[YouTube]

He told the host “I hope your questions are not as hot as you are”. What’s so wrong about that? Why is LBCI and most of the Arab websites calling it a scandal or even worse a sexual harrasment? Ma badda hal2ad!

Update: Al Arabiya removed the article, Naharnet posted it without checking the source as well [Link].

Update2: Naharnet removed it as well.

I read this piece of news in Al Arabiya earlier this morning and posted about it, but as I was looking for other links on that story (Guy’s name was too weird), I fell on the Pan-Arabia Enquirer and realized it was a made-up news by the site and quickly removed the post few minutes later.

The funny thing is that Al Arabiya changed the text from the original article to exclude “a noted imbecile” without doubting the authenticity of the story. Until this hour, the story is still on their website. [Link]

Here’s the original passage from the Pan-Arabia Enquirer:

Fadi Flat-White, a noted imbecile, is said to have handed over $200,000 – around 200 times the iPhone 5’s estimated price on release – to ensure he is the first in the Middle East to receive the smartphone when it eventually hits shelves later this month. Flat-White made headlines earlier in the year when he ordered the first iPad 3 in the UAE for $500,000

And the one from Al Arabiya:

Fadi Flat-White handed over around 200 times the iPhone 5’s estimated price on release to ensure he is the first in the Middle East to receive the smartphone when it eventually hits shelves later this month. The same person made headlines earlier in the year when he ordered the first iPad 3 in the UAE for $500,000.

Now let’s wait and see which Lebanese TVs or news portals will be covering that story today.

PS: You have to check Pan-Arabia Enquirer website, it’s hilarious!

Drinkers in Lebanon are the secular-minded wealthy?

Read the whole article [Here].

Thanks Sandro!

I didn’t know Tattoos were banned in Islam.

A Lebanese man nicknamed the “tattoo king” has been sentenced to one year in prison and 200 lashes in the conservative Muslim kingdom, a Saudi newspaper reported on Tuesday.

“At first, he used to receive women in a rented apartment (in the western city of Jeddah) but later he began going to women’s homes to draw tattoos on their bodies” to avoid being caught by Saudi religious police, said the daily. [Link]

Lebanese Minister of Tourism

“Due to the unstable security situation in Lebanon, the foreign ministry warns its citizens against traveling to Lebanon to maintain their safety, until further notice,” an unidentified high-ranking official in the ministry told the news agency.

“The kingdom is keen on not jeopardizing the safety of its citizens,” Asiri told the news agency. [Link]

With the situation worsening and the ever-increasing cost of living, neither Arabs nor Lebanese expats are willing to come to Lebanon this summer.

Honestly speaking, the situation is bad but not that bad. I think the ministry should talk with hotels, resorts and local businesses and have them offer summer packages at discounted prices to encourage tourists to come. It is quick shocking that there are barely any ads on TV or on the roads encouraging tourists to come to Lebanon.

Picture taken on Saturday

It’s been almost a year since I posted about that weird place in Jeita, which according to some of our readers, is supposed to be a museum on aquatic life.

As it appears, work has picked up at the site and they are finishing up the building and the boat which looks like a Phoenician one. I asked one of the workers on site if he knew what’s gonna open here, and he mentioned a museum and a restaurant.

According to Kuwaiti newspaper Al-Rai, Qatar has threatened to expel 30,000 Lebanese as a response to the arrest of Qatari national Abdul Aziz Al Atiyya by the Lebanese authorities. Al Atiyya reportedly left Lebanon few days ago and his charges were dropped. He was accused of forming a terrorist cell. [Link]

Yay more good news for Lebanon and the Lebanese!

Arab Tourists must visit us this summer because we will get them their arguile at any cost under any circumstances, even if it meant risking our lives for it. Both pictures are from the Tripoli clashes that occurred last week.

Pictures via BeirutSpring

Arab Tourists in Beirut: Picture from ArabianBusiness

The United Arab Emirates and Qatar on Saturday urged their citizens to avoid travel to Lebanon, where clashes linked to the conflict in neighbouring Syria have left 10 people dead. “The UAE foreign ministry has urged citizens not to travel to Lebanon until the tense security situation there is cleared,” it said in an English-language statement carried on state news agency WAM.

Kalbani also called on “citizens currently in Lebanon to leave the country, and in case they have to stay back for any unavoidable reasons, to contact the UAE embassy in Beirut” to give their whereabouts and contact details. [Link]

You can’t really blame them for warning their citizens, specially with everything that’s been happening in the past week or so. Added to that, it comes at the worst possible time whereas the summer season is about to kick in. Our Prime Minister Najib Mikati urged them to reconsider their warnings arguing that the security situation is good. On the other hand, Tourism Minister Fadi Abboud stated “Qatar and the United Arab Emirates didn’t officially issue a travel restriction advisory for their nationals.”

Indeed, the situation in Tripoli is great and all websites are lying.

Picture from NowLebanon

Things are not looking very good at the moment for LBCI’s Chairperson and CEO Pierre El Daher as Prince Walid Bin Talal seems determined to sideline him and isolate LBCI. PAC ltd (the company that employs most of the LBC staff), LBC SAT, LBC America and LBC Europe are all under Bin Talal’s control now. In fact, Bin Talal owns 85% of LMH (Lebanese Media Holding), the company that owns all the companies listed above and that was founded in 1997 by Sheikh Pierre El Daher and Saudi Businessmen.

397 PAC employees were sacked earlier this month, LBC SAT was shutdown in Lebanon by the Ministry of Telecommunication few days ago and LBC Europe was shutdown temporarily in Europe.

Added to that, The Lebanese Forces party is suing Daher over LBCI’s ownership, which would leave him with practically nothing if he were to lose this lawsuit. All in all, I think everyone’s at fault here and I can only hope that Daher will reach some sort of agreement with Bin Talal and the LF because no one will emerge as a winner from this dispute.

Sheikh Pierre El Daher in the middle. Picture by L-F.com

If you wish to read more on the matter, you can read this nice article by NowLebanon [Here].

If you wish to read more about this f*cked up law, check [Here].

[YouTube]

How did he fit in that suitcase? How was he breathing? That’s just crazy!

A Lebanese man turned the joke of climbing into somebody’s suitcase a reality when he hid in the luggage of a German to cross the Turkish border into Greece. Turkish customs officers at the Pazarkule Customs Gate ordered the German man to open his suitcase when they became suspicious over its enormous size. When they unzipped the luggage, the officers found the 20-year-old Lebanese identified by his initials as A.J curled up inside in a fetal position. [Naharnet]

[YouTube]

[YouTube]

Kazakhstan’s shooting team demanded an apology after a spoof national anthem from the comedy film Borat was played instead of the real one at a medal ceremony in Kuwait, the BBC reported on Friday. [Link]

Now that is freakin’ hilarious! I am surprised the athlete kept her composure and did not make a scene.

Here are few lyrics from Borat’s O’Kazakhstan anthem:

Kazakhstan greatest country in the world.
All other countries are run by little girls.
Kazakhstan number one exporter of potassium.
Other countries have inferior potassium.

Kazakhstan industry best in the world.
We invented toffee and trouser belt.
Kazakhstan’s prostitutes cleanest in the region.
Except of course Turkmenistan’s

Kazakhstan, Kazakhstan you very nice place.
From Plains of Tarashek to Norther fence of Jewtown.
Come grasp the might phenis of our leader.
From junction with the testes to tip of its face!

Mabrouk to the Lebanese female competitor who got third place. I am trying to see what her name is but can’t find it anywhere. My guess is she’s Ray Bassil.

Hackers release sexy picture of brunette in her underwear sent to Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad. It was discovered after ­Assad’s emails were hacked into by opposition activists. Check the full story and picture [Here]

One thing is for sure, he has a much better taste than Ghaddafi.