Beirut, 15 Nov. (AKI) - The leader of Lebanon's largest opposition party, General Michel Auon, was set on Monday to begin an official visit to the United States, a trip in which the former prime minister is expected to try to win Washington's backing of his candidature in any eventual presidential election in Lebanon. "Aoun was formally invited by the American authorities, but for the moment we cannot provide any detail on the length of the visit or the meetings which the General will hold with officials in Washington," Aoun's spokeswoman, May Aql, told Adnkronos International (AKI).

Aoun, whose Free Patriotic Movement won 21 seats in parliamentary elections in May, is seen as a possible successor to Lebanon's besieged president, Emile Lahoud. While his term in office only expires in 2007. "What is certain is that during this trip Aoun will try to establish direct, high level contacts with American officials ahead of eventual presidential elections," says Saad Kiwan, a journalist with the Lebanese newspaper, as-Safir, told AKI. Aoun returned to Lebanon just before the May elections after spending almost 15 years in exile in Paris. He fled Lebanon in 1991 after Syrian troops defeated his forces during one of the closing battles of Lebanon's civil war.

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CTV.ca News StaffResidents of a Dartmouth, Nova Scotia neighbourhood woke up Sunday morning to anti-Lebanese graffiti scrawled on more than 20 businesses and homes stretching across several blocks. Many of them began working quickly to remove the offensive messages from the walls.The messages contained racial slurs and politically charged statements, many too offensive to publish. They were hand-written in magic marker and appeared to be carefully conceived and well-scripted.

"Isn't it nice how their children mix with the white folks of Halifax," read one of the messages. Another claimed that local Lebanese-Canadian owned businesses are "turning the neighbourhoods into ghettos."A representative of local Lebanese Canadian business owners told CTV he is concerned the racist graffiti could just be the beginning. "It's a very personal attack on the Lebanese people in general, and the Lebanese business people," said Sid Chedrawe, from the Canadian Lebanese Chamber of Commerce. "The unknown is will they keep it to writing on the walls and defacing property or will they take it a step further."