Business

BEIRUT: Lebanon’s March 14 opposition coalition said Thursday its leader would boycott a National Dialogue session scheduled for next week over Hezbollah’s weapons. The coalition announced its decision in a statement after representatives of its various parties held a meeting in Beirut. It cited Hezbollah’s refusal to discuss the fate of its arms at the talks as a main reason …

LONDON: It has been a tough few months at the pockmarked concrete high-rise known as Fred Wigg Tower. First there was the fire, which left dozens of residents temporarily homeless. Then came the rash of burglaries of fire-damaged apartments. And now the British army will be putting a battery of high-velocity missiles on the roof. The defense ministry says the …

BEIRUT: Tourism Minister Fadi Abboud called on the government Tuesday to allocate more funds to his ministry to market Lebanon as a tourism destination. Abboud, who was speaking during a news conference to announce the agenda of the International Beiteddine Festival for 2012, said his ministry was planning a large promotional campaign dubbed “Eye on Lebanon” to feature on CNN …

LONDON: Rupert Murdoch is unfit to run a major international company, MPs said on Tuesday, finding him responsible for a culture of illegal phone hacking that has convulsed his News Corporation media empire. Pulling few punches, the MPs listed failings of the 81-year-old News Corp chief, his son James and a company they said had showed “willful blindness” about the scale of hacking that …

BEIRUT: Most of the hotels in Beirut and Mount Lebanon reported a brisk business during Eid al-Fitr but did not expect this trend to continue too long. “Our rooms were fully booked during the first two days of Eid al-Fitr,” the head of the reservations desk at Coral Beach Hotel in Jnah told The Daily Star. He said that reservations …