Phonecalls are cheaper. Faouzi Khoury and Sons file a lawsuit in the US against DaimlerChrysler. ChateauKefraya increases exports. Lebanon’s poultry industry loses out over bird flu fears.

Faouzi Khoury puts Daimler Chrysler in the dockBeirut-based automobile distributor Faouzi Khoury and Sons last month filed a lawsuit in the US state of Delaware against car manufacturing giant DaimlerChrysler Corporation and Chrysler International Corporation.The dispute, for which court hearings began on April 21, arose after Faouzi Khoury accused DaimlerChrysler of reneging on several contracts. These included the delivery of 90 specialized Dodge Ram pick-ups, converted to military field ambulances and destined for the US Army in Iraq.In late 2005 and early 2006, Faouzi Khoury had won several contracts with the US military in Iraq. It now alleges that DaimlerChrysler not only failed to deliver the 90 Rams necessary to fulfill one of those contracts, but also made a direct and “unauthorized” bid for a separate contract to supply 151 specially armored Dodge Durangos to KBR, a subsidiary of the US-based Halliburton company.“We discovered that DaimlerChrysler undercut us for the