Khazen – Page 536

World’s most unusual war memorial? Beirut’s tank monument 20 yrs old

adminAugust 9, 2015UncategorisedComments are off for this post

Celebrating its 20th anniversary this month is one of the most unusual structures in the Middle East – the Monument for Peace in Beirut.

Constructed from concrete with Soviet-era T55 tanks, mortars, heavy artillery and armoured personel carriers embedded into its 30 metre high form it is the work of French based architect Armand Fernandez.

Officially called Hope for Peace it is also known as the Tank Monument and is situated in Yarse, close to the Lebanese defence ministry buildings.

High remittances helping Lebanon to weather financial crisis

adminAugust 9, 2015UncategorisedComments are off for this post

albawaba.com

The Large inflow of remittance of o Lebanon are one of the main reasons the country was spared the fate of Greece, Bank Audi said in a report issued Thursday.“Lebanon’s remittances to GDP ratio stands at 18 percent today, one of the highest worldwide, against a mere 0.3 percent for Greece,” the report said.It added that these inflows have allowed Lebanon to weather the financial crisis, although the country still needs structural reforms and fiscal adjustments to reduce the public debt.

Dana Hotel and the soul of the Lebanese south

adminAugust 8, 2015UncategorisedComments are off for this post

Victor Argo

We met up with the Hamra brothers, hoteliers and self-made entrepreneurs in the best of Lebanese tradition, at a place where old ways of peaceful coexistence stand firm in the face of great outside pressure.

“Settled by my forebears,” Pulitzer prize winning reporter Anthony Shadid wrote in his book ‘House of Stone’, “Marjayoun was once an entrepôt perched along routes of trade plied by Christians, Muslims and Jews which stitched together the tapestry of an older Middle East. It was, in essence, a gateway – to Sidon, on the Mediterranean, and Damascus, beyond Mount Hermon; to Jerusalem, in historic Palestine; and to Baalbek, the site of an ancient Roman town. This was a place as cosmopolitan as the countryside offered.”

Aoun Accuses Qahwaji of ‘Politicizing’ Army, Urges Lebanese to Prepare for Protests

adminAugust 8, 2015UncategorisedComments are off for this post

by Naharnet Newsdesk: naharnet.com/

Free Patriotic Movement leader MP Michel Aoun launched on Saturday a scathing attack against Army Commander General Jean Qahwaji, accusing him of serving the interests of politicians instead of those of the nation.

He declared after an extraordinary meeting of the Change and Reform bloc: “Qahwaji has politicized the army and we warn him against placing the military in confrontation with the people.”

The meeting was held following the extension of the term of senior security officials on Thursday despite Aoun’s objections.

Interiors: a Beirut penthouse with breathtaking views of the city

adminAugust 8, 2015UncategorisedComments are off for this post

By Johanna Thoryncroft

1:15PM BST 07 Aug 2015

The architect Bernard Khoury returned to Beirut in the 1990s full of optimism about the reconstruction of his home town after 15 years of crushing civil war. ‘To me Beirut was the most interesting laboratory in the world, the most dynamic city on earth,’ he explains. But his dream of being part of the promised culturally sensitive regeneration effort was never quite realised. ‘In fact,’ he says, ‘I believe that the disillusion and the outcome of the conflict has been more problematic than the conflict itself.’

Dozens of Christians ‘kidnapped by ISIS gunmen’ after capture of Syrian town