المؤشرات السياحية مقلقة فعلاً. الفاعلون في القطاع يتحدّثون عن تراجع الأعمال بنسبة 50%. الأسباب تعود بالدرجة الأولى إلى الأوضاع الأمنية المتردية التي سادت أخيراً، وإلى الصراع المتدفّق إلى لبنان عبر حبل السرّة بين بيروت ودمشق. لهذا الوضع تداعيات خطيرة على تشغيل المؤسسات السياحية المختلفة – فنادق، نواد ليلية، مقاه ومطاعم – بل على الاقتصاد […]

  Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi on Thursday stressed that change requires “serious dialogue,” lauding President Michel Suleiman’s call for dialogue and saying it can provide an opportunity for “transition to a better political and economic period.” During a meeting with Suleiman at the Baabda Palace, the patriarch said the president’s “call for dialogue remains the only […]

  BEIRUT — In the cramped, working-class neighborhood of Tariq al-Jdeideh, Beirut’s last pocket of Sunni control, the walls tell the story of a community in the throes of a potentially profound transformation. Faded portraits of the mainstream Sunni leader Saad Hariri, left over from the last crisis that engulfed Lebanon, are gradually being eclipsed by […]

  BEIRUT: Patriarch Bechara Rai joined a lead group of catholic prelates and will be officially appointed on Nov. 24 as a new cardinal in the Catholic Church, the Vatican’s Wednesday bulletin said. “With great pleasure, I announce joining six new cardinals in the Catholic Church,” the pope said following his weekly general audience. The new cardinals […]

  The Lebanese journalist abducted in Syria said that Turkish authorities were stalling in receiving him from his abductors for flimsy reasons. “One of the [Turkish authorities] pretexts is that they want to provide a private jet for me,” Fidaa Itani told LBC on Wednesday during a phone call. Itani also said that the leader of the […]

  Eager as they ever are to believe that no enemy of Israel can go far wrong, two prominent figures on the American “left” have penned a righteous critique of what they call a “disastrous” and “embarrassing” New York Times op-ed that portrays Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah as anti-Semitic.   Not the easiest blemish to […]

  Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi on Tuesday called on the opposition March 14 camp to accept President Michel Suleiman’s call for national dialogue, stressing that "we cannot cripple the state and dialogue upon every crisis." "I repeat my condolences over the assassination of (Internal Security Forces Intelligence Bureau head) Maj. Gen. (Wissam) al-Hasan and all the […]

  Five days after a devastating bomb attack killed a top Lebanese security chief sparking minor clashes and road blockages by his supporters, a semblance of calm has returned to a country that has little interest in starting a new civil war.  The death of Brig. Gen. Wissam al-Hassan, head of the police’s intelligence bureau, […]