BEIRUT, 24 December (IRIN) - The lack of centralised, detailed development-related data in Lebanon has hampered the efficiency of emergency and rehabilitation efforts, humanitarian experts have said. "Information has been poorly coordinated, and although you can access, for instance, statistics on a given town or village via the municipality, there is no central mechanism to provide a global view of the different projects going on in Lebanon at any given time," said Rabih Bashour, coordinator for the relief and reconstruction committee at local NGO Al-Huda Society for Social Care.

As a result, Bashour said, it was difficult both at the emergency and rehabilitation stages during and after the summer war between Israel and Hezbollah, to establish a clear picture of the needs on the ground. "When creating programmes, it usually took us a long time to determine where the greatest need was," he said.

Other aid workers said the problem extended beyond poor coordination to a genuine gap in demographic data. For instance, the UN children's agency UNICEF, which is funding various post-conflict psychosocial care projects, has been unable to establish how many children in the south have had to attend school in a village other than their own after schools in their area were destroyed or damaged. " We know how many schools were damaged or destroyed, but we don't know how many children have had to face a second post-war displacement," said Soha Boustani, UNICEF communications officer. She said that creating suitable programmes for the needs of children had been harder to do than it could have been were the appropriate statistics gathered.

Daily Star , BEIRUT: "Dialogue is the most important thing for Lebanon today," boomed the voice of late MP Gebran Tueni, recorded more than a year ago and aired Sunday at a conference commemorating the slain journalist's life and media freedoms in the Arab world. For a few brief moments Sunday, the MP and An-Nahar general manager came back to life in front of print journalists gathered to mark the first anniversary of his December 12, 2005 assassination in a car bombing.

"People accuse the Lebanese media of dividing Lebanon, but it is Lebanon's political leaders that have ripped the country apart," a taped interview from the 1980s showed a younger Tueni saying. A photo of recently assassinated Industry Minister Pierre Gemayel and Tueni smiling at each other evoked a standing ovation from the hundreds of attendees, including politicians - among whom was Yassin Jaber, representing Speaker Nabih Berri - religious leaders from all sects, and relatives of both Tueni and Gemayel. "I swear, there will never be another civil war in Lebanon," rang another clip from Tueni.

On cue, the late MP's daughter Nayla, who currently heads An-Nahar, appeared on stage to repeat her father's vow. "Good morning Gebran, good morning father," she said gently. "What are you doing now? Do you write and read like you usually do? Are you sitting with other martyrs discussing politics and the future?"

Al-Jazeerah, December 10, 2006 The Lebanese opposition composed of supporters of Hizbullah, Amal, Michel Awn, Franjiyeh, and Talal Arslan staged their largest protest ever. Lebanese army officers estimated it as hundreds of thousands filling Riyadh Al-Sulh Square, Martyrs Square, and nearby streets, bringing Beirut to a standstill.

General Michel Aoun threatened that the opposition would resort to different measures within days if Saniora government does not resign and form a unity government with the opposition.The Hizbullah representative, Shaikh Na'im Qassem, offered Saniora to join the Lebanese people by leaving the US camp. He asked Saniora to return a truck lauded with weapons confiscated during the Hizbullah war with Israel. He also asked him to resign if he wants to clear his name.

What's amazing about the continuous Lebanese opposition protest is that it is the same tactic used by US-backed groups in Eastern Europe and former Soviet Republics to overthrow elected governments. This time, it is the true national opposition using the same tactic to bring down a US-backed government.

Rome, Dec. 11, 2006 (CWNews.com) - Pope Benedict XVI  voiced his concerns about the Middle East, and particularly about Lebanon, during his Angelus audience on Sunday, December 10. Speaking to large crowd of about 40,000 people in St. Peter