BEIRUT, Dec 8 (Reuters) – FBI director Robert Mueller marked the first visit to Lebanon by a serving chief of the U.S. law enforcement agency with a donation of $1 million in equipment and a promise of training, the U.S. embassy said on Thursday. The FBI said it is donating the equipment to Lebanon’s forensic laboratories as part of Washington’s cooperation on security with the Arab country.

"The purpose of the visit was for Mr. Mueller to learn about Lebanese government efforts to improve their criminal investigation capabilities," an embassy statement said. It said that the FBI will also provide technical training for criminal forensic investigations. Lebanon, facing a string of bombings and assassinations  has asked 11 countries including the United States for help in training its security agencies.Twelve explosions have rocked Lebanon since Hariri’s assassination along with 22 others near Beirut’s seafront. In June, car bombs killed anti-Syrian columnist Samir Kassir and the former chief of Lebanon’s Communist Party, George Hawi.

In the presence of the Marina Towers Management and senior executives from Stow, the developers of the project, the Marina Court was officially launched during a lunch ceremony held at the Phoenicia Intercontinental Eau de Vie restaurant within a massive presence of the media and other prominent personalities.

During his welcoming speech, Farouk Kamal, General Manager of Marina Towers explained: ‘We are very sensitive to real estate and lifestyle trends, particularly when it comes to seaside marina life. We realized that there was a huge demand from yacht setters for smaller surface areas. The demand was international, were quite a few expats, young couples, single executives contacted us wanting the lifestyle without the burden of space that was too big. The minute the need was pinpointed, plans where rolled out for a building that would be faithful to Beirut’s most luxurious waterfront development whilst catering to a different slice of the yacht set community.’

BEIRUT, 6 December (IRIN) – Following the discovery of the second mass grave in Lebanon within a month, international watchdog Amnesty International urged the Lebanese government to take immediate action to ensure that evidence at grave sites was properly preserved."Amnesty International has received reports that the exhumations of bodies in mass graves are not being carried out with the appropriate level of care," the rights group stated on Monday. "There are fears that bodies may be damaged and potential evidence lost."

In November, 21 corpses were unearthed near the Lebanese Defense Ministry in nearby Yarze, including the bodies of 17 soldiers and four civilians. Excavations of another site suspected of containing mass graves, Deir al-Qalaa in Mount Lebanon, began a week ago. On 2 December, Lebanese security forces were joined by a committee of three coroners appointed by the state prosecutor to exhume another site in the Beqaa Valley town of Anjar, located some 58 km from the capital Beirut.

BEIRUT, 5 Dec 2005 (IRIN) – Government ministries and civil society groups in the capital Beirut are collaborating for the first time to tackle the issue of violence against women, the open discussion of which is still considered taboo in some segments of Lebanese society.Falling under the international