ArabNet, the largest conference for the Arab web industry is to bring together over 1,000 Arab web business leaders, investors, mentors and start-ups. The four-day event takes place in Beirut on March 22-25 under the Patronage of H.E. General Michel Suleiman, President of Lebanon and in collaboration with the Central Bank of Lebanon.

The event is set to play host to over 80 speakers from leading companies in the region and from around the world, bringing together the region’s top executives, entrepreneurs, developers, and investors to cover the industry’s latest trends.

Lebanese aviation authorities have reportedly refused to give the permission for a private Libyan jet with 10 people on board to land at Rafik Hariri international airport.

As Safir daily said Tuesday that the plane was due to take off from Tripoli’s airport before midnight but Lebanese authorities asked Libya to unveil the identity of the 10 people before allowing the jet to land in Lebanon.

Electricite du Liban announced on Tuesday that most Lebanese regions were experiencing power shortages because Jordan’s electricity system was badly affected by a stop in Egyptian supply of gas through the “Arab line.”

EDL said that Jordan unexpectedly separated the Jordanian-Syrian line that provides Lebanon and Syria with electricity from Egypt, EDL said in a statement.

Two Lebanese were among seven people killed in the crash of a small private jet in the northern Iraqi city of Sulaimaniyah on Friday, the National News Agency reported.

Among the dead were three members of the flight crew, including the two Lebanese – Stephanie Louqa from the coastal town of Batroun and Abdullah Lahoud, NNA said Saturday.

More than 100 demonstrators briefly clashed with police outside the Egyptian embassy in Beirut on Thursday after they tried to break through the security cordon around the diplomatic mission, a security official said.

"Police intervened to push back the demonstrators after they tried to break through the barbed wire in order to enter the embassy," the official told Agence France Presse, speaking on condition of anonymity.

Egyptians in Lebanon are anxiously watching developments in their strife-torn homeland, fearing that their country is sliding into an unending cycle of chaos and political turmoil.

"All I can think, watching the protests, is that we are going to be the next Lebanon or even the next Iraq," said Shahta al-Masri, a Beirut gas station attendant who hails from Al-Mahalla Al-Kubra in the Nile Delta.

Lebanon’s ambassador to Cairo Khaled Ziade has informed Caretaker Foreign Minister Ali al-Shami that Lebanese citizens in Egypt were unhurt following violent demonstrations against the Mubarak regime.

Shami’s office said in a statement that the Caretaker foreign minister was following up closely the situation of the Lebanese community in Egypt.

March 14 supporters are holding several meetings and conferences in Beirut and the northern port city of Tripoli in support of Caretaker Premier Saad Hariri.

More than 500 personalities, including doctors, engineers, lawyers and academics will hold a meeting at the Quality Inn Hotel in Tripoli.

The international tribunal will hold a public hearing on Friday to discuss former Lebanese security chief Maj. Gen. Jamil Sayyed's demand to see the evidence that led to him being jailed as a suspect in ex-Premier Rafik Hariri's assassination case for nearly four years.

The hearing at the Special Tribunal for Lebanon in the Hague will play out against a backdrop of political turmoil in Beirut after Hizbullah and its allies brought down the government.

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev is expected to visit Beirut next month, Central News Agency reported.

The agency quoted diplomatic sources as saying that Medvedev would visit the Lebanese capital in January in response to an invitation from President Michel Suleiman.