BEIRUT – Germany has secretly released a Hezbollah member jailed for life for killing a US Navy diver and returned him to …

Beirut - A rumour of a new explosion circulated Saturday in the Lebanese capital and kept Lebanese in their homes over the weekend. The source of the rumour was an e-mail that read, 'Attention Michel Hayek (a famous Lebanese psychic) predicted that an explosion will hit one of Beirut's shopping malls where dozen of children and women will be killed.' The mail called on every Lebanese to pay attention and to pass on the message.

'I was planning to take my children to a Christmas party at a shopping mall, but I stayed home instead,' said Randa Attaya, a mother of two girls. Hayek became famous in Lebanon after he appeared last year on a Lebanese television show on New Year's Eve, offering more than 20 predictions. Hayek predicted that unfortunate events would threaten the lives of five Lebanese politicians, including a minister and Lebanese President Emile Lahoud, and Leading journalist Jubran Tueini. 'Most of his predictions were true,' Reem Salam said. Hayek usually refrains from naming people but during his predictions last new years eve, he named Tueini and Lahoud.

Munich - Fresh elements were added Saturday to the mysterious tale of a Lebanese-born German, Khaled el-Masri, who says he was kidnapped by the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and held for five months until the Americans realized he was innocent. While Washington has not confirmed any part of the story, Berlin has implicitly confirmed his detention in a series of statements.

Chancellor Angela Merkel began the week saying Washington had admitted its mistake. Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier denied to parliament mid-week that federal security agencies 'provided any assistance in the abduction of German citizen el-Masri.' Berlin has not, however, squarely said that el-Masri was abducted. Most details circulating about the alleged abduction have come via news reports quoting 'sources' or from el-Masri himself.

During his alleged detention, el-Masri was offered a job as an informer, but refused it, according to his lawyer, as quoted Saturday by the German weekly magazine Focus. El-Masri says he was kidnapped at the end of 2003 and held part of the time in an Afghan prison. Focus, in a story to hit the streets on Monday, quoted the lawyer, Manfred Gnjidic, saying that his client had not been 'directly' offered a post as a spy, but was asked if he could imagine 'talks about his contacts' in Germany after his return.