SESTRIERE, Italy – Almost everyone who meets Chirine Njeim for the first time, looks into her blue-green eyes and says, "You’re from Beirut?"Eventually, they see the skis and snow pants and boots and red winter jacket with the word Lebanon across the back, and say, "An Olympic skier from Lebanon?""A lot of people are confused," Njeim said. "I can understand that."
Lebanon, land of camels and sun and sand, also has mountains, snow, six ski resorts and light-eyed 21-year-old Njeim. She learned to ski at age 3, became good enough to compete internationally and developed anorexia in her zeal to be even better.Now recovered and up to 130 pounds – 46 more than her one-time dip to 84 preceding the Salt Lake City Olympics – Njeim (pronounced nJIM) is one of two Turin Olympians representing Beirut. The other, Patrick Antaki, is a 41-year-old skeleton slider who lives in Plano, Texas, and has U.S.-Lebanese citizenship.Njeim carried the Lebanese flag as the only Olympian from her country at the 2002 Winter Games, when she was starting to recover and barely weighed 100 pounds and was "terrified that I’d fall and trip with it," she said.
By Mayssa el khazen, Islamic radicalism first erupted in 
BEIRUT: Following his first meeting with U.S. Ambassador Jeffrey Feltman after the statement of understanding was inked between the Free Patriotic Movement and Hizbullah, FPM leader MP Michel Aoun said the meeting was an opportunity to explain to Feltman certain terms so the document would not be misunderstood. Last Monday, Hizbullah’s Secretary General Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah and Aoun issued a joint statement of understanding in support of the arms of the resistance so long as there are occupied Lebanese territories. 
By Mark Turner at theUnited Nations, The United Nations has called on the Lebanese government to explain allegations that the Lebanese army aided the transfer of weapons from Syria to Hizbollah, the Iranian-backed militant Islamic group.A UN Security Council resolution, adopted in 2004, called for the withdrawal of foreign forces from Lebanon and the disbanding and disarmament of all Lebanese and non-Lebanese militias.
stance of the Islamic Republic of Iran on international issues. In his meeting with the Lebanese Religious Leader Muhammad Hussein Fazlallah, he referred to the significant role of Ulema in guiding Muslim communities and said the Ulema have focal role in restoring law and order. 
Beirut used to be one of the most charming modern Arab cities. The major expansion and construction boom of the city took place at the end of the 19th and the first half of the 20th centuries. Until the middle of the 19th century, the town of Beirut was located to the west of the present Martyrs
AMMAN, Jordan, Feb. 15 (UPI) — Arab press roundup for Feb. 15: Lebanon’s as-Safir commented Wednesday that the massive demonstration in Beirut Tuesday marking the first anniversary of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri’s assassination showed Hariri continues to have a strong presence in Lebanese memory. 
