Former Lebanese president dies

The former Lebanese president, Charles Hélou, has died at the age of eighty-eight.

His doctor said Mr Hélou died of a heart attack.

Mr Hélou , a Christian Maronite, held a number of ministerial posts in the ninteen-forties and fifties before he was elected president in 1964 and served his term untill 1970. Mr Hélou was educated at the French faculty of law in Beirut and founded two French-language newspapers.

From the newsroom of the BBC World Service