Lebanese security forces fired tear gas, rubber bullets and water cannons Sunday to disperse hundreds of protesters for a second straight day, ending what started as a peaceful rally in defiance of the toughest crackdown on anti-government demonstrations in two months.

The violence comes on the eve of a meeting between the president and parliamentary blocs in which resigned Prime Minister Saad Hariri is widely expected to be renamed to the post. The tension also reflects deepening divisions in the country that is grappling with a severe liquidity and foreign currency crunch.

Read more at Associated Press News.

A female tattoo artist, a rarity in ultra-conservative Afghanistan, is taking a big risk with every customer she takes on.

It’s been 18 months since Suraya Shaheedi started her mobile tattoo shop in the capital, Kabul. She’s received death threats for taking on the taboo of the ink-on-skin drawings she does — as well as being a single woman willing to work with men.

Read more at Associated Press News.

You can now have your say in the Natural History Museum’s world-renowned Wildlife Photographer of the Year competition by voting for the winner of the LUMIX People’s Choice Award here.

Fans of wildlife photography around the world can choose their favorite from 25 images, pre-selected by the Natural History Museum from over 48,000 image entries from 100 countries. Here are some of our faves from the Wildlife Photographer of the Year shortlist.

Read more at Ecophiles.

Researchers with Stanford University have published a study revealing that physical aging is not a smooth process, but rather something that happens in what they describe as a ‘herky-jerky trajectory.’ Using blood tests to look at specific proteins, the researchers found that human aging involves three distinct turning points, the first starting in one’s mid-thirties.

Proteins in the blood can provide clues about a person’s health and, according to the new study, show changes that allow researchers to estimate a person’s age. The study found that the levels of many proteins in the blood change with age — something that may cause, rather than just reference, the process of physically aging.

Read more at Slash Gear.

When you google "weight loss" the challenge to sort fact from fiction begins.

These five supplements claim to speed up weight loss, but let's see what the evidence says.

Read more at Science Alert.

GIFs are great for conveying your reactions, but they're not usually very personal -- and recording yourself probably won't be that exciting. Snap might have found a way to bridge those two worlds. The company has confirmed to TechCrunch that it's testing a Cameo feature which inserts your face into a selection of (currently pre-made) GIFs. You just take a selfie, pick a generic body type and your face will animate as if it were you, including mouth movements. Think of it like a deepfake, but this time friendly instead of creepy.

The company said it was testing the feature in some international markets, including France. It's not certain when Cameo will reach the masses, but Snap said to expect a worldwide release "soon."

Read more at Engadget.

After hiring for thousands of jobs over 20+ years of recruiting, I have seen many different styles of hiring. Sometimes, a company looks at resumes (submitted in response to a job posting or via a recruiting agency), picks a few candidates to interview and hires one person from that process. This is the traditional job search to which too many job seekers tailor all their job search efforts. However, that traditional hiring process is less and less common.

Companies are strapped for time and hiring power, and looking at stacks of resumes takes a lot of resources. I received over 1,000 resumes for a recent HR Director search. Companies know that some of the best talent is gainfully employed and not responding to job postings or even recruiters, so companies need to change their hiring to attract this desired candidate pool. For the most competitive jobs, I am actively building a candidate pipeline even before an opening is finalized.

Read more at Forbes.

How good is the current economy for today’s small business owners? The answer to that question has less to do with revenues and profits and more to do with what political party they support.

That’s the conclusion of a report released this week from CNBC and SurveyMonkey. Their quarterly Small Business Confidence Index found that most small business owners were happy with the current economic conditions. But the devil’s in the details. When broken down, the numbers showed that most of those small businesses that were happy with the economy are actually owned by Republicans (68%). Only 34% of small businesses owned by those affiliating with the Democratic party said that the economy was good.

Read more at The Guardian.

What's better than payday? A payday that you didn't have to work for. Owning dividend-paying stocks offer just that: a business working for you in the background, the fruits of which are realized via a quarterly paycheck. Even better than a dividend-paying company, though, is a business that spins excess cash off to investors and delivers business growth along the way. Such companies are likely to continue rewarding owners for a very long time.

It can be a potent combination, too, one that has averaged total returns (stock appreciation plus dividend payments) in the low double digits over the long term. In the search for great dividend payers and pay raisers, Starbucks (NASDAQ:SBUX), Store Capital (NYSE:STOR), and Hasbro (NASDAQ:HAS) belong on the list of must-haves.

Read more at Fool.

At its best, buying an investment property is a huge step towards generating passive income. However, in order to set yourself up for success, it's important to make sure that you're ready to take the leap.

With that in mind, we asked industry experts to share how they know when someone is ready to buy an investment property. Here's what they had to say:

 Read more at Business Insider.