The Fox Blog

Another explosion occurred on the 25th of September 2005 in the Jounieh area, north of Beirut. The attempt was on May Chidiac, a well known anchorwoman who has worked at the local LBC television for the last 20 years where she presented the 8:00 p.m. news and hosted political shows. The bomb was detonated in her car, a ranger rover which is now completely wrecked.

International media discuss that she was “Anti-Syrian” or a “sympathizer of the Lebanese Forces”, whose leader, Dr. Samir Geagea has been released a couple of month. This might be the case but first of all, she was a member of the media doing her job and there was no room for her political affiliation in what she did.
By targeting May Chidiac, free press and free speech is targeted, an issue that cannot be accepted in Lebanon, the sole country in the Middle East where the government doesn’t “truly” control the press.

May Chidiac is currently treated at Hotel Dieu de France Hospital in Beirut; doctors reported that she is in a “stable” condition. Although she’ll make it out of this nightmare, she paid an excessive price: she might lose her leg. A physical disability that doesn’t even come close to the wound the accident caused in the mind of the Lebanese people and certainly on her, a wound that might take time to heal.

This is the second time in a couple of month that free press is targeted in Lebanon, the latest attack of this kind of on Samir Kassir, a writer and journalist for An Nahar newspaper, another leading institution of the Lebanese media.

“Don’t’ Kill the Messenger”

I heard this morning on the radio a funny story.
In Liverpool, UK, where funny stuff don’t stop happening - take the Beatles for example - a parrot is believed to have saved it’s owner’s home from a much certain theft.

The story: After picking up some tools from the garage, thieves were able to force the entrance of the house and managed to get in. A parrot, called Matilda, asked “Hello, how are you?” The thieves though that someone was home and didn’t respond, so the parrot got mad and asked the question once more. All that time, the thieves didn’t notice anyone and didn’t suspect a parrot was talking to them so they quickly left the place. The police weren’t to determine why the theft went wrong until the parrot started talking to them similarly it did with the thieves.

Ever since, the parrot has been hosted on several TV shows and became a star in the country.

Some parrot pictures (from MorgueFile.com, royalties free image site) below

More then three month have passed since the death of Samir Kassir. “Kassir was an outspoken journalist and writer who was known for always putting his finger on the problem; he was also a political science professor, historian, an intellectual”. Mainly, he was / still is a symbol of free speech and free journalism in Lebanon. He passed away on June 2nd 2005 following terrorist acts which lead to the explosion of his car when he was turning it on.

European academics and journalists have set up a web site dedicated to Kassir and petitioning for the redefinition of relations between the European Union and Middle Eastern countries regularly obstructing journalists’ rights and violating freedom of speech. You can read the petition and sign it at www.comiteeuropeensamirkassir.com

I, personally, saw the man dead in his car minutes after the horrific accident took place. Today, the damages were fixed and the road where Samir Kassir died is back to normal with the addition of a commemorative monument in his memory. I’m publishing, for the first time, the pictures I took on this sad day.

Two explosions occurred in Lebanon in the last couple of days. Well yes, everything I can write about the country is how many bombs detonated and how many people died. Let’s not exaggerate, Lebanon is still far in the standings compared to Iraq, Afghanistan, Saudi Arabia or else when it comes to the ratio of bombs blowing up per day, but we’re getting there - is that supposed to make us feel safe not being in the Top 3.

On Friday the 16th of September, a car exploded in the highly inhabited region of Geitawi in Achrafieh, a neighborhood mainly inhabited by the Christian community of Beirut, the capital. Security forces determined that a suit case filled with 10 Kgs of explosive was placed under the car in question. The detonation occurred shortly before midnight near a branch of Lebanese Byblos Bank. Some people recall hearing the blast kilometers away; others, although living nearby the place didn’t hear it. The material damages were severe, a building almost collapsed and lots of glass broke. One man, the tenant of a restaurant, was killed; at least 22 others were wounded. The politicians, who are currently fighting outside the country - in New York that is, where the U.N. is holding it’s annual general assembly - condemned the event and accused “I don’t know who” of causing insecurity in the country and scaring the Lebanese people. All I can hope is for the wounded citizens to get well soon; as for the politicians I hope scientist will discover soon a cure for their disease.

A couple of days later, on Monday the 19th of September, a hand grenade exploded in the Kuwaiti Information Office in Hamra, another district of Beirut. Local newspaper quoted the Kuwaiti ambassador stating that one of the employees was playing with a hand grenade left over - I don’t buy this crap - in the office. The employee was killed, another one wounded in circumstances the ambassador qualified of “accidental”. I heard another version of the story from “unofficial” sources. The story states that the office received a booby-trapped package. When one of the employees opened it, well it exploded. This event was less covered by worldwide press although it could have turned to a diplomatic incident.

There are some games you never get bored off. Although they might be old, 2D or even in 16 colors, you just can’t stop playing. Well I’m talking about a specific category of games, the one common-users decided to classify as abandonware. “Abandon” for “abandoned” and “ware” for “software” – duh !, these are not games that have lost their family or something, they’re just old games, let’s say everything up to 1995.

You can get most of the old games on the net for free, or by paying a symbolic tribute (not exceeding $10). Here’s a nice site you should visit: The-Underdogs.org
This site, also know as HOTU (Home of The Underdogs) has been online for I don’t know how many years, it’s managed by a private fellow in Bosnia I think and the list of games they provide doesn’t stop expanding. I got from the site several games I used to play on my first computer, which I’ve lost obviously due to lack of data space back then (the PC had a 700 Mb hard disk).

The site is very well designed and is regularly updated. They also have a “Wanted List” where the wanted games are listed, a community forum, and provide several game tools such as manuals, solutions and so on…

My all-time favorite abandonware: Street Rod, Pizza Tycoon, Transport Tycoon Deluxe

I first saw the movie premier when the movie was released in 2003, then saw it a couple of times of TV – including a couple of days ago. I even bought the DVD. I must say I never get bored of the movie; the story is just amazing and the production great.

The movie, written by Alan Moore and Kevin O’Neal, two famous comic books authors, features all-time favorite adventure, fantasy and horror characters:
- Allan Quatermain (Sean Connery), the hunter
- Tom Sawyer (Shane West) , the adventurer
- Captain Nemo (Naseeruddin Shah), pirate and captain of the ocean jewel the Nautilus
- Mina Harker (Peta Wilson), surviving victim of Dracula
- Rodney Skinner (Tony Curran), the invisible man
- Dorian Gray (Stuart Townsend), the ageless
- Dr. Henry Jekyll and his brutish ego Mr. Hyde (Jason Flemyng)

At first sight, all those characters fitting in one movie can seem too crowded, but actually the mixture makes the movie a success. The least we could say is that the production was able to define a plausible storyline where everyone can fit without making the movie too crowded or too boring.

The plot: London 1899 - A criminal mastermind, only known as “The Phantom”, plots to start a world war on the planet. The British Empire forms a group of seven individuals (mentioned above), each one characterized by unique skills, known as the League of Extraordinary Gentlemen whose goal is to stop “The Phantom”, unveil his criminal plans and rescue the world from a total annihilation war – well I’m exaggerating a bit.

Some free ebooks (or etexts) related to the movie I found (on Project Gutenberg, an amazing e-library of free ebooks) along the way:
- King Solomon’s Mines by H. Rider Haggard
- The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain
- 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea by Jules Verne
- The Invisible Man by H. G. Wells
- The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde
- The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson

3 Days have already passed since a major political event occurred in the country. On August 30st 2005, several former top security services chiefs and were arrested, suspected of being involved in P.M. Hariri assassination on the 14th of February 2005. The arrested officials, all close to President Emile Lahoud, served during the Syrian occupation period which ended a couple of month ago following international pressure mainly by the U.S.A.

The arrested officials, all pro-Syrians (what a coincidence), are:
- Major General Jamil Sayed: former head of internal security forces. He was believed by a lot of Lebanese people to be the man who ruled the country during the Syrian occupation.
- Brigadier General Ali El Hajj: former head chief of the police. He was appointed by the pro-Syrian regime.
- Raymond Azar: former chief of the Lebanese secret services and military intelligence.
- General Mustafa Hamdan: head (till today) of President Emile Lahoud presidential guard. He was refused a couple of weeks ago a visa to accompany President Lahoud on a trip to the U.S.A. to attend the U.N. general assembly.
- Nasser Qandil: former Member of Parliament. He was located in Syria when the raids by the Lebanese authorities were conducted. He came back to Lebanon and surrendered himself to the police after a long (very long, very very long… speech) at the Lebanese-Syrian borders.

The suspects were interrogated by Detlev Mehlis, chief of the U.N. investigation team, and are currently still in police custody. The authorities will decide whether they should be released or not in the coming days. Mehlis mentioned that more arrests are to come, some of which should occur in Damascus.

Concurrently, Lebanese divers, assisted by English divers, have been investigating the explosion place searching for body pieces, car parts and other objects that could help out with the investigation.

This incident is the first major advance in the investigation process and came as a relief by the Hariri family, the Lebanese people and more generally the international community. Let’s hope that this time the criminals will be caught and prosecuted; and the assassination will not be forgotten as it was the case for similar cases in Lebanon for several years.