Catholic radio station bombed.

Beirut--Lebanon's only Catholic radio station, the Voice of Charity, which broadcasts out of Jounieh, north of Beirut, has been destroyed in a May 6 explosion. Two people were killed and 27 injured in the blast. The device which caused the explosion had been planted in an abandoned house nearby.

The station broadcast daily reports from Vatican radio, as well as news from other religions, and items of national and regional interest. It has never been accused of fanaticism. Even local Muslims reckoned it as "a good instrument of Interreligious dialogue."

However, on May 6, the station expressed sympathy with the hard conditions experienced by prisoners in Syrian jails and solidarity with their family members. Maronite bishop Bechara Rai, and station manager Ft. Fadi Tabet have described the crime as deliberate, hate-inspired, and an attack on truth. They are, however, confident that the station will rise again. Not only was transmission resumed from alternative premises shortly after the blast, but reconstruction support is widely anticipated from both public and private sources. Damage costs for the buildings are estimated at $15 million.

Lebanon, while in majority Muslim, has 40% of its 4 million people Christian. These are predominantly of the Maronite rite. The country, whose 15-year civil war ended in 1991, has suffered much turmoil since the February 14, 2005, assassination of former PM Rafic Hariri (including four bombings in Christian areas, one in the historic church of St. John the Apostle). After that date, a Christian-Druze-Sunni alliance called for the resignation of the pro-Syrian government and the withdrawal of all Syrian forces. Under UN Security Council pressure, the last of the Syrian military left Lebanon on April 30. Elections are being conducted in stages, one region after the other, throughout May and June. Hezbollah has swept the Southern Muslim region.