Alex Lockie and Natasha Bertrand

President-elect Donald Trump spoke with the president of Taiwan
by phone on Friday, in a move likely to infuriate Beijing and
hinder US-China relations.  “President-elect Trump spoke with President Tsai Ing-wen of
Taiwan, who offered her congratulations,” according to a readout
of the call released by Trump’s transition team. “During the discussion, they noted the close economic, political,
and security ties” between Taiwan and the United States, the
statement continued. “President-elect Trump also congratulated
President Tsai on becoming President of Taiwan earlier this
year.”

Trump also tweeted
about the conversation late Friday, saying “The
President of Taiwan CALLED ME today to wish me congratulations on
winning the Presidency.” The call, first reported by the
Financial Times, is the first time a US president has
directly spoken with Taiwan’s leadership in more than 30 years.
The White House was not made aware of the call until after it
occurred, an administration official told Business Insider.

The US suspended formal diplomatic relations with Taiwan in 1979
after establishing a One China position — which states that
“there is but one China and Taiwan is part of China” — in an
effort to establish diplomatic channels with Beijing.

Beijing views Taiwan as a province of China, whereas Taiwan —
which has its own democratically elected government — has a more
complicated view of the nations’ relationship.

By: Lisa Abou Khaled and Matthew Saltmarsh

HAZMIEH, Lebanon – Born deaf and living as a Syrian refugee in
Lebanon, eight-year-old Mohammed has faced more hurdles than most during
his short lifetime. But thanks to the support of a remarkable
institution he has found his voice and the promise of a brighter future.

For three years now, Mohammed has been attending the Father Andeweg Institute for the Deaf (FAID) in Hazmieh, a leafy suburb on the Damascus Road in the hills above Beirut.

Originally from Idlib, Syria, he did not attend schools at home as
they were not accessible to children with hearing impairments. He still
needs surgery and a proper hearing aid, which his parents cannot afford
as they struggle to make ends meet in Lebanon.

In many cases, before finding the school, parents had given up hope
of their children having the same opportunities as other children. But
Mohammed’s mother, Salima, told officials from UNHCR, the UN Refugee
Agency, during a recent tour of the school that she was delighted that
her son had been given a chance.

“I can clearly see how much he has progressed since coming here. He
can finally speak,” she said. “Mohammed has made friends, he’s very
happy there.”

Vehicles work on the construction of the
Eden Rock Resort on the south end of Ramlet al Bayda beach, in Beirut,
Lebanon, November 20, 2016. Sally Hayde/Thomson Reuters Foundation via

REUTERS

Security forces stand guard at the Eden
Rock Resort construction site at the south end of Ramlet al Bayda beach,
Beirut, Lebanon, November 26, 2016. Sally Hayde/Thomson Reuters
Foundation via

REUTERS

BEIRUT
(Thomson Reuters Foundation) – Construction of a new luxury resort on
Beirut’s waterfront could enclose the city’s last free public beach,
leaving only wealthy residents who can afford lofty daily fees to enjoy
the Mediterranean shore.

The
battle for Ramlet al-Baida beach on the Lebanese capital’s highly
developed shoreline is at the center of the latest conflict between
residents and municipal authorities.

It
follows tensions last year over the closure of urban landfills and the
continuing accumulation of garbage on the city’s peripheries.

Locals say Beirut could become the
first Mediterranean city without a beach open to the public after
developer, Achour Development, began building its Eden Bay resort,
scheduled to open in 2018.

During the most recent protest at the building site last weekend, protesters were met with a heavy police presence.

“People
have become numb,” said Bana Kadi, a demonstrator from Beirut. “It’s
terrible. The beach belongs to the public and belongs to the people,
which is the way it should be legally.”

Joseph A. Kechichian, Senior Writer – Gulf news

Beirut: Article 522 of the Lebanese Penal Code shields rapists from
prosecution on the condition that they marry their victim, a phenomenon
that is still practised in the country, especially among conservative
families whose chief aim is to preserve the family’s so-called “honour.” Activists
say that such ‘protection’ is, more often than not, a second trauma for
victims — something that parliament’s Administration and Justice
Committee met to discuss a few days ago.

Deputy Élie Keyrouz, a
Lebanese Forces MP, proposed to abolish the article entirely, but
parliament moved to postpone the debate on the proposal until next
Wednesday. The Lebanese Forces’ Department of Women’s Affairs not
only called to abolish the article but also to prosecute the rapists —
insisting that 522 stands as an insult to “women and violates their
dignity and the safety of the family and stability.”

The hashtag #Undress522 has also been launched to trigger online discussion and awareness on the matter. It
teamed up with local NGO, ABAAD, which made visual inroads as it
displayed in front of parliament building at Nijmeh Square a woman
dressed in a white wedding dress made with bandages, to say that this
was not acceptable.

#LiveLoveLebanon #khazen #LebaneseArchitecture

By Wajdi Al-Aridi

Beirut- President of the Association of Lebanese Industrialists Fadi
Gemayel has said that Lebanon is passing through difficult circumstances
as its growth rate has ranged between 1 and 1.5%. “Although this rate is being reached in some European countries too,
yet it is still so far away from what the Lebanese economy has achieved
in the past.”

Gemayel stressed that Lebanese industry isn’t in its best situation
and is not consistent with Lebanese people’s capabilities and
potentials. In an interview with Asharq Al-Awsat, Gemayel noted that the World
Bank praised the diversity of Lebanese products that include traditional
products as well as sophisticated goods in several sectors.

Gemayel said that Lebanon’s industry has faced many challenges in the
past and has developed without any support or industrial policy, except
for the interest subsidy in the industrial, agricultural and tourism
investments. He said that Lebanese products have reached countries with most demanding markets such as the United States, Canada and Europe.

We always praise the capabilities of Lebanon’s industry, he said, despite the challenges Lebanon has been facing for many years.

#khazen Beirut #LiveLoveLebanon

By Bob Bryan

Steven Mnuchin, President-elect Donald Trump’s nominee for
Treasury secretary, says the top priority of the new Trump
administration will be to cut taxes. Mnuchin, a longtime Goldman Sachs employee and Hollywood
producer, said his support of Trump cost him a few friends along
the way. “There were a lot of people in California and New York who wanted
to stop being friends,” Mnuchin said. Both states were won by
Trump’s Democratic opponent, Hillary Clinton.

“Our first priority is to cut taxes,” Mnuchin said in an
interview with CNBC’s Squawk Box. “We want to cut the corporate
taxes, which will bring back growth.” During the interview, which also included Trump’s choice for
commerce secretary, Wilbur Ross, Mnuchin described a plan to cut
the corporate tax rate to 15% from its current 35% level.

On personal taxes, Mnuchin said the planned tax cut from the
Trump administration would not favor the upper class because any
cut for the wealthy would be offset by “closing various
exceptions” in the tax code. He did not specify what these would
be but did say the “absolute level” of upper-class taxes would
not go down.

Mnuchin said the changes in the tax codes would be the largest
changes since those under President Ronald Reagan in the 1980s.

Lebanon’s Central Bank Governor Riad Salameh speaks during ACI Lebanon
Golden Jubilee Grand Celebration, in Beirut September 1, 2014.
REUTERS/Mohamed Azakir

Beirut- Lebanon’s Central Bank Governor Riad Salameh affirmed that
Lebanon has completed required legislation regarding digital security.
He said that Lebanon considers – combating money laundering and fighting
funding terrorism – a priority and therefore participating through its
private and public sectors in this field.

Salameh made the call in his address to the 2nd Anti-Cyber-crime
Forum themed “Fighting Digital Fraud and Piracy in the Banking and
Commercial Sectors in Lebanon.”

The event is organized by Al Iktissad Wal-Aamal group, in
collaboration with Special Investigation Commission (SIC) of the Central
Bank of Lebanon and the Cybercrime and the Intellectual Property Bureau
of the Directorate General of the Internal Security Forces.

Governor Riad Salameh said that the cyber-crime has been worrying
governments and monitoring bodies – since they are suspected to be
linked to terrorism. “These crimes have increased throughout the past three years,”
secretary general of the central bank’s SIC Abdul-Hafeez Mansour told
the forum.

Damascus (dpa) – Israeli planes fired two rockets at the outskirts of
Damascus early Wednesday, state media reported, citing a Syrian
military source. The planes fired the rockets from Lebanese airspace into the Sabora
area, the state-run Syrian News Agency (SANA) reported.

Earlier in the day, the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human
Rights and a pro-Syrian regime website said loud blasts, believed to
be the result of Israeli airstrikes, rocked areas west of the Syrian
capital. “We believe they are Israeli strikes … carried out from over the
Lebanese territories and hit a Syrian post in the area of Sabora on
the outskirts of Damascus,” Rami Abdel Rahman, head of the
Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, said. 

Reports about the airstrikes have been contradictory. The pro-Syrian regime website Dimashq al-An [Damascus Now] said that
four loud explosions were heard along Damascus‘ outskirts a little
after midnight. The website reported that the blasts were the result of “an aerial
Zionist aggression” which targeted a Syrian post on the
Beirut-Damascus highway and resulted in no loss of life. Israel hasn‘t confirmed the attacks. Two raids took place, one hitting an arms depot, the pro-Hezbollah
Mullhak website reported, citing its own sources.