Elie Saab Jr and wife, Christina Mourad Saab, have welcomed a baby girl named Sophia Saab. Instagram / eliesjr
Elie Saab Jr and wife, Christina Mourad Saab, have welcomed a baby girl named Sophia Saab. Instagram / eliesjr
Elie Saab Jr and wife, Christina Mourad Saab, have welcomed a baby girl named Sophia Saab. Instagram / eliesjr
Elie Saab Jr and wife, Christina Mourad Saab, have welcomed a baby girl named Sophia Saab. Instagram / eliesjr

Elie Saab Jr and wife Christina Mourad Saab have welcomed a baby girl


Farah Andrews
  • English
  • Arabic

There's happy news for the Saab family. Elie Saab Jr, the son of Lebanese fashion designer Elie Saab, has welcomed a baby girl with his wife, Christina Mourad Saab.

The couple confirmed the happy news on Instagram, with photos of the family of three.

"Baby Sophia Saab, 02.09.20," Saab Jr wrote on the social media site, captioning two photos and confirming her name and date of birth.

In the two images, Saab Jr is holding the new arrival, while the new mum looks on lovingly. As you'd expect from a fashion family, the pair are dressed in perfectly tailored looks; a shirt and black jacket for the new dad, and a relaxed white shirt for the new mum. Sophia is wearing a little white hat and is wrapped in a blanket.

The couple had not gone public on social media with the news that they were expecting a new arrival until announcing her birth.

Saab Jr and Christina, who goes by Kika, married in a lavish ceremony in July 2019.

At the time, the Beirut wedding was described as Lebanon's wedding of the year. The religious ceremony was held in the Church of Bkerke, which is north-east of Beirut, and was attended by more than 1,000 guests. For the reception, the festivities moved to the exclusive Faqra Club. The pre-wedding celebrations were held at Le Plateau de Bakish, close to the Faqra Club.

The wedding was attended by some of the biggest names in Lebanon, with Elissa, Assi El Hallani and Michel Fadel all performing at the event.

Naturally, the bride wore a custom gown by her father-in-law, Elie Saab. For the weekend-long occasion, Christina wore an impressive four Elie Saab designs, while for the pre-wedding party at Le Plateau de Bakish she donned a floor-length white dress with a gold belt, sheer gold abaya and gold headpiece.

Look back at photos of Elie Saab Jr and Christina Mourad Saab's Beirut wedding here: 

The biog

Hometown: Birchgrove, Sydney Australia
Age: 59
Favourite TV series: Outlander Netflix series
Favourite place in the UAE: Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque / desert / Louvre Abu Dhabi
Favourite book: Father of our Nation: Collected Quotes of Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan
Thing you will miss most about the UAE: My friends and family, Formula 1, having Friday's off, desert adventures, and Arabic culture and people
 

Conflict, drought, famine

Estimates of the number of deaths caused by the famine range from 400,000 to 1 million, according to a document prepared for the UK House of Lords in 2024.
It has been claimed that the policies of the Ethiopian government, which took control after deposing Emperor Haile Selassie in a military-led revolution in 1974, contributed to the scale of the famine.
Dr Miriam Bradley, senior lecturer in humanitarian studies at the University of Manchester, has argued that, by the early 1980s, “several government policies combined to cause, rather than prevent, a famine which lasted from 1983 to 1985. Mengistu’s government imposed Stalinist-model agricultural policies involving forced collectivisation and villagisation [relocation of communities into planned villages].
The West became aware of the catastrophe through a series of BBC News reports by journalist Michael Buerk in October 1984 describing a “biblical famine” and containing graphic images of thousands of people, including children, facing starvation.

Band Aid

Bob Geldof, singer with the Irish rock group The Boomtown Rats, formed Band Aid in response to the horrific images shown in the news broadcasts.
With Midge Ure of the band Ultravox, he wrote the hit charity single Do They Know it’s Christmas in December 1984, featuring a string of high-profile musicians.
Following the single’s success, the idea to stage a rock concert evolved.
Live Aid was a series of simultaneous concerts that took place at Wembley Stadium in London, John F Kennedy Stadium in Philadelphia, the US, and at various other venues across the world.
The combined event was broadcast to an estimated worldwide audience of 1.5 billion.

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Country-size land deals

US interest in purchasing territory is not as outlandish as it sounds. Here's a look at some big land transactions between nations:

Louisiana Purchase

If Donald Trump is one who aims to broker "a deal of the century", then this was the "deal of the 19th Century". In 1803, the US nearly doubled in size when it bought 2,140,000 square kilometres from France for $15 million.

Florida Purchase Treaty

The US courted Spain for Florida for years. Spain eventually realised its burden in holding on to the territory and in 1819 effectively ceded it to America in a wider border treaty. 

Alaska purchase

America's spending spree continued in 1867 when it acquired 1,518,800 km2 of  Alaskan land from Russia for $7.2m. Critics panned the government for buying "useless land".

The Philippines

At the end of the Spanish-American War, a provision in the 1898 Treaty of Paris saw Spain surrender the Philippines for a payment of $20 million. 

US Virgin Islands

It's not like a US president has never reached a deal with Denmark before. In 1917 the US purchased the Danish West Indies for $25m and renamed them the US Virgin Islands.

Gwadar

The most recent sovereign land purchase was in 1958 when Pakistan bought the southwestern port of Gwadar from Oman for 5.5bn Pakistan rupees. 

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Available: Now

MATCH INFO

Who: UAE v USA
What: first T20 international
When: Friday, 2pm
Where: ICC Academy in Dubai

What can victims do?

Always use only regulated platforms

Stop all transactions and communication on suspicion

Save all evidence (screenshots, chat logs, transaction IDs)

Report to local authorities

Warn others to prevent further harm

Courtesy: Crystal Intelligence

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