Quotidien léthargique. État comateux. Cherté de vie en crescendo. Et l’on s’adapte. Embouteillage encore, tempête de pluie, coupures d’électricité, immeuble qui s’écroule. Demain tout sera oublié. C’est le mythe d’un pays qui ne cesse de se mentir à lui-même. [Full Article]

A very nice article by Hala Moubarak featured in today’s L’Orient le Jour on the few hundreds of young Lebanese born in wartime and still hoping to change this country for the better.

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.

Noting that this bridge should have been taken down since October, let’s hope we don’t have to wait for the bridge to collapse to have it changed and hold Charbel accountable if another tragedy takes place.

The decision has been taken to remove the Jal el-Dib bridge “as soon as possible” in order to avoid a possible “disaster,” Interior Minister Marwan Charbel said Tuesday.

Charbel reassured that “there is no need to panic,” saying the relevant authorities had taken the “necessary precautions.” [Naharnet]

The verdict for the Ethiopian Airlines plane crash that killed 90 people, including 52 Lebanese is finally out and we still don’t know what happened.

Lebanese version:

Public Works Minister Ghazi Aridi revealed on Tuesday that the probe in the 2010 crash of the Ethiopian plane off the Lebanese coast, in which all 90 people on board died, points to a pilot error. “The truth is in the Lebanese report, the pilot is completely responsible for the plane crash,” the minister said during a press conference held at Beirut’s Rafik Hariri International airport.[Link]

Ethiopian version:

Ethiopian Airlines said Tuesday the 2010 crash of its jet off Lebanon was likely caused by sabotage, a lightning strike or was shot down, rejecting an official Lebanese probe blaming pilot error. “The aircraft disintegrated in the air due to explosion, which could have been caused by a shoot-down, sabotage or lightning strike,” Desta Zeru, vice president of flight operations for Ethiopian Airlines, said in a statement. [Link]

Did we really need two years to come out with such conclusions? This is pathetic!

[Picture taken 7 hours ago of the site by Gino]

According to Interior Minister Marwan Charbel, the search operations were called off and the equipment were retrieved from the scene of the building collapse in Ashrafiyeh [Naharnet]. The final death toll rose to 27 people while 12 people were reported injured and no one is missing. This statement was given an hour ago.

As of 9 pm yesterday, the Red Cross reported 27 deaths, 12 injuries and 4 to 9 people were reported missing, all of Sudanese nationality. Why did the search stop if there are still people missing?

In other news, there are around 20,000 buildings risking collapse according to MP Mohammad Kabbani!! [Link]

A 5-storey building has collapsed on its tenants in the Ashrafieh neighborhood of Fassouh. 30 people were inside the building at the time it collapsed and 7 injuries have so far been reported.

Update: A 15 year old girl was reported dead. Her name is Ann-Marie Abdel Karim. For more information visit the DailyStar website [Here]

The Lebanese movie was banned for its sexual content by the General Security in Lebanon but will be aired on Friday, January 20 on the French television station, Arte, at 9:35 p.m. [Source]

You can watch the trailer [Here].

I love the pictures naharnet uses for its stories -_-

The first explosion was on November 16 targetting a night club and a liquor store, then on November 23 targetting a weapons’ stock pile, and the last one occurred today at 5 am targetting a restaurant that serves alcohol.

Since explosions have been targetting liquor stores and pubs in Tyr, why didn’t the minister of interior send few units to guard those places in order to prevent future bombings?

Despite all that, the restaurant’s owner Zuhair Arnaout insisted that “he will fix the damage, go ahead with the celebrations and serve alcohol”. I’m not sure how many people will be ready to risk their lives though and go to his party.

While Nahhas and Mikati keep scoring points again each other, the minimum wage law is yet to be implemented and the prices are increasing by the day.

PS: Graphs do not reflect real percentages as I just drew them to reflect what’s happening.

There’s been talk about this theather being demolished and there’s even a petition to stop this cultural terrorism but the minister of culture re-assured that it will be preserved.

VOL radio reported half an hour ago that the ISF in Tripoli received a call from a girl called Sawsan who told them that she was kidnapped by 4 people in a white Taxi in Jbeil and managed to escape but her location is still unclear.

Let’s hope she calls back if she has a phone on her so that the police can find her quickly.

The Lebanese army succeeded on Sunday in releasing Ahmed Zeidan, the owner of Liban Lait who was kidnapped on Wednesday. He was found in the outskirts of the town of Brital in the Bekaa, reported Future News on Sunday.[Naharnet]

I think it’s time the Lebanese army surrounds Brital and keeps checkpoints around it until all the criminals are caught. If they are able to go in and arrest the kidnappers then they have the political green light to go ahead and finish off with those gangs.

According to the police report, obtained by the AP, Fakih was initially stopped when officers noticed the 26-year-old speeding and weaving through traffic in Detroit early Saturday morning.

Cops say Fakih “immediately identified herself as Miss USA.”

According to the report, Fakih took a breathalyzer and blew more than TWICE the legal limit — once blowing a .19 and then a .20. The legal limit in MI is .08. [Link]

Let’s see if she has a good “wasta” that will keep her from doing some jail time.

After barely a month of opening Star Chef, they closed it down. I was told they finished shooting for Fatafeat’s show but it is hard to believe they worked for a whole month only to open for 2 weeks.