Lebanon

Lebanon's advertisement spending totaled $174 million last year, down 3.3 percent compared to 2010 ($180 million)

The Kuwaiti newspaper "Al Jareeda", citing senior Israeli sources said, Israel thwarted an assassination operation targeting its defense minister Ehud Barak while he was in Singapore earlier this week.

“The only way to go is to go Web. It’s the only way to tap into a borderless market of 60 million Arabs,” Cinemoz CEO Karim Safieddine, 27, tells The Daily Star from his workstation on Hamra Street.

The top five academic qualifications most desired by local employers are business management , computer science, engineering, administrative qualifications and information technology.

A blast reported Friday evening near Al-Jinan University in the North Lebanon’s city of Tripoli, the National News Agency reported.

In the winter months people in the Middle East are also in need of warming foods. Some of the region's nourishing and healthy winter foods can keep you warmer, and guard against winter viruses. Both sweet and savory, here are some of the Levant and Arabian seasonal specialties.

The latest happenings from the celebrity circles of the Middle East in pictures and words!

Lebanese banks have offered the state a chance to take part in the rehabilitation of electricity either through a build, operate and transfer system or through a partnership with the state.

Layoffs, slumping tourism, falling construction activity and declining remittances from Lebanese expatriates have marred the performance of the economy of Lebanon in 2011, according to a United Nations report released Tuesday.

Syria's external links: As the Syrian 'lion' rages and the regime's clampdown on opposition forces scores an alarming death-toll, the media is ridden with questions addressing the peculiar deadlock or impasse in this Arab Spring country. Since international players often seem to 'help' to determine the fate of Arab regimes, it may be prudent to examine who exactly is set to profit from this regime's seeming inevitable demise, or else retention of power should the Arab League's (shaky) Peace Plan be implemented. Which countries of the region and transregionally are praying for Al Assad's removal, and which would far rather he hung around?

People are now paying twice for the electricity, once to Electricite du Liban, and another for the generators that supply power to their households and businesses.

Lebanon has come under international pressure to abide by international sanctions on neighboring Syria, which include freezing government assets and suspending cooperation with Syria's central bank and some other banks.

As the resources of the government are limited, it is only natural that sacrifices must be made by many layers of society to provide the funds necessary to ensure welfare.

Al Bawaba's pickings of some of the more colorful Tweeps operating in the Middle Eastern Twitter-sphere include friendly Lebanese politicians and singers to the actively engaged Emirs and Queens of the region. Which Arab politicians or celebrities are dominating the Twitter-verse?

Lebanon's economy ranked as the 10th most liberal in the Middle East and North Africa region (MENA) and 90th in the world, according to the 2012 Heritage Foundation Index of Economic Freedom.

Moody’s indicated that it would downgrade Lebanon’s ratings in the case of a substantial and sustained withdrawal of bank deposits from the country, which would threaten the banks’ willingness and ability to finance the government.

Total shares traded reached 214,382 this week, as average daily trading dropped by half to 71,461 shares compared to 143,480 shares in the final week of 2011.

A run-down of the top predictions from the prominent men and women in their field of regional 'predicting' and fore-casting. These Arabian 'predictors', primarily for the Arab world but also for the global future, share some of their ominous foresights for the year ahead.

Spectacular displays of an assortment of firework displays welcoming in the New Year of 2012.

As the year comes to close, many are relieved that a year of stormy clouds and unabated anger is behind us. Things can only get better or is there still worse to come? In 2011, it turned out that we could not forecast the range of violent weather, nor could we predict the rage of people. From the Gulf to the Caucuses, and from the USA to Japan the world felt pain in 2011.

The Shiite spiritual leader Imam Moussa al-Sadr,, who went missing in Libya during a 1978 visit , died of natural causes in a Tripoli prison 20 years later

Christmas is observed in some Middle Eastern countries, by local peoples as well as by expatriates. How do these some 10 million Christian 'Arabs' living in the Middle East mark Christmas, with most living in Egypt, Lebanon, Syria and Palestine? Christmas visits smaller Arab Christian populations in Jordan, Iraq, and even some of the Gulf states.