Tripoli

Microsoft chat rooms in Lebanon have been shut down. The move comes after the world

There is anger and disappointment in south Lebanon that a $62 million World Bank cultural heritage and urban development loan will not cover Beaufort Castle. The castle, a 12th century monument built during the Crusades, was used both by the PLO and Israel and its Lebanese allies as a strategic outpost during the war years and up to May 2000.

Mustafa Badreddine, a former president of the municipality of Nabatieh, under whose jurisdiction Beaufort Castle falls, said he was at a loss to explain why the

The ministry of telecommunications and its network-operating subsidiary, Ogero, have installed the first wave of public payphones in Lebanon, with apparent success. The rollout began in late 2003 with payphones at Beirut airport and in the capital. According to ministry figures, installation shall continue until 4,000 public phones are available nationwide. The total project cost is $8 million.

The new network offers consumers an affordable alternative to mobile telephone communication. It employs the same smart card technology that has been successful around the world, but the new payphones do not accept coins. The prepaid card required to operate the phone offers the buyer of a LL10,000 card 100 minutes of domestic landline talk time. Rates for calling a mobile phone are priced at three times that, at LL300 per minute. The public phones also allow international calls, reportedly at rates below those from a regular landline phone. For the time being, customers have to visit an Ogero telephone exchange to purchase a card. Representatives at Ogero

In July and August, a new resolutely apolitical lifestyle magazine called Hi hit the Lebanese newsstands. Available only in Arabic, the magazine featured stories on singers, student life, online matchmaking and other matters that the publishers hoped would appeal to youth in the Middle East.

What made this product noteworthy was not so much its content, or its publisher, Magazine Group, a corporation specialized in niche magazines, but the fact that Hi is funded by the US State Department to the tune of $4 million annually. This makes Hi yet another example of the US government

After having shown his face all over town to promote his first CD, fashion designer turned singer Elie Karam now has exposure he never dreamt of, putting him beyond the reach of less obscure local artists. For around three months, people all over the world have been able to listen to Karam

Lebanon’s traditional gush of summer season optimism has failed to shroud a painful reality – July was a bad month for the $1.5 billion-a-year tourism sector. Hotels, restaurants, and car rental agencies all acknowledged business was down significantly in July, compared to the same period last year. Industry insiders bemoaned, in particular, a relative paucity of Kuwaiti visitors. The latter account for a sizeable portion of Lebanon’s tourist diet in July and August, the country’s two top-earning tourism months that effectively constitute its summer season.
Observers said the Kuwaitis failed to materialize in early July because of lingering post-Iraq war malaise, simmering Kuwaiti ire over Beirut’s opposition to the war, late school examinations (delayed because of the war) and July 5 parliamentary elections.

“We have been drastically affected,” said Jean Baptiste Pigeon, general manager of the Crowne Plaza hotel on Hamra Street. He acknowledged that the hotel’s occupancy rate for July – 55% – was 20% lower than expected. And an employee with the Budget rent-a-car agency, who asked not to be named, said rentals for July were down 50% over last year. By early August, however, the Kuwaitis had started flowing in. “On the third or fourth of August, we had a phenomenal wave of Kuwaitis,” observed Fadi El-Takkale, director of sales, marketing and reservation at the Radisson SAS Martinez Hotel. He said, when interviewed on August 22, that the hotel had been full since the beginning of the month.

A slightly less enthusiastic Paul Ariss, president of the association of restaurant, café, nightclub and pastry shop owners, said it was too early to tell if the summer season could recoup the losses inflicted by the delayed arrival of Kuwaitis, which he acknowledged had had a “serious effect.” He added, though, that the influx of tourists from the Gulf region as a whole, as well as of Lebanese expatriates, had contributed to a “pretty good” season thus far for Beirut, Bhamdoun, Aley and Beiteddine. Overall, however, “it is not fantastic,” he said. “We will have to wait for the figures.”

Massaya winery, which has played a major part in the renaissance of Lebanese wine, resigned from the Union Vinicole du Liban (UVL) last month. In a statement sent to UVL president Serge Hochar, Massaya co-owner Ramzi Ghosn said it was obvious that the interests of Massaya and UVL were irreconcilable and that the winery was going it alone. Hochar declined to comment, but it appears the resignation was prompted by the UVL

Downtown Beirut already boasts a Murr, Phoenicia and Marina Tower. Soon the Platinum Tower will be added to the capital

Lebanon loves Europe. From German cars to Italian clothes and French foods to Dutch beers, up to 60% of Lebanese non-

oil imports come from Europe. Therefore, as the Euro soars to an all-time high against the dollar, it seems logical, even likely, that 2004 will be a year of high inflation.

Two leading Lebanese economists, however, tell us not to worry. Kamal Hamdan doesn