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.

BEIRUT, Nov 14 (Reuters) – Lebanon detained on Monday a Lebanese Muslim cleric accused of carrying out acts of terrorism on the orders of a Syrian intelligence officer, a judicial source said. The source said the Syrian officer had ordered Sheikh Hassan Mazloum to carry out bomb attacks and shootings in Lebanon, but did not […]

TEHRAN, Nov. 13 (MNA) — Lebanese Prime Minister Fouad Siniora urged Iran on Sunday to act as an intermediary between Lebanon and Syria, the Al-Manar television network quoted informed sources as saying. He made the call in a meeting with Masud Edrisi, the Iranian ambassador to Lebanon.  Siniora noted that the Middle East is in […]

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."

BEIRUT, Lebanon – Kenya’s Francis Kamau won the Beirut International Marathon on Sunday in 2 hours, 19 minutes, 20 seconds. Kamau was followed by last year’s winner, Eshetu Bekele of Ethiopia, in 2:19:38. Petrus Jacobs of South Africa was third in 2:20:26. More than 17,000 runners from 77 countries took part.

To view more pictures pls click READ MORE

BAALBEK, Lebanon, Nov 12 (Reuters) – Hundreds of people demonstrated on the streets of the ancient Lebanese town of Baalbek on Saturday, blocking roads with burning tyres to protest against rising heating fuel prices.Chanting "Heating fuel, people are dying" and anti-government slogans, the demonstrators blocked the main highway leading to the town in the eastern […]

All eyes are fixed on Syria following Security Council Resolution 1636 calling on Damascus to fully cooperate with UN Prosecutor Detlev Mehlis’s investigation into the killing of former Lebanese prime minister Rafik Al-Hariri. But political powerbrokers in Lebanon are wasting no time preparing for the implications of this pressure on Lebanon’s future.

In Lebanon, the presidential race is back in the news, as well as speculations about the location and format of an international or local trial of suspects in the crime. The question of the presidency took on an unexpected twist as news circulated of a possible meeting between embattled President Emile Lahoud and primary candidate for the post Michael Aoun.

A meeting that did take place between high-profile Christian leaders former president Amin Gemayel and freed Lebanese Forces head Samir Geagea to discuss the presidency file had considered the possibility of a national conference to form a consensus on the issue. Aoun has not ruled out any negotiations between him and other factions on this file, but he seemed less keen on tackling the subject at this point in time, and he told the BBC he will not vote for any other candidate if other parliamentary blocs don’t support his nomination.

BEIRUT: The Lebanese Forces (LF) and the Free Patriotic Movement (FPM) agreed Thursday to postpone any decisions concerning the presidency until the UN investigation into the assassination of former Premier Rafik Hariri releases new results, expected in the next few weeks.

"We share with [LF leader] Samir Geagea the view that deciding the next step regarding the presidency will have to wait until the UN investigator Detlev Mehlis releases his final report," said Major General Issam Abu Jamra after meeting with Geagea. Abu Jamra was representing FPM leader Michel Aoun during the discussions.

He added that the subject is so complicated "we cannot decide anything off hand or on the spot. We need to consider other related developments in Lebanon and the region."

Metn MP Walid Khoury, representing the Reform and Change Parliamentary bloc, accompanied Abu Jamra at the meeting. Khoury said Aoun does not actually support President Emile Lahoud, but fears that a political vacuum may result if Lahoud resigned immediately.

Associated Press LOS ANGELES _ An American woman living in Beirut was among dozens killed in the hotel bombings in Jordan and her father, the executive producer of the