BEIRUT (AFP) – A prominent Lebanese Christian journalist May Chidiac with the television station LBC has been seriously wounded as a bomb ripped apart her car north of Beirut, the private station said.  May Chidiac, a presenter of news and a political programme for the station, was "wounded in the feet by the explosion of a bomb placed in her car" in Jounieh, it said Sunday."May’s condition is serious. She has had a hand and her left leg amputated," it said.The station said the bomb was placed under her car seat and the explosion occurred as Chidiac was driving out of a parking lot. "The car was ripped apart by the blast which was followed by a fire," it said.The explosion follows a string of bombings in the Lebanese capital in the wake of the February murder of billionaire ex-premier Rafiq Hariri and 20 other people in a huge blast.On September 17, one person was killed and 28 wounded in a bombing in a Christian section of Beirut. The blast struck just before midnight in a small side street in the Jeitawi quarter of east Beirut.It was the 12th bomb attack in Lebanon since the Hariri assassination. 

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 LONDON -(Dow Jones)- Beirut-based mobile telecoms firm Investcom said Sunday it will carry out two initial public offerings, listing shares in London and Dubai. The price range will be $10.35 to $12.35 per global depositary share, each representing five ordinary shares. There will be an offer of 59,995,428 GDS’s in London, representing 128,548,569 new shares […]

 KIEV-ASTANA, September 24. KAZINFORM. – Up to 10 Ukrainian peacekeepers were involved in the fuel and money fraud in Lebanon, Acting Defence Minister Anatoly Gritsenko told journalists on Friday. According to him, the guilty will be sacked and some will stand trial. "There are grounds to believe that somebody will end up in jail," the Ukrainian acting defence minister said, Kazinform quotes Itar-Tass.
The official did not specify which violations he had in mind. Experts believe the Ukrainian military were selling the fuel they received. They pointed out the Ukrainians have the smallest salaries among foreign contingents deployed in Lebanon.
In the view of Gritsenko, the incident in Lebanon shows "how several people can tarnish very serious, responsible and risky work of hundreds of people." He said the Ukrainian contingent demined during the years of stay six million square metres of the Lebanese territory. The cost of mine clearance at one square kilometre of land is estimated at 300-900 US dollars.

 A1 Team Lebanon, the first ever national racing team to represent the country in international motor racing, took to the race track at Brands Hatch today for the first day of the inaugural A1 Grand Prix race weekend. Completing two practice sessions, the team’s two drivers, Basil Shaaban and Khalil Beschir, each took a turn behind the wheel for A1 Team Lebanon. Shaaban drove the A1 race car in the first session, with dry weather providing the young Lebanese with a good opportunity to gain more experience with the car and familiarize himself with the Brands Hatch Grand Prix circuit. For the second session the weather changed drastically, with heavy rain at the start. Beschir took over driving duties, but the rain, and a number of red flags due to track incidents, forced him to a limited number of laps.

Shaaban started the session well, posting lap times just outside of the top ten. As the session progressed, he dropped back, with the more experienced drivers starting to show their form, finishing 18th fastest as the session concluded. He reflected on his day, saying, "It’s been a special day for me. Leaving the pitlane with the Cedar tree behind me was quite an emotional moment, although as soon as I was out on track, I was focused on gaining more experience of the car and learning the Brands Hatch Grand Prix circuit. The team has certainly improved the car since our last test at Paul Ricard and I feel more comfortable with the car each time I am behind the wheel. "

 ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER, BEIRUT, Lebanon — Police have arrested four men who allegedly sold cell phone chips to members of the plot to assassinate former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri, court officials said Thursday.Investigating magistrate Elias Eid has accused the four traders of forgery and withholding information that could have helped the investigation into Hariri’s death, a court official said on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the inquiry.

A second court official said the four were accused of providing cell phone lines to those who planned and carried out Hariri’s assassination. The official, who also spoke on condition of anonymity for similar reasons, said the chips for the cell phones were later destroyed in a bid to eliminate evidence. The arrests had been requested by the chief U.N. investigator into the Hariri killing, Detlev Mehlis. French and German experts assisting the U.N. investigation have studied thousands of calls made before and after the assassination.The phone dealers – Majed al-Akhras, Mustafa Misto, Ayman Tarabay and Raed Fakhereddine – were among 10 detained for questioning this week, the officials said. The four were formally arrested Wednesday and the others were released on bond.

 BEIRUT, 22 September (IRIN) – Lebanon needs to review its domestic laws and policies to conform to international norms in order to combat widespread trafficking in human beings, especially women and children, a United Nations expert said."Lebanon’s victims of trafficking are often invisible because they suffer in places that remain hidden to the public eye such as private homes or hotel rooms," Sigmu Huda, the UN Special Rapporteur on human trafficking told reporters following a fact-finding mission that lasted from 8-15 September.

"Much remains to be done for the government to implement Lebanon’s international obligations related to human trafficking. A number of domestic laws procedures and policies have to be brought in conformity with international norms and standards," Huda, who is a human rights activist and lawyer from Bangladesh, said on Friday.She noted, however, that the Ministry of Labour had indicated they intended to present legislation on domestic migrant workers one month from September.  "One survey brought to my attention found that at least one out of every three Lebanese employers beats his or her domestic worker," Huda told reporters in the capital, Beirut, on Friday. "Some victims personally related incidents of traumatic sexual abuse to me."

 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.