General Facts Capital: Beirut Population: 4,224,000 Languages: Arabic, French, English, Armenian Ethnicities: 95% Arab, 4% Armenian, 1% other Area: 4,035 sq miles GDP: $51.47 billion

Brief History Remnants of one of the oldest cities dating to 5000 B.C. Byblos found Ruled by Macedonian, Persian, Armenian, Roman, Arab, Crusader, and Ottoman Empires Under French control following WWI, until independence in 1943 Civil war in 1975 Cedar Revolution in presidential ousting

Government Parliamentary Democracy/Confessionalism- relatively distributes power among religious groups President must be Maronite Christian, Prime Minister a Sunni Muslim and the Speaker of Parliament a Shi’a Muslim Parliament divided equally between the 18 Muslim and Christian denominations Public→Parliament(4 years) → President (6 years)→Prime Minister Michel Suleiman

Economy

Millennium Development Goals 1)Eradicate Poverty and Hunger Reduced poverty from 34% to 26% from ) Universal Primary Education Primary education enrolment increased from 92% in 1991 to 97% in 2006 and 96% graduate 86% continue to secondary education 3) Gender Equality Female illiteracy rate dropped from 27% in 1990 to 18% in 2003 Increase from 3 women in Parliament in 2000 to 6 in 2006 Unemployment still higher among females (9.6% compared to male 7.4% ) 4) Decrease Child Mortality Dropped from 28/1000 in 1996 to 18/1000 in

Media Has national media, but often funded by government officials Al-Manar TV, LBC, Voice of Lebanon, Al Anwar, As Safir, An Nahar, El Sohof

Elnashra.com “Thousand is affected by modified non- Lebanese nationality law: civil society is moving in the light of political division on the file and fears of a resettlement”

An Nahar “Obama, bringing together Abbas and Netanyahu today without expect a lot from one meeting”

Al Bawaba “Wael Kfoury embarrasses Yara”

Bibliography en.menassat.com/profiles/blogs/ :BlogPo st: en.menassat.com/profiles/blogs/ :BlogPo st: