BEIRUT, Lebanon (AP) 14 feb 2007 — Tens of thousands packed into a city square Wednesday to mark the second anniversary of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri’s assassination as hundreds of troops were deployed a day after bus bombings killed three people.Troops in full combat gear and armored cars deployed in and around Martyrs’ Square, where the country’s two main rival groups were present: government supporters commemorating Hariri’s death and opposition supporters continuing their daily sit-in to demand the government’s resignation.
The soldiers set up a razor wire barrier to separate the two groups, and police conducted body searches of people arriving in the square.At exactly 12:55 p.m. — the time of the explosion that killed Hariri and 22 others — the crowd fell silent except for a muezzin making the Islamic call to prayer and the tolling of a church bell. Standing at the speaker’s podium, Hariri’s son, Saad, and sister, Bahiya, prayed.The speakers addressed the crowd from behind bulletproof glass, calling for approval of a U.N.-created tribunal to try suspects in the Hariri assassination. Please Click READ MORE to view more pictures
Khazen.org presents its deepest condoleances to the family of the innocent victims and martyrs of Lebanon Michel Attar and Laurice Gemayel. Pope Benedict XVI on Wednesday deplored the twin bomb attacks that claimed at least three lives near Beirut and urged Lebanon’s people and leaders to reject violence. "He entreats the Lebanese people and their leaders to unanimously reject violence and (work) at this tragic moment for national unity and the common good," The pope said in a cable to Cardinal Nasrallah Sfeir in Lebanon.The message, sent on the pope’s behalf by Vatican State Secretary Tarcisio Bertone, said Benedict had been "deeply pained" by news of the bus bombings Tuesday in a Christian area northeast of Beirut. AINALAK,LEBANON 
BEIRUT, The Associated Press Lebanon: Too much zeal for reporting may have led three Lebanese journalists to break into the apartment of a key witness in the slaying of former Prime Minster Rafik Hariri 
BEIRUT (Reuters) –
BEIRUT (AFP) – Arab League chief Amr Mussa is due to return to Lebanon next month in a new bid to help resolve the country’s acute political crisis, a government minister has said. "We’re expecting him on February 8," Telecommunication Minister Marwan Hamadeh told AFP Wednesday."Regardless of progress (on resolving the crisis), his presence has become indispensable," he said.
JERUSALEM – Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert spent hours Thursday testifying before the commission investigating Israel’s conduct during its much-criticized war in Lebanon over the summer. The Winograd commission was appointed in the fall to try to reconstruct the government’s decisions during the war with Lebanon’s Hezbollah guerrillas and to determine if anyone should be censured.
