All the Beirut news.

Fox News showed this image repeatedly tonight during its coverage of the Boston bombings.

And what do these three decades-old attacks have in common? All have been blamed on "Islamic terrorists" from the Middle East.

Fox anchor Megyn Kelly said she was showing this image because her guest today had investigated all three events. How an airplane hijacking and two truck bombs intended to bring down buildings related to back-pack sized explosives in Boston was not clear.

I got some criticism earlier when I wrote about “Khlosna ba2a” campaign by the National Dialogue Party, since you know, blogs like +961 and politics don’ti mixi!

Normandy Checkpoint duty, Spring 1990 I was driving with my son, or actually, my son was driving with me, through town at night, when suddenly we stumbled upon an impromptu ‘haasjesh’; a checkpoint, near the St. George Hotel. Apart from the permanent checkpoints, the army or police now and then block the road (usually during rush hour, causing mile-long traffic jams) to check for things. I am not sure what kind of things, because I never ever get stopped. Is it because I am a woman? Or a foreigner?

The town is full of them, posters advertising this and that... But these are flat out knockers!

In the (undated) article above, late comedian and singer Nasri Chamseddine got stuck in an elevator in the tele Liban building, the episode dragged on for half an hour before he was able to get rescued. Workers asked him to sing something for them in the meantime and he improvised:
"Ya mon cher - ya mon cher,
Qu'est ce que nous allons faire.
Bayn el tabe2 wel tabe2,
In2ata3 fina el asoncer."

Heheh, I like teasing you, I know what the initiative is all about - but of course I am not going to tell you because you are supposed (like good boys and girls) to wait for the official launch on www.psstpsst.mobi ... Interestingly, this is a worldwide thing launched by a Lebanese company called Foo - I am sure you will enjoy the revealer!

[YouTube]
In case you haven’t heard of the Web TV Series “I LUV U BUT”, check them out [Here]. They are hilarious.
PS: BlogBaladi is also running for Blog of the Year and Best News Blog in the SMA Awards. You can vote for us [Here].

. . . . but I took the day off yesterday, drove up North, and stopped at a road-side beach.  No picnic this time; couldn't be bothered. No kids either;  had dispatches them over town. No hubbie either; hung out with my friends. Pearl Beach 

According to Forbes, three Lebanese are among the top 10 rich Arabs for this year. Joseph Safra, a Lebanese Brazilian banker, came in the 2nd position with $19.5 billion, while Najib & Taha Mikati ranked 8th with $3.5 billion each.
On the other hand, the wealthiest member of the Hariri’s is Bahaa Hariri who ranked 15th with $2.4 billion. You can check the full list below.

[YouTube]

I attended the grand opening of both Topshop and Miss Selfridge on Thursday and Friday of last week at the new Beirut City Center. I visit the Topshop store at City Mall regularly but I loved the retro electro-pop  look and feel of the new store. I also used to shop endlessly at Miss Selfridge as a teenager but I was happy to see that I didn’t outgrow the collection, heavily inspired by the 60′s icons and adorned in lace, satin, ruffles, frill, sugar,spice and everything nice.

Picture from KunHadi
This photo is taken in DownTowm Beirut.

@NajwaKaram
Shames el Ghenniyye is hurting our eyes with her tweets. Maybe someone should tell her to install/enable the Arabic Keyboard?

What I like about this initiative is that they have an electoral platform posted on their website [Vote2013.org] covering almost all the topics you could think of.
They are divided as follows:
- Administrative & Municipalities Reform
- Lebanese Heritage
- Parliament Reform
- Public Transportation
- Sustainable Development
- National Dialogue and Civil War Memory
- Budget and Taxation
- Foreign Domestic Workers Rights
- Non Smoking Law
- ICT Reform & Online Freedoms
- Healthcare
- Education
- Hunting Laws
- Electoral Reform
- Women’s Rights

Source: Annahar