May 4, 2007  DAMASCUS, Syria — No Syrian will participate in an international trial of suspects in the assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri, a senior foreign ministry official said yesterday. He also warned that Lebanon is on the brink of civil war.
    Speaking as his superior held a ground-breaking meeting in Egypt with Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, Vice Foreign Minister Faysal Mekdad insisted that any Syrian identified as a suspect in the February 2005 car-bombing that killed Mr. Hariri would be tried only under Syrian law in national courts.
    Mr. Mekdad added that Syria would stand by that policy regardless of whether the long-delayed tribunal is convened at the request of the Lebanese government, as supporters of the plan hope, or imposed unilaterally by the U.N. Security Council.

BEIRUT, Lebanon – Hezbollah’s leader praised an Israeli government report that said Israel’s summer war against the guerrillas was a failure. But the Lebanese government criticized the findings, saying the report did not address the massive destruction wrought on this country.

The conflicting comments Wednesday from Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah and Prime Minister Fuad Saniora underlined Lebanon’s own internal political struggle between the militant group and the government. Nasrallah, who also criticized his own government’s handling of the war, said the Israeli commission reviewing the Lebanon war vindicated his claim that Israel had been defeated.

"The first important outcome of this commission is that it has finally and officially decided the issue of victory and defeat," Nasrallah said.But he also gave his enemy unprecedented praise.

TEL AVIV (AFP) – Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert faced a new battle on Thursday, with tens of thousands of protestors expected to call on him to quit at the first mass street rally since a scathing Lebanon war report. Several thousand people had filled Tel Aviv’s Rabin Square by early evening to call for Olmert to resign in the wake of a government inquiry that roasted his handling of the 34-day war last summer.

"You have failed, go home," read a huge sign behind a stage from which activists and entertainers were to address the crowd."This demonstration is an occasion for people to show a red card to Ehud Olmert and (Defence Minister) Amir Peretz and tell them that they should step down," reserve General Uzi Dayan, an organiser of the protest, told army radio.The demonstration is being closely watched as it will indicate whether Israelis, which two thirds of whom polls say want Olmert to resign, are willing to take their discontent to the streets.

JERUSALEM (Reuters) – A member of Ehud Olmert’s cabinet quit on Tuesday, opening the first crack in Israel’s government after the prime minister vowed to ride out a scathing reprimand by an inquiry into last year’s costly Lebanon war. Announcing he was stepping down, Eitan Cabel, a minister without portfolio from the Israeli leader’s main governing partner, the Labour Party, told a news conference: "I cannot sit in a government headed by Ehud Olmert."

Cabel said Olmert "must resign" after the Winograd Commission probing the conflict with Hezbollah gunmen listed severe failings on the part of the premier, Defence Minister Amir Peretz of Labour and the army chief, who has already quit.The panel said the government had rubber-stamped the decision to go to war but Olmert bore "supreme responsibility" for launching the air, sea and land offensive without a proper plan after Hezbollah seized two Israeli soldiers on July 12.

By Kim Ghattas, In the southern suburbs of Beirut, pictures of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, founder of Iran’s Islamic revolution, are not an uncommon sight.

This is a stronghold of Hezbollah, the Iranian-backed Shia guerrilla movement and political party which looks to Iran and its supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei for spiritual guidance and more. In the aftermath of the summer 2006 war between Hezbollah and Israel, the group distributed around $300m dollars in aid, in crisp dollars bills. The money was thought to originate from Tehran.

In one apartment in the area, the television is playing a song in Farsi and in a corner there’s a big Iranian flag. These are the offices of Iranian engineer Hussam Khoshnevis, sent to Beirut by the Iranian President Mahmound Ahmadinejad, to help rebuild south Lebanon after the war. With his team, he is repairing some 50 bridges, 60 schools and 150 kilometres of highway and 30 places of worship, including churches – all destroyed by Israeli shelling.

وداع رسمي وشعبي حاشد لـ"كبيرة الأميرات"

الشقيقات بكين علياء الصلح وأولادهن والأمراء حملوها على الأكف
بدموع حارقة وحزن كبير، ودّع الابناء والشقيقات والبنات والاحفاد والاقرباء والاصدقاء السيدة علياء الصلح في مأتم رسمي وشعبي حاشد ومهيب. وقد بدأ مشوار الوداع الحزين من الصباح، بوصول جثمان الصلح الى بيروت، ورافقته شقيقة الراحلة السيدة لمياء، ارملة الامير عبد الله العلوي، واولادها الاميران المولاي هشام ومولاي اسماعيل والاميرة زينب، والدكتور سعيد الاسعد، في طائرة خاصة لطيران الشرق الاوسط آتية من باريس.
وغصّت قاعات مطار رفيق الحريري الدولي بشخصيات رسمية وسياسية ووفود شعبية ودينية حضرت من مختلف المناطق لاستقبال الجثمان، وتقدمتها شقيقات الفقيدة: منى، والى جانبها اولادها الاميران الوليد وخالد والاميرة ريما بن طلال بن عبد العزيز، بهيجة زوجة الدكتور سعيد الاسعد، والى جانبها اولادها رياض وحسن ونائلة وديالا، وليلى ارملة ماجد حمادة، والى جانبها اولادها صبري وهيّا ومهى.
وكان ايضا في طليعة المستقبلين، الوزير السابق وديع الخازن ممثلا رئيس الجمهورية، النائب محمد قباني ممثلا رئيس مجلس النواب، الوزير خالد قباني ممثلا رئيس الحكومة، وفد من كتلة "الوفاء للمقاومة" ضم النواب محمد رعد وعلي عمار وامين شري، وفد من "تكتل التغيير والاصلاح" ضم النواب ادغار معلوف ونبيل نقولا وعباس هاشم والشيخ محمد رشيد راغب قباني ممثلا مفتي الجمهورية والسفير السعودي عبد العزيز خوجة والسفير المغربي علي اومليل ورئيس المحكمة الشرعية السنية العليا الشيخ عبد اللطيف دريان يرافقه القاضي الشيخ عارف الحاج والامين العام المساعد لجامعة الدول العربية السفير عبد الرحمن الصلح ووفود من مشايخ الطائفة الدرزية، ووفود شعبية من اقضية راشيا وبعلبك والهرمل.

على أكف أمراء

بعد انزال النعش من الطائرة، لُفّ بالعلم اللبناني قبل نقله الى قاعة الشرف في مبنى كبار الزوار بواسطة سيارة اسعاف تابعة لجمعية المقاصد الخيرية الاسلامية. وهناك تلا الشيخ دريان صلاة على الجثمان، مشيدا بالراحلة "ابنة زعيم الاستقلال". ومن المطار، انطلق موكب مهيب وراء النعش، وصولا الى قصر رياض الصلح في بئر حسن، حيث القى الاهل والاصدقاء نظرة أخيرة عليه. ثم نقل الى جامع الإمام الأوزاعي، حيث أمّ الشيخان دريان والحاج الصلاة على روح الراحلة في مأتم رسمي شارك فيه النائب السابق اميل اميل لحود ممثلا رئيس الجمهورية، النائب قباني ممثلا رئيس مجلس النواب، والوزير قباني ممثلا رئيس الحكومة.
وفي نهاية الصلاة، حمل نعش الراحلة أبناء شقيقاتها الأمير الوليد بن طلال والأمير خالد بن طلال ورياض سعيد الأسعد وماجد حمادة والأميران إسماعيل وهشام، وصولا الى المقبرة في مقام الإمام الأوزاعي، حيث ووريت في الثرى.

               اشاد بالاجماع الوطني علـــــى ادانة القتل الفتنوي
                        وديع الخازن: موقف جنبلاط عامل ايجابي وهزة وجدانية

المركزية – اشاد رئيس المجلس العام الماروني الوزير السابق وديع الخازن بالموقف الملفت لرئيس اللقاء الديموقراطي النائب وليد جنبلاط الذي حرص على ابقاء حادث قتل الشابين زياد غندور وزياد قبلان بمنأى عن التسييس.تعليقا على الإجماع الوطني حول إدانة جريمة خطف وقتل زياد قبلان وزياد غندور أدلى الخازن بالتصريح التالي:

لم يشهد لبنان إجماعا وطنيا على قضية كمثل إجماع قياداته على إدانة القتل الفتنوي الذي أرتكب بحق شابين بريئين في مقتبل العمر، لا لشيء إلا بدافع مشبوه من أجل الإيقاع بين اللبنانيين لا سيما على خلفية مذهبية بغيضة.فإذا كانت العبرة بالنتائج فإن دم الزيادين، الغالي على قلوب مواطنيهم وضمائرهم، لن يذهب هدراً بفضل جهود القيمين على الجيش اللبناني وقوى الأمن الداخلي والأجهزة الأمنية على إختلافها.

After a night full of beauty at Casino Du Liban, only one girl wore the tiara & carried the title of Miss Lebanon 2007 … 19-year-old Nadine Njeim was crowned by the former Miss Lebanon Gabrielle Bou Rached.
This is really funny, this is the second Nadine Njeim that wins a Miss Lebanon title!
Nadine will be represnting Lebanon in the Miss Universe 2007 pageant, which will be heald in Mexico on May 27th. Good Luck!
The two runner-ups are Maha Khoury & Sahar Sbeity. For more pictures and VIDEOS click read more

VIDEO Miss Lebanon Nadine Njeim LINKS!

• VIDEO 1
• VIDEO 2

By Nada Bakri,  BEIRUT: Columnist and political activist Alia Solh, who was the eldest daughter of former Prime Minister Riad Solh, died on Thursday in Paris. She was 75. Solh died of a heart attack a few days after checking in to the American Hospital of Paris. Known as "the daughter of independence," Solh was heir to the towering legacy of Lebanon’s first prime minister, a politician who helped lead the struggle to drive French troops out of Lebanon. her father was also widely considered to be a pillar of the pan-Arabism movement.

Alia Solh started a long career of advocacy, writing about and influencing Lebanon’s po- litical life from the campus of the American University of Beirut in the early 1950s. On campus she was known for leading demonstrations for women’s rights, and she wrote extensively about Lebanese and Arab causes for a variety of publications.

When the 1975-1990 Lebanese Civil War entered its eighth year, Solh left Beirut to settle in Paris. "I preferred to leave and to take my memories with me, so I could tell the world about them and the Lebanon I knew, so that people would not forget the pearl that lies under the dirt," she said during a 2001 interview published by The Daily Star.

By Robert Fisk in Beirut , Walid Jumblatt may be one of the more charismatic figures in Lebanese political life but when he tells his people to avoid violence, they do as they are told. And so another sectarian killing – the murder of a 12-year-old Sunni boy and his neighbour, their bodies dumped outside Sidon on Thursday night – was transformed into a reminder that the post-civil war Lebanese can remain united.