English translation: Two cars crashed into each other in Chiyah this morning killing Z.R (born in 1681).

PS: I removed the young lady’s name from the picture and text. The post was directed towards the news portal clearly. May she rest in peace.

I am not talking about myself of course but about a Lebanese called Ahmad Khodr Slaibi who shot his wife dead yesterday night and then tried to kill himself with an automatic riffle but failed. [Link]

I passed by Lazarieh building in DownTown Beirut this morning and spotted what seems to be a clock tower getting built right next to St.Georges’ Maronite Cathedral.

I must say it’s quite impressive the number of churches and mosques we have in DownTown Beirut. There are at least 25 or 30 both combined.

I never thought I would feel that lucky to be Lebanese, specially with everything that’s been going on in this country for the past 10 years or so, but seeing what’s happening in the Arab countries around us, we should consider ourselves as being very fortunate.

We’ve always criticized fights erupting after Basketball games, or Football games where the army started shooting in the air to disperse the crowds, but we’ve never had one single casualty as a result of such events.

This being said, Over 70 were killed when Fans of Al-Masri football cub, which beat Al-Ahly 3-1, invaded the pitch and began to throw rocks, bottles and fireworks at the al-Ahly fans. Some of the deaths were the result of stab wounds, the doctors said. [Naharnet]

This is just crazy.

If you missed out the first one, check it [Here].

Civil Defense teams succeeded on Saturday in extinguishing a fire that broke out at Beirut Mall in al-Tayyouneh. The fire, which was caused by electrical wire friction, erupted in three power generators at the mall at 9:00 am. [Naharnet]

It looks like a big fire as it erupted at 9:00 am and was only extinguished an hour ago. No news yet on whether the mall was badly damaged or not.

Update: Another fire erupted just now at Beirut Mall which will be closed today.

Update2: Check out pictures of the fire displayed on LBC website.

I didn’t know we had an area called the Greek Fridge (البراد اليوناني) in Beirut, Lebanon. It’s apparently near Sed el Bouchrieh.

It would be interesting to know why it’s called that way.

I always thought Lebanon would be ahead of other Arab countries in terms of freedoms, but according to this report, Kuwait is ahead of us in terms of freedom of press.

Here’s a list of the top 20 countries, as compiled by Mark from 248am.com:

1- Kuwait (78)
2- ****** (92)
3- Lebanon (93)
4- UAE (112)
5- Qatar (114)
6- Oman (117)
7- Algeria (112)
8- Jordan (128)
9- Tunis (134)
10- Morocco (138)
11- Iraq (152)
12- Palestine (153)
13- Libya (154)
14- Saudi Arabia (158)
15- Egypt (166)
16- Sudan (170)
17- Yemen (171)
18- Bahrain (173)
19- Iran (175)
20- Syria (176)

PS: In order to stay safe and not be labeled as a Zionist, or accused of attending their meetings, I censored Country #2.

According to Al-Akhbar website, Lara Fabian is after all coming to Lebanon after news spread that she had cancelled her performances after being threatened.

I am not sure how accurate this information is, but it’s definitely a step in the right direction.

The government decided to back red diesel prices during winter for some of Lebanon’s coldest areas. As a result, the price was slashed from 29,300 to 26,300LL.

One day before the expiry date, around midnight, 8 million liters of red diesel were distributed by the Tripoli Refinery at the discounted price of 26,300LL.

The next day, they were sold to the Lebanese at 29,300LL according to some reports, which means that profits of 3000*(8,000,000/20) = 1,200,000,000 (or 800,000$) were made.

Fingers are pointing at Energy minister Gebran Bassil for being behind this scandal, and investigations are underway with the Tripoli refinery officials.

You’d expect the minister or officials to resign following such a scandal, but I say it will be forgotten within a week time.

Update: According to the head of Audit bureau, Judge Aouni Ramadan, the amount of diesel sold neared the 100 million liters and not just 800,000$. [Naharnet]

Update2: I corrected the profits made as the 8 million liters should have been divided by 20 as pointed out by few readers. That doesn’t however justify stealing money still.

Ever since news spread that Former Prime Minister Saad Hariri broke his leg while skiing in the French Alps, jokes and critiques started pouring in all over the net. “Mich 3ejbitto Faraya, ra7 3al Alps”, “Di3ano ma ya3mil Ski bil Alpes” among others.

What’s the big deal if the man likes to ski and can afford going to the Alps? Have you seen the Alps slopes when compared to the Faraya slopes?

Added to that, Faraya is not cheap at all if you’re planning a weekend there and everyone speaks French up there, so it’s not that different from the Alps come to think of it.

The flyer above was an invite by a bar in Gemmayze to an event scheduled for this Friday, which invited guests to dress up as migrant domestic workers for the chance to win $100. [Link]

The event was cancelled after it was reported online by the Anti-Racist movement and drew a lot of online criticism. The bar’s name is Life bar.

More than 300,000$ were collected so far by a joint-effort between Bashir Gemayel Foundation and MTV. Achrafieh MPs Nadim Gemayel & Michel Pharaon, as well as Telecom Minister Nicolas Sehnaoui helped promoting this campaign which was initiated on Sunday and will last for 1 week only. [Link]

The money collected will go to the families that were victims of the Fassouh building collapse that killed 27 people and injured 12 others.

For those of you who wish to donate, there are two days to do so:
1- SMS the letter ‘A’ or ‘ أ” to the number 1000.
2- Donate directly by heading to the nearest Bank Audi branch and depositing in the account mentioned below: (IBAN:LB03005600020009446100200907)

I just posted this to inform you the two individuals who stole a KFC branch in Saida last week were finally arrested.

The ISF members have been working day and night to catch those criminals and make sure KFC remains operational. Chicken-fried restaurants are a matter of national security in Lebanon.

[Picture of Jezzine's entrance taken by Annahar]

According to a satellite picture taken last Friday, over 2680 square kilometer of Lebanon’s surface is covered with snow, with snow levels ranging from 20 centimeters to few meters. [Annahar]

It’s been a few years since we had a winter that cold and snowy and that’s the way it should be. I haven’t been to the mountains yet but I am planning to go for a snowmobile ride this weekend or the next.

You can check out some cool snow pictures [Here] & [Here].