By Rhonda RoumaniSpecial to The Washington Post Saturday, November 26, 2005; Page A17 DAMASCUS, — Syria said Friday it would allow five officials to be questioned at U.N. offices in Vienna about the February assassination of former Lebanese prime minister Rafiq Hariri. The deal ends a month-long stalemate in which Syria faced possible U.N. sanctions. The date for the interviews will be determined in consultation with chief U.N. investigator Detlev Mehlis, Syria’s deputy foreign minister, Walid Mouallem, told reporters in the capital, Damascus. The agreement "aborts any justification for economic sanctions against Syria," Mouallem said.
The five will include Syria’s chief of military intelligence, Brig. Gen. Asef Shawkat, brother-in-law of President Bashar Assad, according to a U.N. official who spoke on condition of anonymity. Mehlis is scheduled to meet with Syria’s top legal adviser over the weekend to prepare for the interviews. John R. Bolton, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, welcomed the Syrian move and attributed it to pressure from the Security Council. "We hope this Syrian cooperation continues and grows," Bolton said in a statement.
"Banking in the region is not achieving its real potential due to low level of corporate governance," said Dr Omar Bin Sulaiman, Director General of Dubai International Financial Centre Authority, in a keynote speech delivered at the Annual Arab Banking Conference 2005 ‘Banking in a Risky World’ in Lebanon. 
Lebanese film and TV production company, Darkside, recently undertook the production of a full length Lebanese feature film on High Definition. The musical comedy, titled L
NAQURA, Lebanon (AFP) – Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah called for the capture of Israeli soldiers, as the Jewish state returned the bodies of three fighters of the Lebanese Shiite movement killed in clashes. During a ceremony to honour those killed, Nasrallah told militants it was their duty to try to capture Israeli soldiers, to use as bargaining chips for the release of Lebanese held by Israel.
Beirut – United Nations investigators on Thursday questioned a Lebanese army colonel named in a UN report as one of the officials in charge of wire-tapping slain former prime minister Rafik al-Hariri, security sources said. The investigators, accompanied by Lebanese police, searched the home of Colonel Ghassan Tufayli who was head of the Lebanese military intelligence’s surveillance unit, the sources said.
ROSH HANIKRA, Israel (Reuters) – Israel returned on Friday the bodies of three Hizbollah guerrillas killed in a clash earlier this week in a move that military sources said was aimed at easing tension on the Lebanese border.The three were killed on Monday in one of the fiercest battles on the border since Israel withdrew its forces from southern Lebanon in May 2000 after a 22-year occupation.
BEIRUT (AP)
WASHINGTON (AFP) – US officials urged Lebanon’s Christian opposition leader Michel Aoun to back a broad, reform-minded coalition for his country but renewed their opposition to the militant Islamist group Hezbollah. Former Prime minister Aoun, and now a member of the Lebanese parliament, met with senior US officials as part of a two-week visit to the United States begun on November 14.He conferred with David Welch, assistant secretary of state for Near Eastern affairs, and was meeting later Wednesday with Undersecretary for Political Affairs Nicholas Burns, number three in the State Department.
