ASSASSINATED, Pierre Amine Gemayel, Lebanon’s Minister of Industry. The anti-Syrian cabinet minister was gunned down in Beirut late last month. His assassination, for which his allies blame Damascus, has reignited deep factional rivalries in Lebanon and heightened tensions between the anti-Syrian government and the pro-Syrian opposition led by Hezbollah.

PRIVATIZED, the Bank of Alexandria, with an October 17 acquisition of 80 percent of the nation’s fourth-largest bank by Italian financial group Sanpaolo for $1.6 billion (LE 9.2 billion). Once the smallest of the “big four” public-sector banks, BOA is now the largest private bank operating in Egypt. The BOA’s sale comes after a LE 1 billion restructuring to prepare the bank for sale.

ELECTED, Keith Ellison to the US Congress. Ellison, a Democrat, has become the first Muslim to be elected by winning a Minnesota seat in the House of Representatives. He overcame personal attacks emphasizing his past association with Louis Farrakhan, leader of the erstwhile black-nationalist group Nation of Islam.

The 43-year-old lawyer down-played his religion and ran on a populist platform. He has called for the immediate withdrawal of US troops from Iraq, and urged a greater reliance on renewable fuels and pushed for the establishment of a government-funded universal healthcare system.

RESIGNED, Donald Rumsfeld from his position as US Secretary of Defense. Rumsfeld oversaw the US-led invasions and subsequent occupations of Afghanistan and Iraq and strongly defended the practice of detaining terrorism suspects without trial. He is also accused by human-rights groups such as the American Civil Liberties Group of being directly responsible to alleged torture of prisoners at US military facilities.

AWARDED, the International Financial Law Review’s awards for Egyptian Law Firm of the Year and Middle East Capital Market Deal of the Year Awards, to Helmy, Hamza and & Partners, the Egyptian member of the global Baker & McKenzie law firm. Helmy, Hamza Senior Partner Taher Halmy, who is also the head of the American Chamber of Commerce in Egypt, accepted the awards in recognition of his firm’s work providing local and international counsel for Telecom Egypt’s initial public offering late last year. Helmy saw the award as a testament to the state of Egypt’s economy, telling Business Today Egypt, “Now Egypt is a player, and a serious one.”

Hatem Moussa A Palestinian woman stands in the bedroom of her destroyed home.

AWARDED, the 2006 Paestum Award for Archaeology, to Supreme Council of Antiquities head Dr. Zahi Hawass. The award, presented at the Ninth Mediterranean Exchange on Archaeological Tourism in mid-November, honors individuals for their promotion and development of cultural heritage.

CHANGED, European Union and United States regulations concerning bags that may be carried onto airplanes. The new regulations come in the wake of a plot uncovered in London in August to smuggle explosives disguised as sports beverages onto planes. Liquids of any form are now restricted on flights originating in the US and EU, frustrating passengers who have had their toothpaste and shampoo confiscated by security.

VETOED, by the United States, a United Nations Security Council resolution to condemn an Israeli attack which killed 19 Palestinians in the Gaza town of Beit Hanoun and wounded 50. The veto spurred the Arab League to lift its financial blockade of Palestine as an act of solidarity.

CHOSEN, Hisham Kassem, to become consultant to the World Association of Newspapers’ (WAN) Arab Newspaper Development project. Kassem resigned his post as deputy chairman of the board at the daily Al-Masry Al-Youm to take up his new responsibilities.

The first initiative of the project will select three newspapers to begin work on new business-development projects, which they will share with Arab newspapers through the Arab Press Network.

The Paris-based WAN, the global organization for the newspaper industry, defends and promotes press freedom worldwide. It represents 18,000 newspapers and has under its umbrella 73 national newspaper associations, newspapers and newspaper executives in 102 countries, 11 news agencies and nine regional and worldwide press groups.  et