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About the Lebanese Interior Ministry race

As of midnight on Tuesday, nearly 1,000 candidates had registered with the Interior Ministry to run in the upcoming  and long-delayed parliamentary elections scheduled for May 6. The estimated 1,000 candidates represent the highest in the history of Lebanon’s parliamentary elections, and provides the cash-strapped state treasury an unexpected windfall of USD$5.28 million from fees […]

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Dozens die in Ethiopian trash collapse

At least 60 people were killed by an avalanche of debris in an Ethiopian landfill on Saturday night. Mountains of trash at Koshee Garbage Landfill near Addis Ababa collapsed in a massive landslide, destroying the makeshift shanties that lined its slopes and killing scavengers who earn a living sorting trash for resale. One resident told […]

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Beirut art project pushes for preservation of public space

Beirut art collective Dictaphone Group is combining activism with show-biz in a fight to preserve Lebanon’s public spaces. Their series of interactive performance pieces is inciting hipsters and historians to join up in protest of Beirut’s unbridled development plans. Tension is never far below the surface of the capital’s staunchly secular social scene. Tagged as the […]

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Beirut architect designs bulletproof Kevlar keffiyeh

People are often defensive when it comes to headscarves, which have strong links to specific religious and cultural beliefs. Now a Beirut-based architect has designed a headwrap that uses defense as the justification for wearing it: this updated version of the classic Arab keffiyeh (allegedly) deflects bullets! Functional fashion takes a remarkable turn in the hands of […]