The Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Salman received at Al-Yamamah palace here today, the Leader of Lebanon’s Progressive Socialist Party …

Valerie Abou Chacra (L) reacts after being announced as Miss Lebanon 2015 in Beirut October 12, 2015. Jocelyne Mosleh (C) and Cynthia Samuel (R) were both crowned as first runners-up. REUTERS/Mohamed Azakir

Former Miss Lebanon Sally Greige (R) fixes the necklace of newly crowned Miss Lebanon Valerie Abou Chacra after being crowned Miss Lebanon 2015 in Beirut October 12, 2015. REUTERS/Mohamed Azakir

Valerie Abou Chacra (L) Jocelyne Mosleh (C) and Cynthia Samuel (R) were both crowned as first runners-up. REUTERS/Mohamed Azakir

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Valerie Abou Chacra was crowned Miss Lebanon 2015 at the end of the beauty pageant held on October 12, 2015. She succeeds Miss Lebanon 2014 Saly Greige. Valerie will have a few months to prepare for Miss Universe 2015, where she hopes to be crowned by the reigning Miss Universe Paulina Vega from Colombia.

The Miss Universe pageant will take place on 20 December 2015 in Las Vegas. Usually the winner of Miss Lebanon goes to Miss World and Miss Universe but this year both pageants will be held at the same time (December 19th in China for Miss World 2015 and and December 20th in Vegas for Miss Universe 2015).

Valerie About Chacra, 23, is a student at the Lebanese American University (LAU). She competed against 13 women for the crown.

Lima (AFP) - The Middle East needs grants, not loans, to deal with the millions of refugees who have fled conflicts in the region, a senior Lebanese official said Sunday.

Speaking a day after the UN and World Bank announced plans to increase lending to help the region deal with the catastrophic spillover of conflicts in Syria and beyond, the director general of the Lebanese finance ministry, Alain Bifani, said the aid should instead be interest-free.

"The support has to be through grants. It cannot be loans," Bifani told AFP on the sidelines of the World Bank and IMF annual meetings in Lima, Peru.

"As long as we can, we will turn down loans" for dealing with the refugee crisis, he said.

Although much recent attention has focused on Europe's struggles to deal with the influx of uprooted Syrians, the war-torn country's neighbors have taken in the bulk of the more than four million people who have fled the nearly five-year conflict, straining their economies.