Hélou was a graduate of St. Joseph's University and then received a law degree from the French Faculty of law in Beirut. He was a newspaper man by trade, founding two French-language newspapers, L'Eclair du Nord and Le Jour. His first government post was as ambassador to the Vatican in 1947, and he later served in the cabinet as minister of justice and health (1954-55) and minister of education (1964) before becoming president. The main struggle during his term as president was the ongoing tension between the Christian presidency and army command and the Arab prime minister, Rashid Karami, over whether to allow the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) to operate from bases in Lebanon. Hélou resisted this for years, but finally agreed to coordination between the PLO and the military in 1969 to avert a crisis.
By land, the city has frequent bus connections to other cities in Lebanon and major cities in Syria; the latter are also served by service taxis.
Buses for northern destinations and Syria leave from CharlesHelou Station in the north of the city, near the port; those for the south and the Bekaa Valley leave from Cola intersection in the south of the city centre.
Internal transport is served by a number of bus routes and taxis, which most often operate as service taxis on fixed routes but are also available for private hire.
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