Lebanon is bracing for another showdown. When Syria's troops withdrew from the country six months ago, the Lebanese hoped to have seen the last of foreign forces inside their borders but Syrian backed Palestinian guerrillas are emerging as a fresh threat to Lebanon's stability. They are part of a 350,000-strong Palestinian population who have been in Lebanon since Israel's war of independence in 1948.

Last week, after a surveyor was shot near the south eastern Lebanese village of Sultan Yacoub, hundreds of Lebanese troops and commandos surrounded mountainous outposts manned by two radical Palestinian factions. They demanded that a suspect be handed over for investigation. Palestinian fighters, who before last week often welcomed visitors with glasses of tea and conversation, went on alert, planting remote-control roadside bombs on tracks around their bases and hunkering down in bunkers dug into the steep terrain in preparation for a possible Lebanese army assault. A statement issued by the one of the factions, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine-General Command, warned: "We will not sit back handcuffed if we are attacked." At the scene of the tense standoff, a Lebanese army officer told Time, "We are ready for anything."

SULTAN YACOUB, Lebanon, Oct 28 (Reuters) - Lebanon's army loosened its grip on pro-Syrian Palestinian guerrillas on Friday, two days after it had them encircled inside their bases near the Syrian border, witnesses said.The Lebanese government on Thursday played down the significance of the army deployment in the eastern Bekaa Valley, saying it was seeking talks, not an armed conflict with militants over their armed presence outside refugee camps.

Witnesses said troops removed two checkpoints near positions run by the Syrian-backed Fatah Uprising and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine-General Command (PLFP-GC).The army also allowed militants to leave the bases to obtain food and supplies, they added.Lebanese army commandos, supported by tanks, had deployed in force along the Syrian border, in response to the shooting death of a civilian army contractor by suspected Palestinian gunmen.

 LUX Fashion World 2005 came to a fitting end in the region's fashion capital recently. The highly successful event featured world-renowned and fast-rising Arabic designers who displayed glamorous fashion ensembles that incorporated the region