April 30, 2007. For some just a normal date, for others the day that earth lost an amazing artist and heaven gained a new Angel. From his first appearance on stage in star academy 4 (France) everyone knew that the kid has talent. But behind that talent laid a great mystery; how can he sing?

In fact, Gregory had a pulmonary disease called “Mucovisidose”. It is a hereditary, deadly illness. The thing is few of his fans knew the impact of this illness, what we used to see while watching the show is a candidate who coughed a lot. But behind the scenes Gregory went through a lot of hardships that became part of his daily routine since birth. He had to go to the hospital at least once per day in order to do breathing exercises and on Friday night during the prime a team of doctors were always present backstage to help him breath after every song. Still the kid never complained; he never showed any weakness. Even the contestants didn’t feel like they have a sick rival.

As humans we all seek to be influential and powerful, but have you ever considered what the definition of ‘influential really is? Well Anil Bhoyrul Editor of Arabian Business Magazine explains that ‘if one man dyed his hair green, how many others would follow? The more that did, the more powerful that man is.’ Arabian Business Magazine have taken this criterion into mind and created a list of the top 100 most influential Arabs in the world. Keeping in the mind that generally political and religious leaders were excluded I will run through the most interesting of the names.

Not surprisingly in first place was Saudi Arabia's Prince Alwaleed bin Talal for his amazing business achievements and contributions to charity. Apparently achievements in sports give you influence too as Iraqi football player Younes Mahmoud is the world’s second most powerful Arab after he scored the goal that won his country the Asian Cup in a match against Saudi. The Most Powerful Woman came in fifth overall; she is a director who isn’t afraid of being controversial and has been responsible for brining a lot of new stars into the limelight, the one and only Nadine Labki.

These are some photos of the customized Boeing 747-400 that belongs to Prince AlWaleed Bin Talal of Saudi Arabia:

Photos of AlWaleed Bin Talal Private Jet

The cost of this plane is over $70 million!

That's not all and 'enough', Saudi billionaire had become the first VIP customer for the A380 superjumbo jet on November 2007 which expected to be delivered to him in 2010!

Well they say we each have our ‘big break’ but how big this break is changes. One boy who knows a lot about big breaks is seven year old Amr Naser: the most famous Egyptian child in Rome! How did he gain this prestigious title? Well he was chosen by Italian actor Raoul Bova to co star with him in a new movie, Amr did just that and the fame that came out of it was definitely unexpected.

In the Western world Saudi Arabia is often perceived as a backwards country when it comes to the world of cinema and music and whilst music may not be a popular industry in Saudi Arabia, the interest in cinema is on the rise. It appears that Hisham and Mays’s hit movie ‘Kayf El Hal’ has sparked a certain interest in Saudi Arabian produced cinema. This past year 28 Saudi Arabian movies have surfaced including the new movie ‘Zelal El Samt’ which also starred Star Academy star Hisham.

Many of these Saudi Arabian movies have actually been of such quality that they participated in Film Festivals such as the Tokyo Film Festival and the UAE Film Festival.

Whilst I was watching ‘El Araab’ or the ‘The Godfather’ this weekend when Nishan was interviewing Hind Sabri and Sumaya El Khashab I realized how many times these two stars claimed that the media was too harsh on them. It made me wonder as to how true these statements were. I mean it is the choice of the artist to put themselves under the limelight and like with every occupation there are consequences. I see the media as the voice of the people but what Sumaya El Khashab was saying is that a journalist would say ‘Your fans want to know who your latest husband was?’ but in reality her fans don’t care about this.

Today marks the first anniversary of the execution of former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein and to commemorate this day, several ceremonies and protests are already taking place not only in Iraq but in other Arab countries like Jordan for example.

Unfortunately, the execution of Saddam Hussein hasn't stopped the violence in Iraq ... things have gotten worse since and the failure of the American government is clearer with each passing day; more causalities and blood shed in both parties - the Iraqi civilians and the U.S soldiers -.

It seems as if Vietnam memories are back in the U.S Streets; soldiers who were lucky enough to come home alive are suffering; amputation, psychological illnesses, depression ... all the consequences of an unjustified presence - war - in Iraq ... to satisfy 'the war president' Bush's blood thirst!

God rest the souls of all the innocent people who were killed in this war and may this coming New Year 2008 bring real peace in the Middle East.

Related Links:
- Saddam Hussein 1937 - 2006 [Photos]

Our friends from Ramy Ayach Fans have sent us a cute Season's Holidays greetings!
It's such a sweet gesture to send us a personalized card just for us at WALEG.
We want to thank them very much and wish them all the very best of luck and joy for the New Year 2008.
We also would like to wish Ramy Ayach all the best as well ... Happy Holidays Ramy!

Many of us have become well ‘addicted’ to network sharing websites like Facebook, MySpace and Bebo but now questions have emerged about the harmful aspects of these websites. Just recently a study conducted in a school in Bahrain has shown that teenagers between the ages of 14-18 spend up to 3 hours a day on networking websites!! That is a whopping 1/8 of our day updating profiles, changing display pictures and commenting on our friends blogs. But aside from this networking websites are being used for truly malicious purposes- many teenagers have been bullied and harassed through their blogs and ‘I hate so and so’ groups.

Pro-Syrian, Anti-Syrian, Pro-Western, Anti-Western, Zionists etc etc etc… Labels passed around lately in Lebanon, a country in crisis where leaders bid their time, and the Lebanese live in a constant state of anxiety not knowing what the future holds. All sides claim they are working for the country and who can fault them for that, only if it were true!!

In 1988 we watched our county face a similar crisis where it was left to be manipulated by its own neighbors, when it was abandoned by the ‘caring’ west back then. The county was awash with weapons and crippled by sectarian rivalries that cost a lot of lives.

Christmas is only a month away! Hurray! Have you gotten ready for all the gifts and presents? did you buy your loved ones gifts that will make them flip out when opening them?
Well, if there's a special someone that you haven't gotten something for yet, or you've forgotten someone on the list, i've got the best stuff ever for you to choose from!
A couple of days ago, was the much-awaited, annual Oprah episode, where she reveals her favorite things ... the 2007 list is a crazy one! Those lucky people at the show the other day! They must have gotten away with gifts worth around $7000! I wanted to pass out! I even think some of the audience did pass out later! It was mad!
Oprah's list is full of the latest gadgets, clothes, kitchen appliances and yummy desserts! Aaaahhh!

There are 20 things on the list ... something for everyone ...

Following the theme of Ramadan I had a beautiful website recommended to me recently. The website is QuranFlash.com and it is basically a flash version of the Holy Quran. The great thing about this is that we sometimes find ourselves in a place where there isn’t a Quran but we want access to one to be able to recite some during this Holy month and with QuranFlash this will be no longer a problem.

Ever since we were in Pre School all the boys like green and all the girls like pink but I for one have never asked myself why! A group of researchers at New Castle University decided that it was time to find out the most preferred colours and investigate the reason behind this preference. And so 200 men and women were gathered and were shown two colours and asked to spontaneously choose one.

It seems that more and more writers and respected celebrities are deciding to make the subjects of their movies or series more and more controversial! It started a few years ago with ‘Mothakarat Moraheka’ which tackled the issue of adolescence and the changes and needs of that time in every girl and boys life.
The movie sparked huge debate in Egypt but no one could deny it held a message and the movie did quite well. Following this we saw a surge of movies including ‘Baheb El Seyma’ which challenged strict Christianity and ‘Omaret Yakoubian’ which discussed everything from adultery to politics to homosexuality.