It would be fun if “Akho Man2oushe” someday becomes a real competitor to places like Zaatar W Zeit and Leil Nhar!
Spotted at Saloumi
Kimi Raikkonen is currently on a short visit to Lebanon for the launching of Lotus Cars in Beirut, and according to this news report, he had a meeting with president Sleiman and announced that he’s willing to put the Lebanese flag on his Lotus Renault car during this season.
The report also mentions talks about building an F1 circuit in Lebanon, but is sounds more like wishful thinking, at least to me!

Gap announced in a press release few days ago that it will be soon be opening the first Gap store in Lebanon after coming to an agreement with Azadea, the group that is well known for carrying famous brands like Zara, Mango, and others.
Gap Inc. also announced plans to open stores in three additional growing apparel markets in 2012:
Lebanon: Gap Inc. has signed a new agreement with Azadea group, one of the largest retailers in the Middle East, to open the first Gap store in Lebanon later this year. One of the main fashion centers of the region, Lebanon provides an ideal environment to introduce Gap brand. Since 2006, Gap Inc. has expanded its presence across the Middle East. Source
I’ve always loved their hoodies by the way, now you don’t have to wait for someone coming from abroad to get one!
Dominique Hourani claimed in a recent interview in Men El Ekhir on MTV that she once got an offer from Playboy to pose semi naked in a photoshoot and she rejected it. Not sure how true is her claim, but can you imagine the media buzz that a Lebanese model would generate if she ever made to the cover of Playboy?
I already set the video the start at the part when Dominique starts talking about the offer.

Check out this collection of old video segments shot in Lebanon during the 40s, 50s, 60s, and 70s of last century. I just love to watch these stuff and see how did the country use to look like before eruption of the civil war.
The videos vary from a report about the events that led to our independence in 1943, to random scenes from Beirut, Jeita Grotto, Telepherique Jounieh, as well as footage of the US marines landing in Lebanon in 1958.
It’s a bummer though that a lot of the listed videos are silent since they’re just offered for preview while the full versions require a license fee, but they’re still worth watching anyway.
Thank you Kheireddine.

Just when we thought the story of the Ethiopian maid that was beaten in front of her embassy might have reached a happy ending with identifying the guy appearing in the video and her ending up at Deir El-Salib for treatment, LBC reported that she committed suicide today!
This is probably going to burst the bubble of so money people who talk big about Lebanon and Beirut being the best places in the world.
In a recent study published yesterday by the Economist Intelligence Unit, Beirut was ranked 117th most competitive global city in the world, barely managing to come ahead of the bottom 3 cities, Dhaka (Bangladesh), Lagos (Nigeria), and Tehran (Iran), taking into consideration 8 key factors that are Economic strength, Physical capital, Financial maturity, Institutional effectiveness, Social and cultural character, Human Capital, Environment and natural hazards, and Global appeal.
New York ranked 1st worldwide followed by London and Singapore, while with regards to the Middle East, Dubai unsurprisingly ranked 1st followed by Abu Dhabi, Doha, Tel Aviv, Kuwait City, Muscat, Riyadh, Beirut and Tehran.
You may read more about the study here, and download the full report here.