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A Lebanese Blog

Month: October 2013

  • Short documentary of 1983 Beirut marine barracks bombing

    On a day like this 30 years ago, a suicide bomber in a hijacked truck managed to bypass the barriers around the barracks and smashed right into the lobby of the main building before detonating his explosives.

    The explosion was so big that it collapsed the building into rubble and killed 305 servicemen.

    The video above is a short documentary told by two marine veterans who were serving in Beirut at that time, with footage and photos of the bombing.

  • Lebanese couple marries on Skype

    skype marriage

    I just stumbled upon this article from Annahar today about a Lebanese couple from Tyre who got married on Skype since the bride, Hawraa Said, lives here in Lebanon while the groom, Assaad Fakhoury, is in the US. Check all about it here.

    Technology for the win!!

  • Satanists around the world better hide themselves now

    elias-murr

    The news is everywhere, former deputy prime minister Elias El Murr has been appointed the head of INTERPOL for a seven-year term.

    My thoughts are now all with the Satan worshipers (AKA heavy metal fans) around the world!

    If you have no idea what I’m talking about, just check the below two news articles from 2003.

    Forget Iraq and the looming war. Lebanon has its own battle to fight against worshippers of the devil, drawing the youth into immoral conduct and threatening the country’s image abroad.
    After weeks of playing down reports of a surge in this phenomenon, Interior Minister Elias Murr and State Prosecutor Adnan Addoum have admitted on television that they are fighting to dismantle satanic cults that have sprung up in the country, but insisted that their numbers were “not big.”

    They also denied rumors that had spread that members of Satanic cults were going around killing teenagers, or that some had committed suicide.

    Murr said Internal Security Forces had been monitoring the abnormal behavior of some youth, and traced them to cemeteries, where they would hold their parties. But this partying developed into graveside orgies under the influence of drugs and alcohol. Source

    *****************

    Three Lebanese university students with images of a dragon, a skull and a fire blaze tattooed on their bellies, are under arrest on a charge of being devil worshippers. Two others, a man and a woman, were released on bail.
    A published police communiqué on Friday withheld the full identity of the suspects, mentioning only their first names and initials of the family names as Danny G, Antoine K and Tewfic Q.

    Their homes were raided in Ashrafieh and Jdeideh, where human skeletons symbolizing the devil were found in their apartments, said a communiqué published Friday. They were arrested and referred to State Prosecutor Adnan Addoum’s office. Source

    Update:

    Ok so just to set things straight, Elias El Murr was actually appointed the head of ” the Interpol Foundation for a Safer World”. The current President of Interpol is Mireille Ballestrazzi, while the current Secretary General of Interpol is Ronald Noble.

  • Only on MEA flights

    Ka2anna tayyaret bayyo!

  • Lebanese man tries to skin a dying fox

    lebanon fox

    According to BETA’s page on Facebook, a group of people in Nahr El Mot captured a dying fox today, and instead of rescuing it by at least notifying the authorities, they just thought about every possible way to abuse it!

    A frantic phone call about a dying fox today, and 2 of our volunteers rushed straight to the scene.
    To their dismay, the fox was not on the side of the Nahr el Mot highway as they were told; he was on the trunk of a car with men surrounding him as you can see in the photo. Their plan, original plan hadn’t we interfered we must say, was to tie him up on the hood of the car, drive around showing off their “trophy” and eventually sell him.

    Our volunteers tried to rescue the fox, but the proud men there tried to intimidate them and scare them off, especially that they were 2 women. And one very enthusiastic man stopped them, angrily screamed at them, cursed them and asked for money in order to surrender the poor fox.

    We strongly stand against the selling and buying of any animal, let alone a wild victim agonizing in front of our own eyes.

    Shouts, screams, curses, but still, our volunteers tried to calm down the man and rationally explain to him that he cannot claim the fox, a wild animal that belongs to the Lebanese wild.
    We are often faced with hostility during our rescues, but the same man took “aggression and ignorance” to a whole new level!

    It was simple! Our volunteers refused to give up and started calling backup. So the man held the fox by the tail in one hand and a knife in another hand, and tried to skin the fox alive!

    This is when you run out of patience and constructive discussions! Our volunteers aka “task force” took action, screamed, shouted and threatened, came near the fox and took him by force, and kept on threatening until the man was scared off and fled the scene, needless to say without the fox.

    The fox was quickly transported to a clinic, and currently tests are being done to determine his case.
    But the fox is in extremely critical state and the prognosis doesn’t look good so far!

    We will keep you posted! Source

    That’s one more story showing that ignorance is definitely not making for good animal welfare in this country. Two days ago, news about a group of hunters shooting down an eagle in the mountains passed as if it isn’t such a big deal.

    Update:

    The fox unfortunately did not make it since his spine was broken.

    lebanon fox 1

    A fox with a broken spine…

    A wild animal that will never be able to run, hunt or
    live normally…

    A predator that will have to spend the rest of his life paralyzed and completely helpless…

    While cats and dogs appreciate the care and love we give them and can lead a normal life even if paralyzed, a fox would be miserable in captivity, especially that wild animals are not to be touched or cuddled.

    A fox with a broken back completely dependent on humans… This is not a quality of life for a wild animal, and we had to make the very hard and sad decision of letting go and putting him to sleep.

    Rest in peace little one! Source

  • Haifa Wehbe’s upcoming movie teaser – Halawet Rouh

    Crazy cleavage aside, you can’t but spot the similarities between the teaser and the below two videos, a commercial for Martini Gold and Malena’s trailer.

    Thanks to Labib El Choufani for highlighting the similarities.

  • Adel Karam’s show to start airing soon on MTV Lebanon

    adel karam

    I’ve been hearing for a while now about Adel Karam preparing for a new show of his own which will be quite similar to Bassem Youssef’s Al Bernameg, and it looks like it will start airing very soon since Adel Karam released the below teaser today on his Facebook account.

    It better be really really good since people won’t help but compare it to Al Bernameg, and we all know Bassem Youssef has set the bar really high.