Word: beirutization
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 2000-2009
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...comedy team made up of three Americans of Middle Eastern descent. (They couldn't find a funny North Korean.) On the last leg of a regional tour playing to sold-out venues in Egypt, the United Arab Emirates and Jordan, they arrived at the Casino Du Liban outside of Beirut with a certain sense of relief. Lebanon was the only country that allowed them to perform their routine with expletives undeleted - no small challenge for a modern American comedy act. "#@#%#$!" said frontman Ahmed Ahmed, as soon as he got on stage, as if to prove the point...
...there is also a semi-serious element to the Axis of Evil tour. At each stop, the group has invited local talent to share the stage with them, as a way of promoting emerging Middle Eastern stand-up comedy. In Lebanon, guests included students from the American University of Beirut, and an insurance agent who's clearly dying to quit his day job. And, perhaps, by heaping scorn equally on the claims of all sects and creeds, they'll do their part for peace in the region. "Is there any religious group that doesn't believe it's superior...
...Emile Lahoud, the pro-Syrian head of state whose term ended the same day. The recent decision by March 14 to opt for Suleiman - who is seen as having close ties to the militant Shi'ite Hizballah, which spearheads the pro-Syrian opposition to the Western-backed government in Beirut - apparently caught the opposition by surprise, not having expected the general's candidacy to be promoted by its political foes...
...officials insist, however, that March 14's fears are unfounded. "There was no deal with the Syrians at Annapolis about Lebanon," Jeffrey Feltman, the U.S. ambassador in Beirut, tells TIME. "There will be no U.S. deal with the Syrians regarding Lebanon's presidency. This is an issue for the Lebanese alone to work...
...will be a tough sell convincing the anti-Syrian coalition in Beirut that the Bush Administration's support is unstinting. After all, they still remember that it was Bush's father, President George H.W. Bush, who green-lighted Syrian hegemony over Lebanon in 1990, in exchange for Syria's help in ousting Iraqi forces from Kuwait...