by Joseph A. Kechichian, Senior Writer Gulf news

Beirut: As anticipated by Al Nahar newspaper a few days ago, the leader of the Marada Movement, deputy Sulaiman Franjieh, formally announced his candidacy for the position of president of the republic on Thursday evening during a scheduled interview on “Kalam Al NAS with Marcel Ganem” on the LBCI channel.

The  interview, drew praise from the Progressive Socialist Party leader Walid Jumblatt.

Jumblatt praised the interviewee, opining that Franjieh was “realistic” and wrote on his Twitter account: “His interview was frank and steered away from the empty political slogans of some officials.”

Natasha Bertrand

In his annual marathon news conference Thursday morning, Russian President Vladimir Putin referred to Russia’s intervention in the Syrian civil war as a military "exercise" for Russia’s "air forces, air defense," and "intelligence."

"We did not start the war" in Syria, Putin told reporters during his end-of-year news conference from Moscow, according to a translation by the state-sponsored news agency Russia Today.

He added: "We are just conducting separate operations, using our air forces, air defense, intelligence. This is not a serious burden for the budget … It’s hard to imagine a better exercise [for the Russian forces]. So we can train there [in Syria] for a long time without any serious harm to our budget."

Associated Press

Maya Kosoff

Google is turning its self-driving cars unit into a standalone business under Alphabet next year, Bloomberg’s John Lippert and Jack Clark reported Wednesday.

Google’s autonomous cars will offer "rides for hire," according to Bloomberg. That’s still pretty vague, but it doesn’t sound much different from the service Uber provides — especially since one of Uber’s goals, CEO Travis Kalanick has said, is to get into the driverless car business.

"Look, Google is doing the driverless thing, Tesla is doing the driverless thing, Apple is doing the driverless thing," Kalanick said in an interview with "Late Show" host Stephen Colbert in September.

Sleiman Frangieh

Beirut (AFP) – The Lebanese parliament failed for the 33rd time Wednesday to elect a president, despite cautious expectations that a consensus had formed around politician Suleiman Frangieh, a childhood friend of Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad.

Lebanon has been without a president since May 2014, when the mandate of Michel Sleiman expired, because the country’s Christians, Sunni and Shiite Muslims and Druze cannot agree on a candidate. Under a power-sharing agreement, the president is always drawn from the Maronite Christian community, the prime minister is a Sunni and the parliament speaker a Shiite.

Speaker Nabih Berri scheduled a new session for January 7 after the required two-thirds of MPs — 86 out of 128 — was not reached, the National News Agency reported. Only 45 lawmakers showed up. A tentative consensus had seemed to emerge early this month on Frangieh, but his chances dimmed after Wednesday’s failed vote.

Armin Rosen

US Secretary of State John Kerry signaled a seemingly significant shift for the US’s policy in Syria on Tuesday, after a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow.

"The United States and our partners are not seeking so-called regime change," Kerry said in reference to the US’s preferred outcome to the Syrian civil war, according to The Associated Press.

The statement appears to conflict with years of US policy.

US officials, including US President Barack Obama, have insisted since August 18, 2011, that embattled Syrian President Bashar al-Assad step down from power.

100 LIVES launches the ‘Amal Clooney Scholarship‘ – an annual scholarship for young Lebanese women to pursue a degree at the United World College (UWC) Dilijan in Armenia. 

 The new ‘Amal Clooney Scholarship’ is part of an ongoing effort by 100 LIVES – the organization behind the Aurora Prize for Awakening Humanity – to strengthen cross-cultural education and understanding through collaborative social and philanthropic projects.

"As a leading human rights barrister and campaigner, Amal Clooney is an inspirational role model for young women around the world. She exemplifies integrity, compassion and dedication – and typifies what it means to be a global citizen across all cultures." said Ruben Vardanyan, co-founder of 100 LIVES and UWC Dilijan College, an international co-educational boarding school hosting students from 64 countries. "100 LIVES recognizes the need for future

 By AYA BATRAWY

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia (AP) — Saudi Arabia said Tuesday that 34 nations have agreed to form a new "Islamic military alliance" to fight terrorism with a joint operations center based in the kingdom, but the coalition does not include Shiite-majority Iran or Iraq, and it’s not clear how exactly it would function.

The announcement, published by the state-run Saudi Press Agency, said the Saudi-led alliance is being established because terrorism "should be fought by all means and collaboration should be made to eliminate it."

However, the absence of Iran, Iraq and Syria, three countries battling the Islamic State group, raised questions about whether the alliance was intended to present a unified front against the extremists or Tehran, Saudi Arabia’s main regional rival.

Beirut: A flamboyant son of Libya’s deposed leader Muammar Gaddafi was formally arrested and interrogated in Lebanon on Monday, accused of withholding information about the unsolved 1978 disappearance of a revered Lebanese Shiite cleric and two companions in Libya.

The formal arrest of Hannibal, Gaddafi’s youngest son, signalled an intriguing turn in a cold-case mystery that has transfixed the Shiite world for nearly four decades.

It came four days after Lebanese news services said the son had been abducted by Lebanese militants who are followers of the missing cleric, Mousa Al Sadr, one of the most respected Shiite religious figures in the Middle East.