By Noor Akl for (CNN) — With 220 kilometers of Mediterranean coastline and 300 days of sun per year, Lebanon’s beaches are one of the country’s main assets and millions of dollars have been invested in the past few years to develop dozens of resorts along the coast.But these same resorts are now counting the losses inflicted by Israeli strikes and ensuing oil spills which have turned the Big Blue into a Big Black.
The month-long war between Hezbollah and Israel and an eight-week sea and air blockade have increased Lebanon’s public debt to $41 billion from the $38.6 billion estimated at the start of 2006.The conflict caused extensive damage to the country’s infrastructure leaving 15,000 houses and apartments leveled, 78 bridges and 630 km of road destroyed and an economy in tatters. But the most harshly hit sector was perhaps the tourism industry which lost an estimated $2.5 billion in expected revenues. The wellbeing of Lebanon’s economy depends greatly on the travel and tourism industry which contributes 11% of the GDP thanks to the country’s sandy beaches, snowy peaks and vibrant nightlife.
BEIRUT, Lebanon, Sept. 30, By MICHAEL SLACKMAN 
JERUSALEM (CNN)October 1, 2006 — United Nations peacekeepers Sunday denied Israel’s assertion that it had completely withdrawn all of its soldiers from southern Lebanon.UNIFIL spokesman Alexander Ivanko told CNN Israeli troops still control the border village of Ghajar.
daily star, sept 30, BEIRUT: More help from UN member states is needed to advance the investigation into the assassination of former Lebanese Premier Rafik Hariri, the head of the UN probe, Serge Brammertz, said on Friday. Briefing the UN Security Council on his second report, which was issued Monday, Brammertz said the investigations have progressed but that there should be "continued backing" from the international community for the probe. He said that so far, most of the member states that the UN has asked for help or information have responded in a timely fashion, including Syria, whose cooperation Brammertz called "generally satisfactory." 
HARISSA, Lebanon (AFP) Sun Sep 24, – Anti-Syrian Christian leader Samir Geagea scoffed at Hezbollah’s claims of victory in its devastating conflict with Israel, during a rally attended by tens of thousands. "We are the victors, and yet we do not feel it was victory but rather that a real catastrophe befell our country, and that our fate and destiny are at the mercy of the winds," said the Lebanese Forces (LF) leader and member of Lebanon’s "March 14" group Sunday.
BEIRUT, Lebanon -Sept. 22 – 
By Anne Applebaum , Already, angry Palestinian militants have assaulted seven West Bank and Gaza churches, destroying two of them. In Somalia, gunmen shot dead an elderly Italian nun. Radical clerics from Qatar to Qom have called, variously, for a "day of anger" or for worshipers to "hunt down" the pope and his followers. From Turkey to Malaysia, Muslim politicians have condemned the pope and called his apology "insufficient." And all of this because Benedict XVI, speaking at the University of Regensburg, quoted a Byzantine emperor who, more than 600 years ago, called Islam a faith "spread by the sword." We’ve been here before, of course. Similar protests were sparked last winter by cartoon portrayals of Muhammad in the Danish press. Similar apologies resulted, though Benedict’s is more surprising than those of the Danish government. No one, apparently, can remember any pope, not even the media-friendly John Paul II, apologizing for anything in such specific terms: not for the Inquisition, not for the persecution of Galileo and certainly not for a single comment made to an academic audience in an unimportant German city.
ASSOCIATED PRESS, NAIROBI, Kenya
