Designer Saab says women's beauty in curves

Designer Saab says women's beauty in curves
By Yara Bayoumy
REUTERS

BEIRUT (Reuters) - On the fourth floor of Elie Saab's polished ivory-colored fashion house in central Beirut a big screen television plays his latest Paris fashion shows. The models dressed in long, shimmering evening gowns are slim but curvy. Their faces a healthy glow, they look anything but skeletal.

Saab, who sealed his role as a major fashion designer when actress Halle Berry accepted her 2002 best actress Oscar in an Elie Saab burgundy tulle and taffeta gown, says he looks for a woman who has "all the features of one to adore." "There are some fashion houses that prefer very skinny women, without a shape. But as for Elie Saab, usually I'm looking for a model who has a shape, has curves, has a bust. A woman in every sense of the word," he told Reuters. "I have never liked or agreed to use a model as a hanger for my dress. Because first of all it's not an image I would want for a woman and a woman's beauty is in her femininity, in the form that God gave her," he said at his fashion house.

After the death of two anorexic Latin American models last year, some countries imposed bans on skinny models, sending the fashion industry in a heated debate over the need for bans. Saab would not specifically say whether or not he approved of bans, but said: "I mean I don't know where is the beauty of these models who are bones. It's not necessary that she be a bone walking on legs to be a model." "I can't decipher this issue except as a lack of respect for a woman. On the contrary, I like to see a woman in her best image...in the end she is our mother, our sister."

Changing into a crisp black shirt and exchanging a chunky gold watch for a sleek black one to prepare for the television interview, the soft-spoken Saab says he feels he sealed his "arrival" as an international fashion designer with the opening of his Paris fashion house on Monday. "No designer can ignore Paris in fashion. I say that wherever I open a fashion house, I have to be in Paris because it is the capital of fashion and elegance. "I feel that it's a big statement for me to have a center like the center I have in Paris."

HOLLYWOOD Favorite

Saab also said he plans to open fashion houses which include haute couture and ready-to-wear lines in London, New York and Beverly Hills next year. Saab, who had no formal training and used to draw sketches for his sisters using his mother's tablecloths and curtains, opened his first atelier in Lebanon at the age of 18 in 1982. His last haute couture show in Paris featured several delicately beaded and sequined pale-colored evening gowns. Saab said his inspiration for the line was a "goddess taking a walk during dawn under the dew." "I believe usually that a woman must stand out before the dress. I don't see that I should use colors that hurt the eyes just to make her visible," he said.

Since dressing Berry, Saab has appealed to many Hollywood stars including beyonce, Elizabeth Hurley and Teri Hatcher. Jordan's Queen Rania and Saudi princesses are also fans. Saab, who admires Valentino, said he would like to work again with actresses Charlize Theron and Catherine Zeta-Jones.

Lebanon is known to have among the most fashion-conscious of Middle Eastern citizens and has produced many young local designers, but none have reached Saab's A-list stardom. Saab says he is proud of the emerging designers but warns they have to develop individuality in their designs to achieve similar success. "I'm proud that I created in many young Lebanese men the desire to be fashion designers. But what bothers me with the new designers is that they want to be like Elie Saab. "For me that means they're failing before they even start. It is imperative they develop their own sense of style. Today there's Elie Saab, but tomorrow there won't be. What will they do then? Close?"

Student inventors of reading device for visually impaired to compete at Intel fair

Student inventors of reading device for visually impaired to compete at Intel fair
By Mohammed Zaatari
Daily Star staff

SIDON: Three girls from the Iman Secondary School in Sidon have been chosen to take part in the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair (ISEF) in the United States for inventing a machine that enables the visually impaired to read. Zahra Maarouf, Sana Zeidan and Dina Qaddoura are three grade 11 students who presented their invention earlier this month at the Lebanese Science Fair, organized by the Hariri Foundation and American microchip giant Intel.

Approximately 80 public- and private-school students submitted their projects at the headquarters of the Hariri Educational Center in Sidon as part of a competition for cash prizes and a chance to attend ISEF. ISEF is the world's largest pre-college science competition. Held each May, the event brings together nearly 1,500 students from 70 nations to compete for scholarships, tuition grants, internships, scientific field trips and the grand prize: a $50,000 college scholarship. A committee of university professors and technology experts chose two out of 13 Lebanese projects.

"Our machine operates under battery power and can save a lot of information in one memory card," Zeidan told The Daily Star. "It transforms words and texts registered on the memory card into electromechanical movements in the shape of Braille letters that blind people can read." The machine is 12 centimeters long, six centimeters wide and three centimeters thick. "It took us 250 hours to achieve our innovation," Maarouf said. "We presented our invention to the Economy Ministry in a bid to acquire a patent," Qaddoura added. Abdel-Wadoud Nacouzy, who monitored the girls' project, said that the machine "displays texts via an iron quill that the blind person can hold." "By holding the quill, the person can continue or stop reading whenever he/she wants," Nacouzy said. According to the young inventors, the machine was tested by Asmahan Baydawi, a visually impaired woman. "Baydawi liked our invention and offered us some proposals to include slight modifications so that it would totally fit any blind person," Qaddoura said.

Explosives expert defuses bomb on AUB campus

Explosives expert defuses bomb on AUB campus
By Theodore May and Mira Borji
Daily Star staff

BEIRUT: Internal Security Forces successfully dismantled a bomb found Thursday at the American University of Beirut. A janitor first discovered the bomb at 9:30 a.m. outside of Issam Fares Hall, near the American University Medical Center. The latest discovery comes at a time when unexploded bombs have been found with regularity throughout the country. The acting president of AUB, Maroun Kisirwani, said in a statement that a 200-gram bomb had been left inside a paper bag. A security source said an Internal Security Forces team that included Brigadier Ghassan Barakat and an explosives expert were called to the scene to defuse and remove the bomb. The security official added that the bomb had been placed out of sight of security cameras. After the bomb was defused, police dogs were brought in to sweep the area around the hall.

Kisirwani said that a meeting of the AUB Workers Syndicate had been scheduled to meet in Issam Fares Hall later on Thursday morning. While the area around the bomb was cordoned off, no buildings were closed or evacuated and the syndicate meeting went ahead as scheduled. Abdallah Faour, the president of the syndicate, described the incident as "a black day in the history of AUB." Faour did not cast suspicion in any specific direction, but said the bomb's placement and timing were directly related to the meeting.

A complaint against the anonymous culprit had been filed, he said. The security source said teams were investigating a series of emails sent by an insurance firm to a senior official at the AUB Workers Syndicate. "These emails included threats, aimed at exerting pressure on the official to give that company the exclusive rights to insure workers," the source said.

News of the security violation was slow to the reach those on campus, with many students interviewed by The Daily Star at noon still unaware that a bomb had been planted at their university. Students' reactions to the news ranged from ambivalence to mild concern. "It's not shocking because it's been a while since we had any action here," said one female student who wished to remain anonymous. "But it's kind of scary because we have a lot of international students here." "We feel insecure," said student Maya Sharif. "But I think they are threatening us and not trying to kill us because they put the bombs in the places where they can be found. They want us to be scared." "I'm not shocked," said Khalil Khraibani, another student. "We're used to it." Many in the administration also professed to be unaffected by the incident. "I am not worried because I don't think it's a threat for the university. I think it's more [aimed] toward the [Workers Syndicate] meeting than the university," one senior administrator said, also on condition of anonymity.

The administrator added that AUB had no plans as of Thursday to beef up security on and around campus. Meanwhile, a prank phone call from Bir Hassan paralyzed the area briefly after an anonymous caller from an unknown phone booth told police that there was a bomb in an area of Bir Hassan. Police gathered at the scene with police dogs but nothing was found. An investigation has been opened to ascertain the identity of the caller. - Additional reporting by Nadim Zaazaa

My Celebrity Look-alikes

http://www.myheritage.com

Downtown business owners less than impressed with Siniora relief

Downtown business owners less than impressed with Siniora relief proposal
Premier announces plan for tax breaks and subsidized interest payments
By Michael Bluhm, Daily Star

BEIRUT: Prime Minister Fouad Siniora proposed forgiving property taxes and municipal fees, as well as offering state-subsidized interest payments for new and existing loans, in an attempt on Monday to help businesses in the Beirut Central District (BCD), which have been severely damaged by an ongoing opposition protest. Downtown business leaders, who are preparing to sue the state for compensation for their losses, said they would decide on their next steps based on whether a political settlement is reached in connection with the Arab League summit on March 28-29 in Riyadh. Many entrepreneurs said Siniora's offer fell far short of their needs, which they described as immediate funding to cover loans, rents, salaries and utilities. The proposed tax exemptions for BCD firms would cover 2006 and 2007, and new loans would be financed from pledges procured at the Paris III donor conference in January. Siniora said the government would also request BCD property owners - meaning real-estate behemoth Solidere, for the most part - to forego rental income for the past four months. "The government wants to revive the economic activity in the Beirut Central District," Siniora told hundreds of BCD business owners and staff gathered at the Serail. "We are willing to urge the property owners to help the merchants." The measures, though, would have to be ratified by Parliament, which has not convened since the opposition demonstrations began December 1. Under the Constitution, a session was to have been held on Tuesday.

BCD merchants, however, say they will not wait indefinitely before taking action. A number of owners have finished consulting with attorneys on their compensation lawsuit and have only to complete necessary documentation before filing, said Aishti CEO Tony Salameh, who is leading the band of BCD business owners. Salameh, who gave the most positive reaction to Siniora's speech among the entrepreneurs, said he has already had to talk his colleagues out of a plan to remove the opposition's tents by force. "Everybody is feeling how badly we're affected," Salameh told The Daily Star on Monday. "I trust what [Siniora] said and the promises he made. I felt that he's really willing to do his best to help us. More than 100 companies operating in the BCD - over half of the glitzy Downtown's total - have shut their doors since December, and many of them have closed permanently, Salameh said. Several owners said they needed a fund of emergency grants just to stay afloat, and that tax exemptions added up to feeble relief compared to the losses incurred. "This is certainly not enough," said Michel Ferneini, co-owner of the La Posta chain. "For me, it's not really positive. Today, even if you wouldn't pay any single tax, it wouldn't be enough to save all those people Downtown. The solution is to have some aid. We are hostages of the politicians and it's not only Downtown - it's all Lebanon."

To bring domestic and foreign visitors back into the BCD, the Cabinet and business people have prepared a number of incentives. The government will propose repealing airport taxes and visa requirements for all foreign arrivals, while merchants and the Tourism Ministry will sponsor a children's festival this weekend and a Downtown fair on March 27, Salameh said.

Expert to try out 'cancer cure' on humans 'soon'

Expert to try out 'cancer cure' on humans 'soon'
The Daily Star

Lebanese researcher Michel Obeid held a news conference on Friday at the National Council for Scientific Research in Beirut after he claimed to have discovered a medication to treat cancer a few months ago. Obeid said the medication "works on activating the immune system so it detects cancerous cells and destroys them." "Experiments have been conducted on about 5,000 mice ... Ninety percent recovered from different types and sizes of tumors," he said. According to Obeid, experiments will be conducted "soon" on human beings after securing the necessary funding and obtaining a patent. "But results will not be ready before six to seven years," he said.

Business in the Virtual World: Conference - Part II

Further to my previous post it is not too late to register to the annual TIMIA Conference.

For those interested: http://www.timiaconference.com/

The conference will be on Friday March 30th, 2007 at the EDHEC Business School (Nice, Cote D'Azur, France) following the recent merger of the Theseus MBA Program and EDHEC Business School in addition to the centennial celebrations of EDHEC.

Also the organizers are looking for people to participate virtually through SecondLife (www.secondlife.com) for those interested in a virtual attendance.