عربي English Türkçe اردو فارسى
Logo
Latest News
Varieties

Sonia Beiruti Dies Aged 89

Sonia Beiruti.
Sonia Beiruti.
TT
TT

Sonia Beiruti Dies Aged 89

Sonia Beiruti.
Sonia Beiruti.

Lebanese media figure Sonia Beiruti passed away quietly on January 16 at the age of 89, after she spent her last days with her eldest son, Antoine, who embraced her with his wife and children, offering her a last refuge.

She gave up on hosting many years ago, and rarely answered phone calls. She never liked social media and refused to own a cellphone, or use WhatsApp and other electronic services.

Beiruti worked in several newspapers and magazines, and served as an advisor for many media personalities and esteemed organizations. She started her journey at Dar Assayad, then worked in several institutions including Annahar newspaper and Al-Hasnaa magazine.

Later, she met late director Simon Asmar in the elevator at Annahar building, where he made her an offer: “I have a new artistic program. Are you interested in such an experience?” When she said that she never worked in art-related journalism, he replied: “you are a journalist with a thirst for knowledge and curiosity, you will find a way to explore stars”.

At that moment, Sonia started her life of fame. She was a petite woman known for her short hair, attractive voice, smart questions, and elegant appearance.

In a previous interview with Asharq Al-Awsat, she said: “After my participation in this program which marked a turning point on Lebanese TV, I walked on the street like I was flying in the sky. People recognized me all the time, they stopped me to ask questions and I answered nicely. A beautiful connection was built between me and the audience thanks to this popular, super successful program.”

Many Lebanese generations knew Sonia Beiruti, but she rarely appeared as a guest in TV programs although many TV hosts raced to interview her to learn from her experience.

Beiruti wrote several books including The Mills of Sectarianism, which highlights the writer’s experiences during the Lebanese civil war; she also wrote The Cords of Air which features the stories of 24 women who escape to beauty, youth, dream, fragility, and motherhood, and then discover that it was an illusion.

Sonia adored Beirut and always said: “I am Beiruti and I love Lebanon from head to toe.” She also liked swimming in Beirut’s sea even during the winter.

“I adore Beirut, its streets, neighborhoods, and houses, especially the alleys of Achrafieh where I was raised. Its sea has always been my closest friend in the summer and winter,” she said. “I remember when Samira Khashoggi offered to take me with her to Egypt, to escape the war and run Asharqiya magazine. I accepted on one condition, I wanted to visit Lebanon every 10 days,” she added.

The late media figure was passionate about her work in journalism. When she spoke about it, she said: “I wasn’t one of the journalists who use their instinct to judge a star, or a politician in a certain situation. Research, observation, and questions were my only way to investigate incidents and people. During my career, I was surprised with the potential of many people I met by coincidence, like Majida El Roumi, the little lady that entered the studio and shocked us with her powerful voice and turned the place upside down. We were all proud of her.”

About the media and television of today, Sonia believed that they have completely changed. “My advice to those working in today’s media is never to be afraid of telling the truth because it is the only way to build a country. I feel bored while watching TV today, only the political subjects interest me,” she said.

“He had remarkable humor. Once, we were talking, then he jumped to his library and grabbed a newspaper to confirm what he was saying. He changed the conversation repeatedly in a funny way that never bores you,” she said about Raymond Eddé, the funniest personality she hosted during her career.

About politics in Lebanon, she said: “Even the understanding of politics has changed today. everyone wants his share of the country like if it was an inheritance. Lebanon needs saviors to rescue it from its fall.”

The Lebanese bid a sad farewell to Sonia Beiruti on Tuesday in a funeral held in a church in Haret Sakhr. She was a media icon that reminded them of the golden days of television; she wasn’t a regular journalist, she established her own media school.

Once, Beiruti said “A human could not get enough of his love for life but one day, they have to respect its limits. Time is a school that we should not skip any of its lessons.”

Most Viewed

 
 
Varieties

A Cuban Zoo, and its Animals, in Epic Battle for Survival

A worker feeds a dromedary (Camelus dromedarius) at the National Zoo of Havana on September 15, 2026. (Photo by YAMIL LAGE / AFP)
A worker feeds a dromedary (Camelus dromedarius) at the National Zoo of Havana on September 15, 2026. (Photo by YAMIL LAGE / AFP)
TT
TT

A Cuban Zoo, and its Animals, in Epic Battle for Survival

A worker feeds a dromedary (Camelus dromedarius) at the National Zoo of Havana on September 15, 2026. (Photo by YAMIL LAGE / AFP)
A worker feeds a dromedary (Camelus dromedarius) at the National Zoo of Havana on September 15, 2026. (Photo by YAMIL LAGE / AFP)

Every day, veterinarians and zookeepers make their way to Cuba's National Zoo by whatever means they can, determined to not abandon the nearly 1,000 animals in their care and help save species at risk of extinction.

Their dedication and food donations are vital to keeping alive an array of rhinos, jaguars and tigers -- including an extremely rare white tiger -- in the midst of a severe crisis that has left many Cubans struggling to feed themselves.

Just getting to the reserve situated 20 kilometers (12 miles) from central Havana is a headache for staff, as public transportation has come to a near standstill nine months into a US fuel blockade.

"The workers come by bicycle, pedal scooter or electric motorbike to ensure the animals have food and water every day," said Yoel Machado, the zoo's animal welfare manager.

Their efforts are about more than keeping the animals fed.

The 345-hectare (850-acre) park serves as a genetic reserve of international conservation importance, housing breeding populations of vulnerable or endangered species, including black and white rhinos, hippos and jaguars.

Yet the same crisis that has left workers scrambling to source meat, medicine and water has forced the zoo to curb reproduction programs and increasingly rely on handouts to sustain its animals.

During a recent visit by AFP, two Bengal tiger cubs, one an extremely rare white specimen, frolicked in their enclosure beneath the watchful gaze of their mother, oblivious to the strenuous efforts made to keep them alive.

AFP did not see any animals that appeared malnourished or ill, but Angel Cordero, the veterinarian in charge of big cats, said the tiger cubs "could be in better shape."

He revealed he needed to ration their food to prevent it from running out.

"It's no use giving them plenty if it only lasts three days," he said.

Big cats need about seven kilograms (15 pounds) of meat per day per adult, but such quantities are hard to come by.

Even when it is available, recurring blackouts of up to 30 hours at a stretch make it difficult to preserve.

With fuel extremely scarce, there's also the issue of how to distribute food in a nature reserve the size of New York's Central Park.

For now, private donors have come to the rescue for the zoo's various needs.

Every Monday, Ana Fernandez, a Cuban-American woman born in Tennessee who has been living in Cuba for nine years, donates meat.

"The animals shouldn't have to suffer," the 50-year-old said, though she added that "some days it's not enough for all of them."

Recently, the reserve went 23 days without electricity, which meant it also lacked running water.

The staff "didn't just sit around waiting for things to fall from the sky," the zoo's director Juan Carlos Corella said.

"We looked for solutions, water trucks were brought in, and we found food for the animals almost daily," he said, while admitting that keeping the park open has become "very difficult."

An exodus of vets has added to the zoo's woes.

More than a third have left for better-paying jobs elsewhere, mostly in Cuba's burgeoning private sector.

Some wait tables in cafes while others work for private veterinary clinics.

The zoo is home to the only breeding group of black rhinos outside of Africa, as well as a large population of white rhinos, the largest herd of Grant's zebras in the Americas and hippos that regularly bear calves.

"Here we have a high genetic value, and one of immense international importance," Machado, the animal welfare manager, explained.

However, the crisis has forced the park to slow down its breeding programs.

The reason is simple: each new offspring requires more food, medicine, and staff.

"We can't keep increasing the number of animals," Machado said, adding that he preferred to ensure the current population was "as well cared for as possible."

And yet life keeps renewing itself, regardless.

In recent months the zoo has welcomed baby tigers, hyenas, jackals, and a black dromedary named Esperanza (Spanish for "Hope"), the first of its kind born in Cuba in three decades.

Varieties

Singing Lemurs May Use a Soprano-Like Trick to Project Songs

An indri sits in a tree in Madagascar's Maromizaha Forest in this photograph taken on September 29, 2018, and released on September 21, 2026. (Filippo Carugati/Handout via Reuters)
An indri sits in a tree in Madagascar's Maromizaha Forest in this photograph taken on September 29, 2018, and released on September 21, 2026. (Filippo Carugati/Handout via Reuters)
TT
TT

Singing Lemurs May Use a Soprano-Like Trick to Project Songs

An indri sits in a tree in Madagascar's Maromizaha Forest in this photograph taken on September 29, 2018, and released on September 21, 2026. (Filippo Carugati/Handout via Reuters)
An indri sits in a tree in Madagascar's Maromizaha Forest in this photograph taken on September 29, 2018, and released on September 21, 2026. (Filippo Carugati/Handout via Reuters)

When an opera singer reaches for a high note, a subtle shift in the shape of the mouth and throat can make the sound carry farther. New research shows that one of Madagascar's most unusual animals — a singing lemur — may be doing something similar high in the rainforest canopy.

In the dense forests of northeastern Madagascar, where thick vegetation can block visual contact beyond a few meters, lemurs called indris rely on haunting songs to communicate. Scientists have now found that these primates open their mouths wider when producing higher-pitched notes, a pattern consistent with a vocal technique called formant tuning.

"Picture the shape of your mouth and throat as a kind of tube. When you open your mouth wider, you change the shape of that tube, and that changes which frequencies it naturally resonates with — a bit like how a longer or shorter tube on a wind instrument changes its tone," said researcher Filippo Carugati of the ‌University of Turin ‌in Italy, lead author of the study published on Monday in the journal PLOS Computational Biology.

The ‌adjustment, ⁠done when indris ⁠hit higher notes, boosts the power and distance of their voices, just as trained opera singers do.

Study co-author Chiara De Gregorio of the University of Warwick in England hopes the research draws attention not only to this vocal ability but to the critically endangered animal behind it. Lemurs are found in the wild only in Madagascar, and indris are the only ones known for singing.

"While we may think of ourselves as the only 'sopranos' capable of producing such complex songs, there is another extraordinary singer in the forest, one that is singing, communicating and simply trying to survive," De Gregorio said.

'BETWEEN A WAIL AND A SIREN'

The researchers analyzed 83 video recordings of 19 wild indris in ⁠Madagascar's Maromizaha forest and Mitsinjo reserve. They tracked facial landmarks frame by frame and paired ‌these with synchronized audio to test statistically whether mouth opening predicted pitch.

"It did, very ‌robustly," Carugati said.

The indri's songs, Carugati said, are "often described as something between a wail and a siren: long, loud, rising and falling notes, quite ‌haunting and almost mournful to human ears, but highly structured, sung as a duet with male and female phrases interlocking ‌rather than simply overlapping."

The songs are central to how indri family groups relate to the world around them, but serve more than one social function.

"Its main role is territorial — a way of advertising 'we're here' across a landscape where you often can't see your neighbors through dense forest — and interestingly, these territorial songs tend to get longer specifically when a group visually encounters another group nearby, as if the song is being reinforced by ‌the direct sighting," Carugati said.

Indris hold their territories with striking precision. That suggests their songs do much of the work of spacing groups across the forest, allowing them to avoid ⁠many of the potentially dangerous ⁠confrontations that come with defending resources.

"It's a beautiful example of communication substituting for conflict," Carugati said.

'MARCO! POLO!'

According to De Gregorio, indris sometimes also sing to reunite after becoming separated in the forest, using slower songs with longer pauses.

"It reminds me of the way humans might find each other if they got lost in a forest: one person calls 'Marco!' and the other answers 'Polo! ... It makes their songs feel much more than just beautiful sounds. They are a way of staying connected to one another in the vastness of the forest," De Gregorio said.

Indris join a diverse group of animals that appear to modify their vocal tract to make sounds travel farther. Similar mechanisms have been reported in singing gibbons, howling grey wolves and even grasshopper mice, tiny rodents that amplify long-distance calls.

According to the Lemur Conservation Network, indris are the largest extant lemur species and their numbers are decreasing. The forests where they dwell are being cleared and fragmented by human activity.

"Unlike many other species, they have so far proved extremely difficult to maintain and reproduce in captivity," De Gregorio said. "Their survival ultimately depends on protecting them in the wild."

Varieties

Bardot Auction in Paris Fetches Nearly One Million Euros

This photograph shows a family ring belonging to Brigitte Bardot a preview exhibition of personal belongings once owned by late French actress Brigitte Bardot at Hotel Drouot in Paris on September 15, 2026, ahead of an auction of her memorabilia and clothing. (AFP)
This photograph shows a family ring belonging to Brigitte Bardot a preview exhibition of personal belongings once owned by late French actress Brigitte Bardot at Hotel Drouot in Paris on September 15, 2026, ahead of an auction of her memorabilia and clothing. (AFP)
TT
TT

Bardot Auction in Paris Fetches Nearly One Million Euros

This photograph shows a family ring belonging to Brigitte Bardot a preview exhibition of personal belongings once owned by late French actress Brigitte Bardot at Hotel Drouot in Paris on September 15, 2026, ahead of an auction of her memorabilia and clothing. (AFP)
This photograph shows a family ring belonging to Brigitte Bardot a preview exhibition of personal belongings once owned by late French actress Brigitte Bardot at Hotel Drouot in Paris on September 15, 2026, ahead of an auction of her memorabilia and clothing. (AFP)

An auction of French screen legend Brigitte Bardot's personal items fetched nearly one million euros in Paris on Monday, almost 20 times the estimate, the Millon auction house told AFP.

A total of 285 objects ranging from straw hats, sunglasses, nightgowns to tableware and furniture from La Madrague and La Garrigue, Bardot's homes in Saint-Tropez in southeastern France, and her Paris apartment generated tremendous enthusiasm, an AFP journalist said.

Bardot died in December aged 91. The proceeds will go to Bardot's animal welfare foundation and to Nicolas-Jacques Charrier, her only child.

Founded by the actor in 1986, the Brigitte Bardot Foundation says it has taken in 13,000 animals through four shelters and 150 partner facilities, supports 350 groups in France and operates in 70 countries.

Some 3,000 French and international bidders had registered for the auction.

"Brigitte Bardot has once again proved to be a remarkable alchemist: she transformed about 50,000 euros ($57,000) in estimates into nearly a million euros including fees," said auctioneer Alexandre Millon.

Two dog collars, with an ID tag bearing Bardot's name and the telephone number for La Madrague, estimated at 30 euros for the pair, were sold for 9,400 euros to a Russian buyer.

A self-portrait fetched nearly 40,000 euros, while the typewriter she used to write an autobiography sold for 4,634 euros.

Estimated at between 300 and 500 euros, two of her guitars soared to 8,600 and 11,900 euros while three stuffed toys representing baby seals sold for nearly 2,200 euros.

"This sale is the logical continuation of the one she herself organized in 1987 with her most precious belongings to create her foundation. Today, her fight continues through this auction," Ghyslaine Calmels, managing director of the Bardot Foundation, told AFP after the sale.

Two days before the auction, Bernard d'Ormale, Brigitte Bardot's last husband, slammed it as a "joke".

"These are personal items. Why hold this sale? For the animals? It's a joke," Bernard d'Ormale told AFP, adding it amounted to a "disrespect to Brigitte's memory".

Her belongings should have been preserved as part of her legacy rather than sold to raise funds for the foundation she created, d'Ormale argued, adding that Bardot "would not have agreed to this sale".

The Brigitte Bardot Foundation rejected the criticism, saying the auction was approved by the board in June, including Bardot's widower, who was then its president.

However, d'Ormale said he had not understood the auction would involve such personal items.

The dispute comes days after he was removed as head of the foundation, a role he had held since the star's death.