lebanonnewsnetwork.com

30/6/2008- AFP- A decade ago, it was a glittering vision — a scheme to lure nature lovers to the Lebanese highlands, providing income to local people, nurturing the country’s damaged environment and cementing national unity in one stroke. (more…)

30/6/2008- Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Muallem will travel to Paris Friday, the first high-level visit by a Syrian official since four years, to discuss with his French counterpart Bernard Kouchner the situation in the region, including Lebanon, Middle East News Agency reported. (more…)

30/6/2008- Trading on the Beirut Stock Exchange was marked by the gradual decline of activity throughout the week in terms of value and volume. Weekly traded value fell 16 percent to $30 million and the corresponding volume dropped 2.5 percent to 1 million traded stocks. (more…)

30/6/2008- The Daily Star- The World Bank said Lebanon ranks 150th globally and 13th in the Middle East and North Africa region in terms of government effectiveness. In its annual governance indicators, the World Bank said Lebanon has fallen in general terms of rankings on five of the six indicators in 2007. (more…)

30/6/2008- Hizbullah denied on Sunday accusations that it is maintaining an armed presence stretching across the Mount Lebanon range, after Phalange leader and former President Amin Gemayel said that such a presence exists. (more…)

30/6/2008- A publishing house specialized in military matters reported that commercially available satellite imagery shows Syrian troops deployed on Lebanese territory along the border in early 2008, just ahead of Israel’s largest ever military drill. (more…)

30/6/2008- AFP-The Israeli Cabinet gave its green light Sunday for a prisoner exchange with Hizbullah, even though two soldiers captured by the resistance two years ago are assumed by Israeli officials to be dead. (more…)

28/6/2008- Imagery obtained by a publishing house specialized in military matters shows Syrian troops deployed on Lebanese territory in the east and being reinforced in early 2008, the Middle East Times reported. (more…)

28/6/2008- Opposition media outlets reported Saturday that Free Patriotic Movement leader Michel Aoun has embarrassed Hizbullah and AMAL movement by rejecting a proposal they had sponsored to facilitate efforts aimed at forming the new cabinet. (more…)

28/6/2008- At least one person was killed and scores were wounded in a bomb blast that rocked an apartment building in the northern city of Tripoli early Saturday, police reported.
Police said the blast, reported at 5:30am, struck the entrance to a building in Syria Street of Tabbaneh district. (more…)

27/6/2008- Leading economists on Thursday warned of spreading social unrest across the Arab world due to the food-price crisis if governments fail to address the problem. “The food-price crisis is quite serious and the Arab countries must pay more attention to these issues to avoid social unrest in some of these states,” Ibrahim Saif, a senior economist at Carnegie Middle East Center, told reporters at the Press Club. (more…)

27/6/2008- The Daily Star- What’s going on between Syria and Israel? Are the indirect peace negotiations through Turkish mediators that were announced last month for real? I’ve been talking with sources on all sides, and they present an upbeat view of a peace process that has taken many people (including top Bush administration officials) by surprise. (more…)