Beirut To Play Host To TechCrunch's Startup Battlefield MENA 2018

Details

by entrepreneur.com -- TechCrunch, the global online publisher of technology news, is hosting its first ever startup competition for entrepreneurs across the MENA region. Partnering with Facebook, TechCrunch is bringing its flagship Startup Battlefield challenge to Beirut on October 3, 2018, to be hosted at the Beirut Digital District (BDD) in Beirut, a hub for Lebanon’s startup ecosystem. The TechCrunch Startup Battlefield brings early-stage startups together to compete for the Disrupt Cup, cash prizes, along with the recognition and exposure from media and investors worldwide. Interestingly, the past winners of Startup Battlefield include names like Vurb, Dropbox, Mint, Yammer and many other tech enterprises. Further, participation is entirely free and open to startups meeting certain basic criteria such as being early-stage companies, headquartered in the eligible nations (within MENA), and possess a fully working product. Each of the competing teams will get the chance to pitch their startups in front of the TechCrunch community, alongside a live audience of technologists, entrepreneurs, and investors in Beirut.

For its MENA edition, TechCrunch invites applications from MENA-based innovators, makers, and entrepreneurs, from which the TechCrunch team will select fifteen candidates, who will be coached to improve their pitches and get ready for the main event. At the pitching event, the judges will then choose a winner for the title of ‘The Middle East’s Most Promising Startup,’ whose founders will win US$25,000 in no-equity cash along with a paid trip for two to compete in the Startup Battlefield at TechCrunch Disrupt 2019 at San Francisco. For those interested in the region’s entrepreneur and investor community, TechCrunch is also hosting its first meetup at Beirut Digital District on July 26 at 5:30 p.m. to introduce the TechCrunch team, and learn more about the Startup Battlefield challenge. Register here if you’d like to attend the TechCrunch meet up. As for the teams interested in exhibiting at TechCrunch Startup Battlefield, send in your applications here before July 31.

Lebanon's Hariri says optimistic on government formation

Details

Source: Reuters BEIRUT: Lebanon's prime minister-designate Saad al-Hariri said on Wednesday he was more optimistic than before that a new government would be formed. "In the coming days we will complete the positive consultations with the president ... and God willing, matters are on the way to a solution," he said in televised remarks after meeting President Michel Aoun. "I am more optimistic than at any other time," he added. Foreign donors have said Lebanon, which held a parliamentary election on May 6, needs to form a government quickly to maintain confidence and start working on reforms to help its ailing economy. Nearly all the new members of parliament backed Hariri to continue as prime minister in consultations with Aoun after the election, leading to his designation for the role. In June he said he was "very close" to forming the government. The new government, like the last one, is expected to include most major parties within Lebanon's sectarian power-sharing system. May's elections were the first since 2009. Disputes between the country's major political blocs caused paralysis for years until they agreed in 2016 on a national unity government. The last government has continued as a caretaker administration since the election, in which allies of the Iran-backed Shi'ite movement Hezbollah gained in parliament. (Reporting By Laila Bassam and Angus McDowall; Editing by Alison Williams)

Lebanese Security Chief Says His Role is to Coordinate Return of Syrian Refugees

Details

BEIRUT, July 24 (Reuters) - Russia is talking to Lebanon about Moscow's plans for the mass return home of Syrian refugees, the Lebanese prime minister's office said on Tuesday, adding Lebanon hoped the Kremlin's initiative would tackle what it called a "displacement crisis". "(Hariri) is looking forward to the roadmap prepared by the Russian Defence Ministry, hoping that coordination with the U.S. administration, the United Nations and other concerned parties will form a serious effort to address the displacement crisis," his office said. Syria's war has killed an estimated half a million people, driven some 5.6 million people out of the country and displaced around 6.6 million within it. As the Syrian army, backed by Iran and Russia, has recovered more territory, some Lebanese officials have stepped up calls for refugees to leave for parts of Syria where violence died down.

by dailystar.com.lb -- General Security chief Abbas Ibrahim said in comments published Tuesday that he will not stop communicating with the Syrian regime as per his designation by the Lebanese president to coordinate the return of refugees to their homeland. “I haven’t heard complaints from anyone over this designation [to discuss the refugee crisis and security situation with Syrian authorities] or my communication and dialogue with Syria. There are no conditions on this designation and no veto,” Ibrahim said to Al-Akhbar newspaper. Ibrahim said it’s a common call from Lebanese sides for the safe return of Syrian refugees to their homeland, “so it’s normal for no one to complain over my role, which is to achieve this goal.” He noted that he “continuously” goes to Syria and that because of this, “many humanitarian and security issues were resolved, Lebanese and non-Lebanese files.”

Ibrahim also said it is his duty to help facilitate the safe return of refugees who want to leave Lebanon for their homeland and that in order to accomplish this, he has routine meetings with Syrian security officials and ministers. The General Security head has helped secure the release of kidnapped foreigners and Arabs inside Syria using his communications with Syrian officials, he noted. “I have only seen cooperation from the Syrian authorities in files we have discussed, and there are no preconditions on Lebanon for the return of Syrian refugees,” Ibrahim said. This article has been adapted from its original source. daily-star.com.lb

Hundreds of Syrians return home from Lebanon

Details

by infomigrants.net -- More than 800 Syrian refugees living in the border city of Arsal in Lebanon have now returned to Syria. Since the beginning of 2018, around 13,000 Syrian refugees have returned to their home country. Hundreds of Syrians left Lebanon on Monday for their home country, Syria. In the eastern border town of Arsal, men, women and children of all ages piled into cars, minivans and tractors, the French news agency AFP reports. Most refugees returned to their homes in the Syrian western Qalamoun region. Security forces checked the identity papers of those about to make the journey back to Syria with suitcases, boxes of food and even live poultry, an AFP photographer said. The convoy was accompanied by Lebanese security forces, members of the UN Refugee Agency, UNHCR as well as the Lebanese Red Cross, the German news agency DPA reports. 1.5 million Syrian refugees in Lebanon It's been seven years that the Syrian war started. Lebanon hosts around 1.5 million Syrian refugees. The country itself has a population of 4.5 million. In relation to that, Lebanon has accepted the most refugees worldwide. Respectively, the Lebanese government wants them to repatriate rapidly. According to the Lebanese state news agency NNA, around 3,000 Syrians in Arsal have formally requested to repatriate. Their requests have to be examined by Lebanese authorities. This is the third batch of Syrians leaving Arsal, where informal camps host more than 45,000 registered Syrian refugees.

According to UNHCR, since the beginning of 2018, around 13,000 Syrians returned to their home country from neighboring countries. Since the Syrian war started in spring 2011, more than 5 million people fled Syria for neighboring countries. More than 350,000 people have been killed and over half of the country's population has been displaced.

Lebanon Struggles with Power Cuts, Survives on Floating Power Plants

Details

by aawsat.com -- Lebanon has for decades struggled with daily power cuts, AP reported. Last week, Lebanon received its third floating power station — the 235-megawatt Esra Sultan, built and operated by the privately owned Turkish Karadeniz Energy Group. Lebanese Energy and Water Minister Cesar Abi Khalil billed it as a temporary but thrifty measure to reduce part of Lebanon's electricity deficit. It is the third so-called "power ship" to dock in Lebanon since 2013. Lebanon recently extended its contract with Karadeniz to ensure that at least two of the barges will continue serving the country for another one to three years, AP added. The outages are costing businesses and residents billions of dollars in private generation fees and lost productivity, says the energy minister. "We need emergency power," said Abi Khalil, who later added that "the influx of refugees from neighboring war-torn Syria has further strained Lebanon's power sector."

According to AP, the UN Syrian refugees since 2011, an estimated one-fifth of Lebanon's population. They draw approximately 500 megawatts of power from the grid, a study by the joint 2017 Energy Ministry and the UN. "I don't think any country in the world could have planned for such a dramatic burst in its population," said Abi Khalil. But analysts say the problems run deeper. Plans to reform the sector have been shelved and drawn up again with each successive government, says Lebanese economist Mounir Rached, who advises the Finance Ministry. "There's corruption in every process of the generation cycle," said Rached. In 2010, then-Energy Minister Gebran Bassil famously pledged to deliver 24-hours electricity by 2015.

UAE Embassy: So-called 'Emirates Leaks' are fake

Details

by gulfnews.com -- Beirut: The UAE Embassy in Beirut has categorically denied what was published in Saturday’s issue of Al Akhbar Newspaper concerning an "Emirates Leaks" dossier, headlined as "Bin Zayed wants to subjugate Muscat," which included reports attributed by the Newspaper to diplomatic documents and correspondences leaked from the UAE Embassy in Muscat, while referring to other leaked documents from UAE's Embassies in Khartoum, Baghdad and Rabat to be published later. In an issued statement on Sunday, the Media Office of the Embassy clarified that "the reports published in the aforementioned newspaper are entirely false and have nothing to do with any UAE diplomatic correspondences. They are fabricated by the writer's imagination and lack the credibility and professionalism required by the media." The statement added that "the so-called 'Emirates Leaks' dossier comes as an extension of what the newspaper had started earlier with fabricated news attributed to UAE's Embassies in Beirut and Washington, in an attempt to further distort UAE's image and relations with the Arab countries." "It is also clear that the Qatari money goes through these fabricated reports and exploits the Lebanese media arena in targeting the UAE," the statement went on. "The Embassy reaffirms that Qatar's efforts, through news and others, to expose the UAE through false reports are only a cover for the main issue in the Qatari crisis: Doha's support for extremism and terrorism and its record of interfering in Arab countries’ affairs to undermine their security and stability," the statement underlined. The UAE Embassy in Beirut concluded its statement by calling on Lebanese officials who harbor concern for maintaining the best relations with the Gulf States "to take the deterrent steps to prevent Lebanon from becoming a media arena that promotes false news, and to prevent any reoccurrence of such abusive articles that lack credibility and professionalism, turning some Lebanese media sources into tools that serve suspicious Qatari objectives."