By ANNE GEARAN, AP,  NEW YORK -- Saddled with debt and seeking economic ties beyond its former patron and overlord Syria, the newly elected government of Lebanon is looking for international help while the United States keeps up diplomatic pressure on Damascus to stay out of the way. Lebanese Prime Minister Fuad Saniora set a meeting Monday with Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and representatives of European and Muslim nations as he charts a delicate course of political independence after 29 years effectively occupied by neighboring Syria.

After decades of civil war and political turmoil, Lebanon has one of the highest national debts in the world _ measured as 165 percent of its gross national product or about $36 billion. Saniora hopes to win international debt relief, although most of the debt is held by Lebanese creditors, and pledges to stimulate the country's sluggish economy. The conference on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly comes as a U.N. investigation into a political assassination in Lebanon draws closer to Syrian President Bashar Assad's inner circle.  Assad skipped the annual gathering of nations in New York, and Syria was the only nation among 190 attending not to address the delegates.

  By ASSOCIATED PRESS, The United Nations' probe of the assassination of Prime Minister Rafiq Hariri in Beirut has emboldened Lebanon's activists to demand the release of at least 1,500 Lebanese nationals allegedly imprisoned in Syria. "This is a blatant violation of UN Security Council Resolution 1559," said Claude Hajjar, Beirut representative of the Guardians of the Cedars, the Lebanese political party that campaigned vigorously against the 30-year-long Syrian military presence in her native land. She came to Cyrpus  from Beirut to confer with her party's leader, Etienne Sakr, popularly known as Abu Arz, who has been living there in exile.

Resolution 1559 also is the basis upon which a 60-member investigatory team led by Germany's Detlev Mehlis has been trying to find out who was responsible for the 2,000-pound bomb that killed Hariri on February 14. It was detonated as he drove in a motorcade past the Lebanese capital's posh St. George Hotel. The commission spent last Monday in Damascus and was expected to return for a longer stay early next week. Encouraged by the Mehlis commission's probe, the Lebanese authorities have arrested four generals on suspicion of complicity in the plot to kill Hariri. They also detained Nasser Kandil, a former member of Parliament. He was released three weeks ago, but his passport was taken from him and he was ordered not to leave Lebanon.

Cheikh Keserouan El Khazen Date de Naissance : Juillet 1879 a Faraya, Marie a Juliette Louis EI-Khazen et pere de 4 enfants: Amin – …

BEIRUT, Lebanon - A powerful bomb exploded in a Christian neighborhood of eastern Beirut late Friday, killing at least one person and wounding 23, officials said. It was the latest in a series of bomb attacks to rock Lebanon's capital. The bomb detonated just before midnight and heavily damaged the balconies and facades of several buildings along a street and destroyed at least two cars.Maj. Gen. Ashraf Rifi, commander of the Internal Security Forces, said the explosive had been placed in a bag that was hidden between two cars, and detonated with a timing device.The Lebanese Broadcasting Corp. correspondent at the scene said the explosion went off near a coffee shop killing its owner and wounding several people who were at his place.Wounded people could be seen carried to ambulances that rushed to the scene. Officials at Jitawi and St. Georges Hospitals said one person died and 23 others were wounded. For more pictures pls click "READ MORE" (pictures are being updated)