Lebanese soldiers searched through devastated buildings and scorched bushes along the Mediterranean coastline in northern Lebanon on Monday, hunting for fugitives a day after the army crushed the remnants of a militant group and ended a three-month siege at a Palestinian refugee camp.Meanwhile, the body of the leader of the militant Fatah Islam group, Shaker al-Absi, was identified by his wife at a hospital in the port city of Tripoli, said Nasser Adra, the hospital’s director. Two captured militants also identified the body as Absi’s.

However, Adra told The Associated Press that the hospital could not officially confirm the identity, which would have to come from the judicial authorities after a DNA test.Absi, a Palestinian linked to the late leader of Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, had not been seen or heard from since early in the fighting that erupted May 20.The army searched Monday for Fatah Islam fighters who may have escaped the battle on Sunday at the Nahr al Bared camp. Patrol boats were looking for bodies in the sea. Military helicopters flew over the camp in low reconnaissance runs, as smoke from smoldering fires rose into the sky.

Al – Amal party leader and Lebanese parliament speaker, Nabih Berri, speaking at a gathering to commemorate Shia leader Imam Musa Sadr, Berre mentioned: Let us have a consensus presidential candidate and the opposition will drop its demand that a government in which it has larger representation be formed before the elections are held," Nabih Berri told supporters at a rally in the eastern town of Baalbeck, "We are not abandoning our demand for you, but for Lebanon" Berri said, referring to the ruling majority

by Nayla Razzouk , BEIRUT (AFP) – Lebanon’s ruling coalition was on Saturday studying a fresh proposal seen as a last-ditch olive branch that could help end the country’s long-running political crisis. The compromise plan was unveiled amid fears of further divisions following declarations by rival political leaders that have raised fears of two governments and two presidents, a stark reminder of the chaos in the aftermath of the country’s 1975-1990 civil war.On Friday, prominent opposition figure and parliament speaker Nabih Berri said his camp was willing to drop a demand for a unity government if the country’s feuding political parties agree on a candidate for the presidency."We are holding consultations, and this will take two to three days. We have to examine and evaluate the issue in all its aspects," Telecommunications Minister Marwan Hamadeh said of Berri’s offer. "We are of course open to all negotiations," Hamadeh told AFP, adding: "It is too soon to have a reaction to the proposal. We have to see on which programme this proposal is based, and on which president."

Berri’s announcement marked the first time the opposition has shown a willingness to break the deadlock over the divisive issue of finding a successor to President Lahoud. Parliament has from September 25 to November 24 to elect a president to replace Lahoud, whose term in office was controversially extended by three years under a Syrian-inspired constitutional amendment in 2004.

Berri’s announcement… opened a wide door for dialogue over the presidential election," Lebanon’s leading An-Nahar newspaper said."Making good use of Berri’s gambit would help put them (rival political camps) on the right path toward reconciliation and national salvation," agreed The Daily Star."Wasting it can only push the country that much closer to an unwanted — and wholly unnecessary — disaster," warned English-language daily which hailed Berri’s proposal as an "olive branch"."It is the last warning for the salvation of Lebanon," warned the leftist As-Safir.It urged the ruling majority to accept Berri’s proposal in order to "start a new era for all the Lebanese together… or else we will all perish before we can even see the light."

By Yara Bayoumy BEIRUT (Reuters) – In a cinema industry traditionally dominated by the theme of war, "Caramel", a film by Lebanese director Nadine Labaki, shies away from conflict and instead brings to light social dilemmas faced by Lebanese women. "Caramel", or "Sukkar Banat" as the movie is titled in Arabic, revolves around the lives of five Lebanese women, each burdened with their own social and moral problems.

It is Labaki’s first feature-length movie and was shown during the Cannes Film Festival in May. It has been showing in Lebanon to packed theatres, unusual in a country where audiences tend to prefer Hollywood blockbusters to Arabic films. Most Lebanese films have tended to tackle themes revolving around the 1975-1990 civil war that destroyed much of the country’s social fabric — its social repercussions, sectarianism and post-war malaise. But "Caramel" chooses to focus on modern social themes. Its main setting is a beauty salon in Beirut, where women talk frankly about men, sex, marriage and happiness. Their conversations are interspersed with touching and comical scenes.

"Lebanon is not only burning buildings and people crying in the street. When you say Lebanon, especially to foreigners, that’s the first thing they think of," Labaki said on Thursday. "For me Lebanon is about other things … we live love stories like any other person in any country all over the world," Labaki, 33, told Reuters at a 1930s house in Beirut. "That’s why I wanted to talk about an issue that has no relation to the war and which shows a new picture of Lebanon, specifically that it’s a people with imagination, who love life, people with warmth, people with a sense of humour."

Relatives of Fatah Islam’s deputy commander Shehab al-Qaddour known as Abu Hureira, who was killed on July 31 in clashes with Lebanese security forces, hold his body, wrapped with a white shroud during his funeral in the northern port city of Tripoli, Lebanon Saturday, Sept. 1, 2007. The No. 2 commander of al-Qaida-inspired Islamic militants battling Lebanese troops in a Palestinian refugee camp in northern Lebanon for more than three months was buried on Saturday, a month after his death. (AP Photo)

NAHR AL-BARED, Lebanon (AFP)  sept 1- Lebanese troops have seized control of the homes of top Islamist militia leaders as they tighten the noose on fighters besieged in a refugee camp for more than three months. An army spokesman said the troops on Friday seized the homes of Shaker al-Absi and Abu Hureira, leaders of the Fatah al-Islam group holed up in the Nahr al-Bared refugee camp near the Mediterranean coast in northern Lebanon.

"The army continues to advance and close in on the last positions of the gunmen who are now in a small area," the spokesman said on Saturday."They are in underground shelters from where they sneak out every now and then to open sniper fire on the soldiers." Abssi is the leader of the Al Qaeda-inspired Sunni extremist group which has been locked in fierce fighting with the Lebanese army since May 20 after its militants attacked army targets in the north.