KIEV (AFP) – Ukraine called for the United Nations to review its decision to replace Kiev’s peacekeeping contingent in Lebanon, following findings of "significant financial misconduct by the troops. "We will do everything so that the decision to replace the Ukrainian contingent is reviewed," Vassyl Filipchuk, a foreign ministry spokesman, told reporters in Kiev.
Last Friday UN spokeswoman Marie Okabe said that a UN probe "has shown significant financial misconduct by Ukrainian military personnel, including the commanding officer, who served with the mission."She added that the UN had taken steps to replace the Ukrainian unit in the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) and to prevent the recurrence of such misconduct.
وُلِدَ الشيخ شفيق الخازن بن بربر بك الخازن أمير آلاي الجند اللبناني ، والسيدة تريز غندور بك السعد شقيقة حبيب باشا السعد سنة
(IRIN) – The latest blast to hit yet another commercial neighbourhood of the Lebanese capital, Beirut, has been a blow to local businesses, costing them around $50 million in losses, according to Lebanese officials. A powerful explosion rocked Lebanon on Tuesday after weeks of calm, bringing fear and chaos to the country’s capital. The bomb injured eight people, but there were no fatalities. The blast went off in Zalka, one of the capital’s Christian suburbs and a mixed residential and commercial area on a main street that leads to Lebanon’s Christian heartland. Shop owners have been hard hit. Liza Mohayaian, who works in the Vero Moda clothes store, arrived at work to find the shop and its stock destroyed, costing thousands of US dollars to replace. “It is a terrorist and cowardly attempt to shake the Lebanese people’s faith and scare away tourists by targeting market places and crowded areas,” she said, amid the smoking ruins of her shop. These shops were not the only ones to suffer. The Zalka area teems with restaurants and cafes that are usually filled with customers. In fact, the neighbourhood is showing surprising resilience and two days after the explosion, as shops and restaurants re-opened as usual. But with the border truck crisis with Syria barely over and people still recovering from previous blasts, the latest blow to the Lebanese summer season may have caused more damage than is immediately apparent.
UNITED NATIONS (AP) 
