and according to a non-sectarian proportional representation
polling system.
Until this
Wednesday, the sound of mortar and rifle fire has echoed across the
streets of the southern Lebanese city of Sidon. As usual, the world has
ignored it on the grounds that Palestinians have been fighting
Palestinians yet again in the largest refugee camp in Lebanon. And
so they have. Palestinian secular factions have been fighting Islamist
groups. The camp lies just to the east of the centre of Sidon and is the
usual warren of poverty and concrete huts and filthy apartment blocks,
ironically called Ein el-Helweh — which means the “sweet well” or “sweet
spring”.
Wednesday, the sound of mortar and rifle fire has echoed across the
streets of the southern Lebanese city of Sidon. As usual, the world has
ignored it on the grounds that Palestinians have been fighting
Palestinians yet again in the largest refugee camp in Lebanon. And
so they have. Palestinian secular factions have been fighting Islamist
groups. The camp lies just to the east of the centre of Sidon and is the
usual warren of poverty and concrete huts and filthy apartment blocks,
ironically called Ein el-Helweh — which means the “sweet well” or “sweet
spring”.
Few noticed that this latest series of battles
was set off shortly after an official visit to Lebanon by Mahmoud
Abbas, the doddering old Palestinian president who long ago lost his
legal electoral mandate in the occupied West Bank but who remarked
before he left Beirut that Palestinians were dedicated to crushing
“terrorism”. Yet again, nobody took him very seriously. In fact, he was
in earnest. What he really came to Lebanon to arrange was an all-out
struggle by Fatah — the same Fatah which Abbas himself represents — and
other groups against a small but alarmingly active bunch of Islamist
Palestinians and Lebanese who had taken over the al-Tiri suburb of Ein
el-Helweh.
They are — or were — led by a man called
Bilal Badr, who in the past few hours appears to have settled in a
different area of the camp under the protection of Fatah el-Islam, whose
leader is another gang leader called Osama el-Shehabi. His Sunni Muslim
Fatah el-Islam (“Conquest of Islam”) was responsible for a series of
militant Islamic State (IS) group-like assaults on the Lebanese army in
the north of the country in 2007 — a number of soldiers had their
throats cut with knives — and its black and white flag has a hauntingly
similar design to that of the real IS. The fact that IS’s own flags do actually hang in
several of Ein el-Helwe’s streets — as they have briefly in the northern
Sunni Muslim city of Tripoli — only makes the situation more
disturbing. Many Palestinian suicide bombers have in the
past set off from Ein-el-Helweh for Iraq and have actually died
attacking the Americans there.
by Sarah Maisey – thenational.ae
A fashion juggernaut rolled into Muscat for Condé Nast’s
third annual International Luxury Conference, with renowned designers
including Elie Saab, from Lebanon, as part of it. Founded and hosted by Vogue’s
international editor, Suzy Menkes, the event brought the leading lights
of the luxury industry together for a gathering featuring presentations
from chief executives, designers and bloggers. Alber Elbaz
(formerly of fashion house Lanvin), Indian fashion designer Manish Arora
and blogger Hudda Kattan (recently named the third-most influential
beauty blogger in the world by Forbes) were among them, along with the bosses at Jimmy Choo.
Saab took time out to talk about his rise to haute couture fame. “Breaking
into Paris was very hard for me, it took a long time,” he says. “I
started as a designer alone and didn’t know much about the industry. I
had to learn it all.” He opened his atelier in Beirut in 1982,
with the Lebanese civil war raging around him. Inspired by the style and
elegance of his city in its heyday, the 18-year-old Saab launched his
label, drawing on the experience of those around him. “When
I started there were no fashion designers in the region, but … in
Beirut there were high- quality dressmakers and tailors,” he says. “I
went to them with a clear vision of what I wanted.”
His elaborate
designs soon gained attention and international acclaim slowly
followed. In 1997, he was the only non-Italian invited to join the
National Chamber of Italian Fashion (Camera Nazionale della Moda
Italiana) in Italy and went on to launch his first ready-to-wear
collection in 1998. Saab’s true passion lay in haute couture, so it was
with pride that he accepted an invitation in 2000 to join the Chambre
Syndicale de la Haute Couture in Paris. “We have our prêt-à-porter [ready-to-wear] studio in Paris, but our base for haute couture is in Beirut,” he says.”Some of my team members have been with me since the beginning and we have come up together. It is beautiful.”
This story by Carol Hills originally appeared on PRI.org on April 13, 2017. It is republished here as part of a partnership between PRI and Global Voices.
Some advice from an Arab son. If your career choice is to become a comedian, don’t expect your dad to be very excited. Here’s how Lebanese-American Nemr Abou Nassar’s dad responded: “You
want to become a clown?” No, explained Nemr, a stand-up comedian. His
dad remained skeptical. “Oh, you’re going to stand up and be a clown!” The riff goes on. Nemr’s father buys a horn, the kind you put on a
bicycle, and for the next eight years, he squeezes it every time his son
visits: “Everybody, the clown is here.” Then Nemr makes it onto the cover of Rolling Stone and suddenly his
father changes his tone. “This is my son the comedian. I always told him
follow your dreams.” But instead of Rolling Stone, he pronounces
“Throwing Stones,” in a thick Arabic accent.
This was the May 2014 cover of Rolling Stone (Middle East). Credit: Rolling Stone
Nemr says his father is a huge fan, “as much as an Arab father would
be a fan of his son because it’s against Arab culture to ever encourage
your children. It’s a constant thing to keep them humble.” His father’s
only no-go zone is swearing. “If there’s the funniest joke in the world
and somebody drops an f-word, he just shuts down. He doesn’t like that.” But all those jokes about him? Nemr says his father just nods, “as long you’re making money.” The Arab father topic is intentional. Nemr performs in English across
the Arab and Muslim world and now in North America. Right now, he’s on a
world tour,
everywhere from Oklahoma to Saudi Arabia. “You don’t really need to be
from anywhere to actually relate to a father who has high expectations
for their son.”
Nemr’s global reach reflects his own experience. Born in Lebanon in
1983, his family moved to San Diego, California, when he was 2, during
his country’s long civil war. But just nine years later, his family
moved back to Beirut. He found American issues like drugs and missing
children too scary, telling his son: “In Beirut, the only danger is war.
We can run away from that and hide.”
by dailystar.com.lb
Standard Chartered expects modest GDP
growth in Lebanon in 2017 compared to 2016, thanks to the positive
political environment following the election of a president. “We
expect GDP growth to pick up marginally to 1.5 percent in 2017, from an
estimated 1.0 percent in 2016, as private-sector confidence improves
due to political progress at end-2016. The latest survey data supports
this view,” Standard Chartered said in its latest report on Lebanon.
It
also noted a minor improvement in Lebanon’s PMI. “Following the
election of President Michel Aoun and Prime Minister Saad Hariri’s rapid
formation of a coalition cabinet, the PMI rose to 47.7 in January from
an all-time low of 43.8 in October 2016 (at the end of the 29-month
presidential vacuum). Construction permits also recovered in Q4, growing
6 percent year-on-year after a 22 percent contraction in Q3,” the
investment bank said. However,
Standard Chartered does not see further improvement in business
sentiment due to the fact that the current government will resign once
parliamentary elections are held this year.
“Beyond
improved confidence and business sentiment, we do not expect
game-changing structural reforms or economic improvements, particularly
given that the current government is temporary. The political road map
is not yet complete, and we think the policy focus will be on amending
the electoral law to allow scheduled parliamentary elections in May.
This should lead to the formation of another cabinet,” it explained. The
bank released its report prior to recent political developments that
will almost certainly see the election schedule delayed.
Population Movements to Keserwan - The Khazens and The Maans
ما جاء عن الثورة في المقاطعة الكسروانية
ثورة أهالي كسروان على المشايخ الخوازنة وأسبابها
Origins of the "Prince of Maronite" Title
Growing diversity: the Khazin sheiks and the clergy in the first decades of the 18th century
Historical Members:
Barbar Beik El Khazen [English]
Patriach Toubia Kaiss El Khazen(Biography & Life Part1 Part2) (Arabic)
Patriach Youssef Dargham El Khazen (Cont'd)
Cheikh Bishara Jafal El Khazen
Patriarch Youssef Raji El Khazen
The Martyrs Cheikh Philippe & Cheikh Farid El Khazen
Cheikh Nawfal El Khazen (Consul De France)
Cheikh Hossun El Khazen (Consul De France)
Cheikh Abou-Nawfal El Khazen (Consul De France)
Cheikh Francis Abee Nader & his son Yousef
Cheikh Abou-Kanso El Khazen (Consul De France)
Cheikh Abou Nader El Khazen
Cheikh Chafic El Khazen
Cheikh Keserwan El Khazen
Cheikh Serhal El Khazen [English]
Cheikh Rafiq El Khazen [English]
Cheikh Hanna El Khazen
Cheikha Arzi El Khazen
Marie El Khazen