TRIPOLI, Lebanon (AFP) - Tension ran high in north Lebanon's capital of Tripoli on Sunday even as the army was deployed in force a day after a man died in an apartment block explosion.  A security official told AFP that a tobacco shop run by an Alawite was set ablaze in the mainly Sunni district of Bab al-Tebbaneh, the scene of Saturday's blast in which 20 people were also wounded and several homes damaged. Civil defence workers put out the fire before it could spread to other businesses, the official said, declining to be named. The latest incident took place despite the deployment over the past week of army and interior ministry forces in the port city since deadly clashes between Sunnis and members of the Alawite community, an offshoot of Shiite Islam.

Armoured vehicles were posted at entrances to Bab al-Tebbaneh and two other densely populated districts, Jabal Mohsen and Al-Qobbe, where nine people were killed in sectarian clashes on June 22 and 23. It was still not publicly known on Sunday what caused Saturday's explosion which killed a local resident with no known political affiliation. Almost 500 people went to the victim's funeral which was also attended by dozens of armed militants, some wearing black headbands and chanting Koranic verses in praise of martyrdom. Lebanon's Sunni mufti, Mohammed Rashid Qabbani, condemned the explosion as a "criminal act aimed at spreading sedition," and urged all politicians to help Prime Minister Fuad Siniora in his protracted efforts to form a new government. Residents of Bab al-Tebbaneh who support the Western-backed majority in parliament have clashed repeatedly with Alawites in the nearby Jabal Mohsen district who backs hizbollah. Later on Saturday, three grenades exploded in Bab al-Tebbaneh over a half-hour period but no one was injured and no buildings were damaged, security officials said.

And two men were wounded on Friday night in Tripoli when a grenade went off, an army spokesman said, adding that one lost a leg in the blast. The Tripoli clashes have raised fears of a nationwide security breakdown amid protracted efforts by Siniora to form a national unity cabinet since a Qatari-brokered deal in May to end an 18-month political crisis. Rival factions continue to bicker over the distribution of key portfolios in a new 30-member government. The deal was struck after at least 65 people were killed in May in sectarian clashes that saw Hezbollah stage a spectacular takeover of mainly Sunni areas of west Beirut.

BEIRUT (AFP) - Two years after the worst oil spill in the east Mediterranean left thousands of tonnes of crude over three-quarters of Lebanon's coast, the beaches are almost all clean but the troubles continue.  In July 2006, in the midst of the month-long war between Israel and Lebanon's Shiite Hezbollah fighters, Israeli aircraft bombed a coastal power plant at Jiyeh, 40 kilometres (25 miles) south of Beirut.Around 15,000 tonnes of oil flooded into the sea and was carried by the current, leaving 150 kilometres (95 miles) of coastline covered with thick black residue.

The once glitzy tourist beaches were covered with a film of filthy discharge and the breathtaking azure sea left blackened with oily deposits. Now after two years' work dedicated to it, the Mediterranean has recovered its blue and the white sandy beaches are back to their sparkling former glory. Only the Jozor al-Nakhel, or Palm Tree Island, nature reserve, west of the northern town of Tripoli is still being cleaned. But the impact of the spill remains a headache for Lebanon. At Jiyeh beach, more than 800 tonnes of oil-covered rocks and sand sit it huge heavy-duty plastic bags, only metres (yards) from the water's edge waiting for someone to work out how to get rid of them.

President General Michel Suleiman spoke at a meeting of Lebanon's top 15 Christian and Muslim religious leaders, who convened at the presidential palace after two days of sectarian clashes in the northern city of Tripoli left eight people dead and 40 wounded. Suleiman said the country's political and religious leaders must find a starting point to solve the crisis and heal the wounds. It was not immediately clear whether the Tripoli clashes