There are no pictures available yet. Other media sources mentioned up to 15 cars have been burned already. This is definitely not a good day for the Lebanese.

A huge fire erupted at a parking lot of the Awtar shopping complex in Kaslik, Lebanon, the National News Agency reported on Monday.

Firefighters rushed to the scene to put out the blaze.

“The floor on which the fire erupted was a parking lot, and the complex is made up of 10 floors over the ground and five underground,” said the report, adding that the building was evacuated. [NowLebanon]

Update: A fire erupted just now in Hamra in a Credit Bank branch.

Update2: Below is a picture from Kaslik via @itsRomyy

وكان يقال عن لبنان سويســرا الشرق، انا اقول: سويسرا هي لبنان الغرب [Link]

English Translation: There’s an old saying that Lebanon is the Switzerland of the Middle East; I say that Switzerland is the Lebanon of the West.

The author of this blasphemous quote is our Interior Minister Marwan Charbel. Don’t get me wrong I am proud of my country Lebanon and its beautiful nature, but comparing it to the Swiss landscapes and sceneries is a complete joke.

in other words, “Badna Ndalna 3al 2ared wou nrou2 bi 2ouwwe!”.

Photo by Mark

Picture from TheDailyStar

Whatever I say about the unpreparedness and inexperience of our fire department, security forces, ministry of interior, army helicopters and other factions won’t change the fact that the Safra carpet factory will be demolished today or tomorrow never to be rebuilt again.

For those of you who don’t know, the carpet factory was one of the Middle East’s oldest and biggest factories and its owner a renowned Lebanese businessman. Moreover, the factory was well-equipped against fires but given the amount and quality of electricity we get, you can never be safe from electricity shortcuts or whatever caused the fire.

Having said all that, I leave you with this entertaining (yet tragic) series of actions and measures that the various concerned parties took when the fire erupted:

- Once the fire erupted, the first fire department trucks to reach the location had no water. It took some time and hundreds of phone calls and wastas for water-filled fire trucks to arrive.

- Fire-Fighting Helicopters did not show up until hours later when the fire had spread quickly. The pilots were inexperienced and throwing water all over the place. My friend who was on the highway near the factory got showered twice.

- The Lebanese Interior Minister consulted few experts and decided that the factory should be demolished on Saturday and decided to close down the highway on both sides. That was a wise decision as the building was a threat to cars passing by.

- On Sunday, two bulldozers and a crane were deployed to bring down the factory even though one of the engineers on site, the factory owner’s relative, advised that a wrecking ball is needed.

- Few hours later, and after several failed attempts, officials decide to bring a wrecking ball which needs a day or two to install.

- Instead of keeping the roads closed, they decide to re-open them (Building on the verge of collapsing is no longer a threat now?) before removing the dust and clearing them properly. As a result, some idiot behind the wheels drifted and hit a Syrian worker standing on the side of the highway, injuring him gravely. Road is closed again for some time then re-opened later on.

MTV showed yesterday a footage of the car that drifted and hit the poor man. It’s at Minute 24:52 of the news. I will try to find it on YouTube later on today.

All in all, I don’t think I need to elaborate further to make my point clear on how responsive our government and authorities are in fighting fires and protecting our industries.

Picture from LBC

The 2011-2012 has finally come to an end with Champville clinching their first title after beating Annibal-Zahle 63-57 in Game 4. As a result, Champville won the series 3-1. The finals did not end without problems though, just like the semi-finals, as “A large part of the Anibal audience was absent from the game in Zahle after online appeals were posted on the Lebanese Forces website calling on March 14 supporters to boycott the game and to follow it from the Martyrs’ Square in Zahle.” [Link]

I am sick of people bringing politics to sports, and I am sure that at the rate we are going, this league is going to run out of fans and die out soon, specially that we have absolutely no young and promising Lebanese players to look up to.

In that context, I was told that Champville is paying one of its foreign players, an ex-NBA player called Marcos Haislip, 2000$ per day, which means around 50,000$ per month if we take out the weekends. Isn’t it wiser to invest all this money in training programs for young Lebanese talents?

[YouTube]
Video of armed children in Tripoli taken today by LBC

Picture of Children playing in Raouche taken from TheNational

Picture of Baby Dior Fashion Show in DownTown Beirut taken from BNL

Picture from TheDailyStar

The DailyStar posted many pictures of the huge fire that erupted at the Safra Carpet factory yesterday. You can check them out [Here]

The factory is to be demolished in the upcoming days as the first attempts to take down the building failed today. I will post later on concerning why those attempts failed and the joke of a country we live in.

It’s definitely not the wind that tore down the huge poster.

By definition, public works mean (Government, Politics & Diplomacy) engineering projects and other constructions, financed and undertaken by a government for the community. [Link]

All of a sudden, I don’t want a new Jal el Dib bridge anymore lol!

[High-Res]

I took this picture earlier this morning. Dar3oun is a beautiful village right after Harissa with old Lebanese houses.

I am posting regularly pictures on Instagram. My account is LeNajib (Same as Twitter: LeNajib) if you wish to follow me.

[YouTube]

Before listening to that video, here’s a small summary of what that story is all about:
- A Shiite girl who said was being physically and psychologically tortured by her father was apparently taken care by the pastor of Baalbek’s Our Lady of Good Help Church, Father Walid Gharious.
- She decided to convert to Christianity three years back and the priest finally baptized the girl few days back. As a result of that, he was kidnapped on Monday by a group of unknown individuals. He was released few hours later.
- On Wednesday, unknown assailants fired gunshots at the house of a priest from the Kairouz family in the town of Nabha, and the similar incident occurred on Sunday before the start of the municipal elections when shots were fired at the Our Lady Church in Nabha. [Naharnet]

That’s the story being circulated in most papers and medias. Now go ahead and listen to what this Sheikh is saying about the girl, the priests and the pastor. This guy should be detained.

A 5.5-magnitude earthquake was felt on Friday by the residents of the capital Beirut and some towns in Zahle, Mount Lebanon, Nabatiyeh, Sidon, Tyre and Tripoli, LBC reported, citing information provided by Lebanon’s state-run Bhannes Center for Seismic and Scientific Research. [Naharnet]

It was a 7.6 magnitude Earthquake that triggered a devastating tsunami back in 551 AD along Lebanon’s coast, killing over 30,000 people. Expect to hear more about this deadly earthquake in the next few days. [Link]

[YouTube]

Via LBC

Picture via CEE News

Picture from Joesbox

A huge fire erupted on Friday in the fourth floor of the Byblos carpet factory in the Kesrouan town of Safra, the National News Agency reported.

Firefighters immediately arrived to the site and evacuated the five employees who work in the factory. [NowLebanon]

I don’t know if some of you know this factory but it’s huge and according to my friend, the whole building is on fire.

Here are few updates from various sources provided by Naharnet:

-“Byblos” sources told Voice of Lebanon radio (93.3) that an electric short circuit could have caused the fire at the factory.

-Part of the walls of the carpet factory collapsed as the fire reached from the 4th to the 5th floor.

-LBC: All the workers at the carpet factory escaped as soon as the fire erupted at around 9:00 am.

Picture by Chahe