Notes & Pictures

(Pictures by Beirut Notes)
Wild donkeys in the Nothern Emirates or Lebanese Voters (myself included)? A "Sikh supporter of Michel Aoun" wearing an orange turban?


- Pierre Daher has reportedly sold more than 80 percent of LBC-SAT to Prince Waleed Bin Talal. The Prince had bought 49 percent of LBC-SAT by swapping his shares in Sheikh Saleh Kamel's ART (Arab Radio and TV) network with Kamel's shares in LBC. The deal was evaluated at US$90 million.
The Prince bought the remaining shares at an amount exceeding US$100 million, according to industry insiders.
The CEO of LBC, Pierre El Daher, had to sell the shares to pay back Samir Geagea. The latter will get $100 million and Daher will keep for himself anything above that.

- Lebanese students at the American University of Dubai are complaining that the Lebanese university staff and teachers are mostly composed of Syrian Nationalists.

- The son of late PM Rafic Hariri, Fahed Hariri, bought a flat in the same Dubai appartment complex as Rami Makhlouf, a Syrian "oligarch" and Bashar Assad's cousin.

- Surrounded by mountains peaking at 1,930 meters, the emirate of Ras Al Khaimah is the next UAE success story.
Among the major investors attracted to this emirate is Hariri's Saudi Oger which is developing a US$500 million tourism complex covering over 1 million square meters across three islands and containing three five-star hotels, 200 villas, and cultural and commercial venues.
A Lebanese advisor to the emirate's Crown Prince, Khater Massaad, is heading the Ras Al Khaimah Investment Authority that is transforming this once sleepy town.