AFP, by Jailan Zayan, Sunday, August 16th.

Photo: Zoriah (c). Hezbollah logo painted on bullet pocked wall in Beirut, Lebanon.

CAIRO — Twenty-two men, dressed in white and crowded into a cage in a Cairo court, denied charges on Sunday of plotting attacks in Egypt for Lebanon’s Hezbollah group, with some alleging torture by police.

As the trial began, the alleged members of the cell pleaded not guilty to charges of “conspiracy to murder, spying for a foreign organisation with intent of conducting terrorist attacks and weapons possession.”

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Beirut, Lebanon, August, 2009 Menassat.

Photo: Markus Moning. Reading the newspaper at La Grande Arche, La Défense, Paris.

BEIRUT—On Tuesday, on the third anniversary of al-Akhbar, the Lebanese daily signed a partnership with the Arabic version of Le Monde Diplomatique, a major international newspapers that has more than 70 foreign editions in 25 languages.

At a conference at the Holiday Inn Hotel in Verdun, Beirut, attended by journalists, media persons, and politicians, it was announced that the partnership gives al-Akhbar the exclusive right to distribute a monthly issue of the Arabic language Le Monde Diplomatique in Lebanon and Syria.

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Daily Star Monday, July 27, 2009.

Photo: Photo: Zoriah (c). Beirut’s south suburbs bombed by Israel in 2006.

BEIRUT: Israel is preparing for another war on Lebanon between the end of year and next spring, Hizbullah Secretary General Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah said during a private meeting with Lebanese emigrants, New TV reported on Saturday. Nasrallah said the “new formula for the balance of power with Israel placed the southern suburbs opposite to Tel Aviv.”

“Israel cannot be trusted,” he said, but added he was not trying to “frighten the people” and asked the Lebanese to “enjoy a quiet summer.”

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Al Kitab (Arabic for ‘Book’), is a new book club organized by Tadamon!

Photo: James Longley. Al-Mutanabi Street in Iraq.

Al Kitab club members (six to 10 people) will meet in a comfortable place (someone’s home, a quiet café, or a room in a public library) once a month to discuss and reflect on a book.

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New York Times, by Robert F. Worth. May 25, 2009

Photo: Bryan Denton. Supporters watch a speech by Hagop Pakradounian, a politician from the main party of the Armenians, Tashnaq, in Beirut, Lebanon.

BEIRUT, Lebanon — Their political apparatus is a model of discipline. Their vast array of social services is a virtual state within a state. Their enemies accuse them of being pawns of Syria and Iran.

They are the Armenian Christians of Lebanon, one of the Middle East’s most singular and least-understood communities. And if they sound a bit like Hezbollah, the Shiite militant group based here, that is no accident.

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Daily Stary, by Matthew Mosley. Thursday, May 14, 2009

Photo: Tanya Traboulsi. Scrambled Eggs perform in Beirut, Lebanon.

BEIRUT: “The choice of artists is very personal,” says Ziad Nawfal of his latest album, “The Ruptured Sessions.” “I really have to like what they do.” It seems that Nawfal isn’t alone in his tastes. A capacity crowd at the album’s April 30 launch party at Hamra’s Walimat Wardeh restaurant craned their necks around bodies and pillars to catch a glimpse of the featured artists at work.

The disk is a compilation of material recorded live on Nawfal’s Monday evening Radio Liban show “Ruptures.” “I started inviting young artists into the studio to talk about themselves and the music they like,” said Nawfal over the phone several days after the album launch. “They’d also play three or four tracks of their own.”

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A photo essay by Tanya Traboulsi

Photo: Tanya Traboulsi. Scrambled Eggs perform in Beirut, Lebanon.

A striking compilation of photos presented by Tadamon! from photographer Tanya Traboulsi which document the underground music scene in Beirut, Lebanon, a center for groundbreaking culture in the Middle East today and for decades. Admits the political chaos of Lebanon these photographs present a glimpse into the thriving world of alternative musical culture in Beirut which has attracted international attention for it’s mix of Middle Eastern musical traditions and modern musical expression from hip-hop, to free Jazz, to electronic music.

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photo essay on Beirut protests in solidarity with Gaza.

Protests have swept the Middle East in the past week to stand against Israel’s invasion into the Gaza Strip, in which upwards of 600 Palestinians have lost their lives, but also to protest the complicity of Arab governments in the current Israeli attack. In Egypt and Jordan protesters have clashed in the thousands with state security forces, calling for an end to diplomatic relations with Israel, while in other capitals in the region protesters have confronted the Egyptian embassies. In Beirut protesters carried hundreds of coffins to the Egyptian embassy last week, ending the demonstration with an Egyptian national burning his passport in protest over the Egyptian governments refusal to open the Gaza border amidst a growing humanitarian crisis.

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Hassan Nasrallah, the secretary-general of Hezbollah, has told his fighters to be on alert for any possible Israeli attack on Lebanon following raids on Gaza that have killed nearly 300 Palestinians.

Nasrallah told a gathering in Beirut’s southern suburbs that the Israeli assault on Gaza was a carbon copy of its attacks on Lebanon during a 34-day war with Hezbollah in 2006.

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BEIRUT: Beirut is attempting to reclaim its status as the “international book capital” this year at the 52nd Beirut Book Fair, and is taking special aim at younger readers. Organizers of the book fair are pleased that more than 210 exhibitors are taking part in this year’s edition following a two-year hiatus due to political and security tensions in the country. The participation rate is up by some 20 percent compared to the last edition of the event, and 192 private and 18 government exhibitors are on hand from Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates, Palestine and Oman and Lebanon.

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