Beirut

The Beirut International Exhibition & Leisure Center is a large multi-purpose facility, in downtown Beirut. Lebanon's largest such complex, it... hosts exhibitions , conferences, concerts and private events. It opened on 28 November 2001. American pop-R&B diva Mariah Carey gave the Beirut concert of her Charmbracelet World Tour on 24 February 2004 at the BIEL. British pop musician Phil Collins in 2005 took a part of a charity concert for children cancert at the BIEL. On 10 June 2006, rapper 50 Cent and The G-Unit performed their first concert in the Arab world at the BIEL.
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The Mohammad Al-Amin Mosque is a mosque located in Martyrs' Square in downtown Beirut, Lebanon. It was built between 2002 and 2007 by the former... Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri, who was buried beside it. It was inaugurated by his son Saad Hariri on October 17, 2008. According to the architect, Azmi Fakhuri, the blue-domed mosque has an Ottoman inspiration, copying the Sultan Ahmed Mosque in Istanbul. The decorative painting and ornamentation were done by artist Harout Bastajian, owner and founder of The Art of Mosques, in 2005.
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The National Museum of Beirut is the principal museum of archaeology in Lebanon. The collection was begun after World War I, and the museum was... officially opened in 1942. The museum has collections totalling about 100,000 objects, most of which are antiquities and medieval finds from excavations undertaken by the Directorate General of Antiquities. About 1300 artifacts are exhibited, ranging in date from prehistoric times to the medieval Mamluk period. During the 1975 Lebanese Civil War, the museum stood on the front line that separated the warring factions. The museum's Egyptian Revival building and its collection suffered extensive damage in the war, but most of the artifacts were saved by last-minute pre-emptive measures. Today, after a major renovation, the National Museum of Beirut has regained its former position, especially as a leading collector for ancient Phoenician objects. In 1919, a small group of ancient artifacts collected by Raymond Weill, a French officer stationed in Lebanon, was exhibited at a provisional museum in the German Deaconess's building in Georges Picot Street, Beirut.
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Serj Tankian is a Lebanese-born Armenian-American singer–songwriter, composer, multi-instrumentalist, playwright, record producer, poet, and... political activist. He is best known as the lead vocalist, songwriter, keyboardist, and occasional live rhythm guitarist of the rock band System of a Down. During his musical career, Tankian has released five albums with System of a Down, one with Arto Tunçboyacıyan , as well as two solo albums Elect the Dead and Imperfect Harmonies and a live orchestral version of the former incorporating the Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra named Elect the Dead Symphony. In 2002, Tankian and Rage Against the Machine/Audioslave guitarist Tom Morello co-founded a non-profit political activist organization, Axis of Justice. Tankian also founded the music label Serjical Strike Records. Tankian is ranked 26th in the Hit Parader's Top 100 Metal Vocalists of All Time. On August 12, 2011, Tankian was awarded the Armenian Prime Minister's Medal for his contributions to the recognition of the Armenian Genocide and the advancement of music.
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Arsinée Khanjian is an Armenian-Canadian actress and producer. In addition to her independent work and stage roles, she is regularly cast by... her husband, Canadian filmmaker Atom Egoyan, in his films. She has a bachelor's degree in French and Spanish from Concordia University and a master's degree in political science from the University of Toronto. Her husband, Egoyan, credits her for inspiring him to further explore his Armenian roots. She lives in Toronto with her husband and their son, Arshile. She has been announced as a member of the jury for the Cinéfoundation and Short Films sections of the 2012 Cannes Film Festival.
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Nasri Shamseddine was a Lebanese singer and actor. His recordings remain very popular in the Arab world. He performed in several films and was... associated for many years with the Lebanese singer Fairuz. Shamseddine was born Nasreddine Moustapha Shamesedine in the village of Joun, in the southern part of the Chouf mountains. As a young man, he spent time in Alexandria and Cairo unsuccessfully looking for work in films. He returned to Beirut and joined the choir of the Lebanese state radio. In the late 1950s, he joined the Lebanese Popular Troupe of the Rahbani brothers, but left in 1960 to embark on a solo career. Shamseddine performed with Fairuz from 1960 until little after the beginning of the Lebanese Civil War in 1978. His last appearance in a play with Fairuz was in 1978 in Petra. His last concert with her was in London in 1978, where they sang "Dabket Lebnan" together. Shamseddine suffered a heart attack shortly before a concert in Damascus in 1983. He later collapsed and died on stage during the performance due to a cardiac arrest which followed the attack.
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Dominic John Romulus "Dom" Joly is a British television comedian and journalist. He came to note as the star of Trigger Happy TV, a hidden camera... show that was sold to over seventy countries worldwide. Since then, Joly has continued to make edgy off-beat television like World Shut Your Mouth for BBC1 and Dom Joly's Happy Hour, a spoof travel show for Sky One. Joly is also an author with several books to his name, and an award-winning travel writer for both the Sunday Times and the Mail On Sunday. He writes several regular columns for various UK nationals and periodicals including a weekly sports column for The Independent and an eclectic weekly column for the Independent on Sunday. Joly is currently developing a movie called War Of The Flea in the USA, and published The Dark Tourist in 2010, about dark tourism. He has also completed filming a documentary on Tintin for Channel 4 which aired on 19 March 2010. Joly was a contestant on the tenth series of I'm a Celebrity Get Me Out of Here!; he finished in fourth place. Joly was born in Yazd, Iran to British parents and speaks French in addition to English.
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Gregory "Greg" Kinnear is an American actor and television personality who first rose to stardom in 1991. He has appeared in more than 20 motion... pictures, and was nominated for an Academy Award for his role in As Good as It Gets. Kinnear was born in Logansport, Indiana, the son of Suzanne, a homemaker, and Edward Kinnear, a career diplomat who worked for the US State Department. He has two brothers, James and Steven. When he was a child, the Kinnear family moved around frequently, from Beirut to Athens, part of a group sometimes referred to as the "Foreign Service Brats". While a student at the American Community Schools in Athens, Greg Kinnear first ventured into the role of talk show host with his radio show "School Daze With Greg Kinnear". Returning to the United States for a college education, he attended the University of Arizona, where he graduated in 1985 with a degree in broadcast journalism. At Arizona, Greg was a member of the Alpha Tau Omega Fraternity. Kinnear hosted a short-lived game show, College Mad House, which was spun off from the kids' show, Fun House.
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Tony Hajjar is a Lebanese American drummer, best known for playing in At the Drive-In and Sparta. Hajjar's family fled Lebanon during the Civil War,... moving to the United States and settling in El Paso, Texas. When Hajjar was fourteen his mother died from cancer and his father, who had been distant, left the family. His brother, only 18 years old at the time, assumed responsibility for the family and raised Tony and his sister. Hajjar joined post-hardcore band At The Drive-In in 1997, becoming the band's fourth drummer. He remained with the band until they split up in 2001. During breaks from touring Hajjar taught chemistry. Following the demise of At The Drive-In Hajjar formed the band Sparta with fellow ATD-I members Paul Hinojos and Jim Ward. He also played on several other bands' recordings, including Jimmy Eat World's "Disintegration" on their "Stay on My Side Tonight" EP. As a drummer, his technique is particularly unusual. He plays a right-handed set up, playing right-handed, but switching to his naturally more dominant left hand during fills and rolls.
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Gabriel Yared is a Lebanese composer, best known for his work in French and American cinema. Born in Beirut, Lebanon, his work in France included... the scores for Betty Blue and Camille Claudel. He later began working on English language films, particularly those directed by Anthony Minghella. He won an Oscar and a Grammy Award for his work on The English Patient and was also nominated for The Talented Mr. Ripley and Cold Mountain . At the age of 7, his father sent Yared to an accordion teacher. Two years later he stopped his accordion lessons and started music theory and piano lessons. His piano teacher thought that he had no future in music. Although he was not a natural pianist, he was interested in reading music. At the age of 14, his piano teacher died, so he was to replace him as the organist of Université Saint-Joseph. He used the university's library to read all the work of Bach, Schumann, and many others. This extensive reading inspired his first original composition, a piano waltz. Yared gained a degree in Law.
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Serj Tankian is a Lebanese-born Armenian-American singer–songwriter, composer, multi-instrumentalist, playwright, record producer, poet, and... political activist. He is best known as the lead vocalist, songwriter, keyboardist, and occasional live rhythm guitarist of the rock band System of a Down. During his musical career, Tankian has released five albums with System of a Down, one with Arto Tunçboyacıyan , as well as three solo albums Elect the Dead, Imperfect Harmonies and Harakiri. A live orchestral version of Elect the Dead incorporating the Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra named Elect the Dead Symphony was released. In 2002, Tankian and Rage Against the Machine/Audioslave guitarist Tom Morello co-founded a non-profit political activist organization, Axis of Justice. Tankian also founded the music label Serjical Strike Records. Tankian is ranked 26th in the Hit Parader's Top 100 Metal Vocalists of All Time. On August 12, 2011, Tankian was awarded the Armenian Prime Minister's Medal for his contributions to the recognition of the Armenian Genocide and the advancement of music.
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John Dolmayan is a Lebanese-born Armenian-American songwriter and drummer. He is best known as the drummer of System of a Down. Dolmayan is also the... drummer for the band Scars on Broadway and Indicator. John Dolmayan was born in Beirut, Lebanon. During the Lebanese Civil War, the young Dolmayan's bed was hit by a stray bullet. After the incident his family decided to emigrate, and, after briefly living in Toronto, they moved to California. Dolmayan first became interested in drums at the age of two. His father was a saxophone player and when his mother would take him to watch his father play, he would mimic his father's drummer. He learned to play the drums by putting on records and practicing, "4-6 hours a day, depending on the particular day. I did that for years and years. I developed my own style from basically taking from so many different styles. I used to play with whatever I could get my hands on, which included my Dad’s collection of jazz albums and the rock albums that my friends and I had." Dolmayan is a fan of The Who and cites Who drummer Keith Moon as his biggest influence.
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Arsinée Khanjian is an Armenian-Canadian actress and producer. In addition to her independent work and stage roles, she is regularly cast by... her husband, Canadian filmmaker Atom Egoyan, in his films. She has a bachelor's degree in French and Spanish from Concordia University and a master's degree in political science from the University of Toronto. Her husband, Egoyan, credits her for inspiring him to further explore his Armenian roots. She lives in Toronto with her husband and their son, Arshile. She has been announced as a member of the jury for the Cinéfoundation and Short Films sections of the 2012 Cannes Film Festival.
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Dominic John Romulus "Dom" Joly is a British television comedian and journalist. He came to note as the star of Trigger Happy TV, a hidden camera... show that was sold to over seventy countries worldwide. Since then, Joly has continued to make edgy off-beat television like World Shut Your Mouth for BBC1 and Dom Joly's Happy Hour, a spoof travel show for Sky One. Joly is also an author with several books to his name, and an award-winning travel writer for both the Sunday Times and the Mail On Sunday. He writes several regular columns for various UK nationals and periodicals including a weekly sports column for The Independent and an eclectic weekly column for the Independent on Sunday. Joly is currently developing a movie called War Of The Flea in the USA, and published The Dark Tourist in 2010, about dark tourism. He has also completed filming a documentary on Tintin for Channel 4 which aired on 19 March 2010. Joly was a contestant on the tenth series of I'm a Celebrity Get Me Out of Here!; he finished in fourth place. Joly was born in Yazd, Iran to British parents and speaks French in addition to English.
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Delphine Claire Beltiane Seyrig was a stage and film actress and a film director. Seyrig was the daughter of archaeologist Henri Seyrig and Hermine... de Saussure, sister of the composer Francis Seyrig. She grew up in Lebanon and her family moved to New York when she was 10 years old. When her parents returned to Lebanon in the late 1940s, she was sent to school at the Le Collège-Lycée Cévenol International, a unique secondary school in Haute-Loire, France, which had been founded by Protestant pacifists and social justice activists ten years earlier in 1938. Seyrig attended Cévenol from 1947 to 1950. As a young woman, Seyrig studied acting at Comédie de Saint-Étienne, training under Jean Dasté, and at Centre Dramatique de l'Est. She appeared briefly in small roles in TV series Sherlock Holmes. In 1956 she returned to New York and studied at Actors' Studio. In 1958 she appeared in her first film, Pull My Daisy. In New York she met the director Alain Resnais, who asked her to star in his film, L'Année dernière à Marienbad. Her performance brought her international recognition and she moved to Paris.
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