Examiner Staff

LebaneseExaminer.com is your leading source for 24-hour news and community coverage.
 City Beat, Detroit, News

Rai to visit Cleveland in mid-September

beshara-rai(CLEVELAND, OH) — Lebanese Maronite Patriarch Beshara Rai will visit Cleveland, Ohio on September 14, 15, and 16, multiple sources told LebaneseExaminer.com on Sunday.

The source said Rai will arrive in Cleveland after 6pm on September 14 and will be hosted by an “informal reception” at the Parish Pastoral Center.

On Monday, the Patriarch will visit Westwood Country Club for an afternoon luncheon. They say tickets begin at $250 for a silver sponsorship, or $500 for a gold sponsorship.

A divine liturgy will supposedly follow at 5pm.

At 7pm, a grand banquet will be held at the Renaissance Hotel in downtown Cleveland. Tickets begin at $65 per person, according to the source.

The Patriarch will leave Cleveland at 1pm, following a brunch in downtown Cleveland.

For more information, contact Saint Maron Church at (216) 781-6161.

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 News

Geagea: Lebanon would be ISIS’ “graveyard”

samir-geagea(BEIRUT, LEBANON) — Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea said Lebanon will be the end of ISIS fighters if they decide to come, adding that he will refuse to withdraw from the presidency without a solution to the conflict.

“I have never underestimated ISIS’ criminality. On the contrary, I see them as a group of criminals because I could never imagine a human being could slaughter a hostage in cold blood in front of a camera,” Geagea told Ash-Sharq al-Awsat.

“Who said ISIS will come to Lebanon or that they are capable of reaching Lebanon? If they come, (Lebanon) would be their graveyard to say the least.”

Geagea also said that Lebanon should close its borders to prevent the infiltration of ISIS fighters from Syria, blaming Hezbollah for the government’s failure to seal off borders.

“So why not close the border? They say that the number of troops is not enough. That is correct but there are 50 countries that want to help the Army control the Lebanese-Syrian border,” said Geagea, who supports recruiting a peacekeeping force along the border with Syria. 

“Why don’t we take advantage of such offers since they would use technologically developed means that would only require five soldiers to monitor every 10 kilometers?” he asked.

Geagea urged Christians in Iraq not to fear ISIS and to “hold on to their land and unite.” He added that Christians can only live and survive under a democratic system.

“Christians are the roots of culture there … they did not arrive to that land yesterday. I realize it’s difficult and we have to help them but they should hold on to their land.”

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 Lifestyle

VIDEO: Lebanese mock water crisis with ice bucket reinterpretation

(BEIRUT, LEBANON) — A group of young Lebanese filmed a reinterpretation of the viral ALS ice bucket challenge, but instead  focused on a cause better suited for Lebanon.

The YouTube video, titled, “Ice Bucket Challenge ONLY IN LEBANON,” showed eight people apparently “nominated” for the challenge.

After turning their buckets, no water comes out, evidently mocking Lebanon’s water crisis.

The hashtag “#MafiMay,” which translates to “#ThereIsNoWatter,” appears on the screen.

Watch the video:

Click here to watch Haifa Wehbe do the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge!

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 Entertainment

Haifa Wehbe takes the ice bucket challenge

(BEIRUT, LEBANON) — Despite Lebanon’s water crisis, more Lebanese celebrities took on the ALS ice bucket challenge this week, including pop icon Haifa Wehbe.

Others, like Nancy Ajram, said they would rather pass and instead support ALS by donating money.

“I would like to tell everyone who nominated me for the Ice Bucket Challenge to withdraw the nomination,” said Ajram. “I would rather donate instead, that way I’ll be relieved.”

The challenge began as a viral fundraising campaign by the ALS Association. Participants can either film themselves dumping a bucket of ice water over their heads and pass on their nomination or instead donate to the organization.

So far, the campaign seems to be successful in raising funds with the ALS Association saying that as of Wednesday they had received $31.5 million in donations compared to $1.9 million during the same time period last year.

Watch Haifa take the challenge:

[youtube url=”https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PrS9x_ck44U” width=”500″ height=”300″]

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 Business, New York

The story behind entrepreneur Ayah Bdeir

Editor’s Note: Fadel Adib was selected as a top innovator under 35 in a list compiled by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Click here to see the Lebanese Examiner original article.

Growing up in Beirut, Ayah Bdeir was taught that art and engineering occupied separate realms.

“In Lebanon, as in most of the world, there is little blurring of the boundaries between the professions: doctor, teacher, scientist, and designer exist in separate silos,” she says.

The company she founded in 2011, called littleBits Electronics, goes against that idea by making technology accessible across all disciplines and ages. It sells a library of modular electronic units that can be easily connected for projects as diverse as a sound machine, a night light, or a lifelike robotic hand.

littleBits makes roughly 50 different modules, which cost up to $40 each or come in kits of $99 and up. Each module is a thin rectangle measuring between one and four inches in length and containing complex hidden circuitry. Blue modules provide power. Pink ones allow for inputs, like switches, microphones, and motion sensors. Green ones are for outputs like lights, motors, and speakers. Orange ones provide wires or logic functions.

Bdeir designed all the modules so they fit together magnetically, ensuring that users join circuits correctly.

Her New York–based company has sold hundreds of thousands of units in about 80 countries, and Bdeir takes pride in the fact that the product appeals to girls and boys, children and adults, designers and engineers.

“A screwdriver is a screwdriver for everybody,” she says. “It doesn’t matter who you are or how you use it. Every person will find what they want.”

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Amanda Schaffer

Watch Ayah Bdeir on TED:

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 Lifestyle

QUOTES: The story behind inventor Fadel Adib

fadel-adibEditor’s Note: Fadel Adib was selected as a top innovator under 35 in a list compiled by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Click here to see the Lebanese Examiner original article.

“I was born in Tripoli, Lebanon, in 1989. At the time, there was much political violence. The Lebanese civil war ended a year later. Unfortunately, the postwar stability did not last long. When I went to the American University of Beirut, I remember we used to have assassinations or bombings almost every week. When I came to MIT as a PhD student in the Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Lab, the first thing that shocked me was that I could focus all the time on research.”

“In one of our projects, we were just making our Wi-Fi faster by maximizing throughput between nodes. Every once in a while, the system would get messed up, and we would stop getting good results. We realized that there was some person walking in the hallway, and that person’s walking was basically changing the channel.”

“If I shine a wireless signal at the wall, a huge amount of this signal is going to reflect off the wall. A tiny part of that signal will traverse the wall, reflect off anything that’s behind it, and then come back. We realized that we can sense motion using these wireless signals, and that’s how we started working on seeing through walls.”

“You can track people as they move. You can monitor multiple people’s heart rates and breathing. Retail stores that want to understand how people are moving in their stores can track when a person reaches out for a product, looks at it, and puts it back. The police could track if there’s a person behind a wall. One of the applications we’re thinking of: can you monitor the heart rate of a fetus in the mother’s womb without touching the body in any way?”

“When I went home to Lebanon and I was talking to my grandmother about it, she was like, ‘So, for example, can I put it over here in my living room, and if I fall in the bedroom or in the bathroom, it’s going to going to detect my fall and send an SMS to one of my children? Please, make this a product and put it here.’”

MIT Technology Review

As told to Suzanne Jacobs

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 News

Rai says he’s willing to meet with Nasrallah

patriarch(BEIRUT, LEBANON) — Visiting the Kurdish capital Irbil, Maronite Patriarch Beshara Rai called Wednesday on the international community to help Iraq’s minorities, asking the country’s Christians to stick to their roots and not leave the country.

“Those who want to help the Christian people in the region can come help them in their own land by creating jobs and building hospitals and schools,” Rai said in press conference after touring the Kurdish capital. “Not by calling on them to emigrate.”

Rai also said on Wednesday that he is willing to meet with Secretary General of the Lebanese Hezbollah Resistance Movement Sayed Hassan Nasrallah as part of efforts to promote national unity in the Arab country.

There already exists a dialogue committee between Bkerke (the seat of the Maronite church) and Hezbollah, Rahi said in response to Nasrallah’s call for national unity against the terrorist groups in Lebanon, the Lebanese National News Agency reported.

Rahi also highlighted the Lebanese people’s responsibility to demonstrate their unity against the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) terrorist group, which has recently carried out attacks against Lebanon.

“We thank God that the Lebanese Army was able to foil the plots (hatched by) the ISIL in (the Lebanese town of) Arsal, but this does not mean that we have managed to fully control ISIL existence in Lebanon,” said the bishop.

“As far as we know, they are hiding in huge numbers here and there,” Rahi said of the ISIL militants.

He also called on the Lebanese politicians to cooperate and reach a compromise on the election of a new president.

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 News

Lebanese Examiner demanding action from President Obama

(DETROIT, MI) — In a letter postmarked on August 21, 2014, LebaneseExaminer.com Editor Charlie Kadado called on President Obama to address the security crisis in Lebanon and “ultimately protect Lebanon, the Middle East, and the United States from barbaric threats.”

Kadado says his recent trip to Lebanon opened his eyes to what he called “evolutionary changes” the country is facing. He also referenced threats made by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) and called on Obama’s support to Lebanon.

Text of the letter:

Mr. President:

As our nation contemplates military and humanitarian action in the Middle East in response to increased threats of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), we want to assure you and your Administration of our prayers.

Last month, I had the privilege of traveling to Lebanon for 25 days on a literary project. Although this was not my first trip, I noticed evolutionary changes the country is presently facing. The daily threats of terror and unforeseen explosions have infected the once resilient culture of Lebanese natives.

I am proud to have been born in the United States, and also proud of my Lebanese ancestry. However, the Lebanon I have read about, heard about, and previously visited, certainly doesn’t correlate with the insensitive threats that burden the Lebanese people on a day-to-day basis.

Earlier this year, I founded and launched LebaneseExaminer.com, America’s first and only 24-hour Lebanese-American news organization to provide English news and editorial content and community coverage to the Lebanese diaspora worldwide. Through this avenue of news media, I have met and interviewed hundreds of Lebanese-Americans who are angered and frightened by the spillover crisis that is plaguing our beloved Lebanon.

As Pope John Paul II has said, Lebanon should be a model for people of different faiths to live together in peace. Instead, the country has been ruthlessly torn apart, often at the hands of its neighbors. The influx of Syrian and Palestinian refugees, for instance, has overwhelmed Lebanon’s economy and security, thus threatening the lives of Lebanese natives along with the impoverished future of refugees.

The people of Lebanon are exhausted of living in fear. As our ally, we need your continued support, friendship, and leadership to pull an innocent Lebanon from its brutal surroundings. I, along with the millions of other Lebanese-Americans, would like to thank Ambassador David Hale and your administration for your recent contributions to the Lebanese Armed Forces. More importantly, we hope you are planning a course that will keep Lebanon and surrounding countries safe from daily threats and terrorist activity, most recently identified by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL).

President Obama, what will you do to protect the Lebanese people from the ongoing spillover? We call on your administration to lead the international community to address our concerns and ultimately protect Lebanon, the Middle East, and the United States from barbaric threats.

Sincerely,

Charlie Kadado

Image of the letter:

Letter to President Obama

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 Lifestyle, News

Two Lebanese on MIT innovators list

innovators(BEIRUT, LEBANON) — Two young Lebanese natives have been featured on the “35 innovators under 35” list by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

fadel-adibFadel Adib, a 25-year old student from Tripoli, invented a new technology that detects the movement of people using Wifi signals.

In 2011, Adib received his undergraduate degree in computer engineering with a minor in mathematics from the American University of Beirut, and later moved to MIT for to complete a masters degree in computer science. Now in his third year, Adib is focusing on improving wireless technologies and creating innovative products using them.

Ranking first during all his semesters at AUB, Adib has the highest cumulative GPA in the digitally-recorded history of Lebanon’s leading university.

Lebanese-Canadian Ayah Bdeir, who grew up in Beirut and studied at AUB, also was selected to be part of ayah-bdeirthe list. She founded her own company called “littleBits” in New York City several years ago.

Combining arts and electronic technology, littleBits are educational toys that have been compared to electrified Legos that stick together with magnets. So far, they have found their way to 70 countries.

littleBits sells a kit of different electronic pieces that the user can sort into different combinations to get different results. The wide range of possibilities provided by this simple learning tool allows people of all ages to feel involved, by creating robots and circuits as complicated as they want.

The company also recently added a new concept called “Cloud bit”, which allows users to create prototypes that are connected to the Internet. A video on its website suggests a user could feed his or her fish through an application on an smartphone.

Before creating littleBits, she had been a longtime advocate of open source hardware and software to make education and innovation more accessible to people around the world. In this vein, she co-founded the Open Hardware Summit and founded Karaj, Beirut’s first nonprofit lab for experimental arts, architecture and technology.

Bdeir is also a co-founder of the Open Hardware Summit, a TED Senior Fellow and an alumna of the MIT Media Lab. Bdeir was named one of Inc. Magazine’s 35 Under 35, one of Fast Company’s 100 Most Creative People in Business and one of Popular Mechanics’ 25 Makers Who Are Reinventing the American Dream. littleBits was named as one of CNN’s top 10 Emerging Startups to watch.

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 News

Mother of murdered U.S. journalist ‘never prouder’

(WASHINGTON, DC) — The mother of American journalist James Foley, apparently executed by Islamic State of Iraq and Greater Syria (ISIS) jihadists, Wednesday paid tribute to her son who she said had died trying to expose the suffering of the Syrian people.

Condolences and shocked messages poured in after the Islamist group released a video showing a masked militant beheading a man resembling Foley, who has been missing since he was seized in Syria in November 2012.

“We have never been prouder of our son Jim. He gave his life trying to expose the world to the suffering of the Syrian people,” Foley’s mother Diane said in a Facebook message to supporters.

“We implore the kidnappers to spare the lives of the remaining hostages. Like Jim, they are innocents. They have no control over American government policy in Iraq, Syria or anywhere in the world.”

“We thank Jim for all the joy he gave us. He was an extraordinary son, brother, journalist and person.”

A second captive, said to be U.S. reporter Steven Sotloff, was shown alive in the video, along with a warning that his fate rests on U.S. President Barack Obama ordering a halt to strikes against the jihadist group which seized swath of Syria and Iraq.

Sotloff, whose kidnapping in August last year has not been widely reported, has written for several U.S. newspapers and magazines, including Time, Foreign Policy and The Christian Science Monitor.

The White House said U.S. intelligence was studying the video.

President Barack Obama says the United States will continue to confront Islamic State extremists despite the brutal murder of journalist James Foley.

Speaking from Matha’s Vineyeard where he’s vacationing with his family, Obama says the entire world is “appalled” by Foley’s killing. The president says he spoke Wednesday with Foley’s family and offered condolences.

Obama says the Islamic State abducts women and children, and tortures, rapes, enslaves and kills people. He said the Islamic State targets Christians and other minorities and aims to commit genocide.

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