ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER, BEIRUT, Lebanon -- Police have arrested four men who allegedly sold cell phone chips to members of the plot to assassinate former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri, court officials said Thursday.Investigating magistrate Elias Eid has accused the four traders of forgery and withholding information that could have helped the investigation into Hariri's death, a court official said on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the inquiry.

A second court official said the four were accused of providing cell phone lines to those who planned and carried out Hariri's assassination. The official, who also spoke on condition of anonymity for similar reasons, said the chips for the cell phones were later destroyed in a bid to eliminate evidence. The arrests had been requested by the chief U.N. investigator into the Hariri killing, Detlev Mehlis. French and German experts assisting the U.N. investigation have studied thousands of calls made before and after the assassination.The phone dealers - Majed al-Akhras, Mustafa Misto, Ayman Tarabay and Raed Fakhereddine - were among 10 detained for questioning this week, the officials said. The four were formally arrested Wednesday and the others were released on bond.

 BEIRUT, 22 September (IRIN) - Lebanon needs to review its domestic laws and policies to conform to international norms in order to combat widespread trafficking in human beings, especially women and children, a United Nations expert said."Lebanon's victims of trafficking are often invisible because they suffer in places that remain hidden to the public eye such as private homes or hotel rooms," Sigmu Huda, the UN Special Rapporteur on human trafficking told reporters following a fact-finding mission that lasted from 8-15 September.

"Much remains to be done for the government to implement Lebanon's international obligations related to human trafficking. A number of domestic laws procedures and policies have to be brought in conformity with international norms and standards," Huda, who is a human rights activist and lawyer from Bangladesh, said on Friday.She noted, however, that the Ministry of Labour had indicated they intended to present legislation on domestic migrant workers one month from September.  "One survey brought to my attention found that at least one out of every three Lebanese employers beats his or her domestic worker," Huda told reporters in the capital, Beirut, on Friday. "Some victims personally related incidents of traumatic sexual abuse to me."

The Lebanese ICT industry, which records sustainable growth year after year, is positioning itself as a force to reckon with at Gitex Dubai 2005, with a group of leading Lebanese companies showcasing their products and solutions under the umbrella of the Professional Computer Association (PCA) Lebanon.

Driven by wider territorial expansion for the export of software services, the Lebanese ICT industry will use its participation in Gitex to consolidate its presence in the Gulf and the Middle East, its biggest and most important markets. The Lebanese pavilion at Gitex will be located in Sheikh Rashid Hall, E9, at the Dubai International Exhibition Centre, spread over an area of 156 square metres.
'Information Technology continues to get top priority in the markets of the Middle East in general and the Gulf in particular, driven by governments that believe in investing in IT and a corporate sector that uses technology for higher productivity,' Michel Nseir, Head of Lebanese Pavilion at GITEX Dubai 2005. 'The Lebanese ICT industry is keen to reach out to the high-potential markets of the region by participating in different trade exhibitions, especially Gitex Dubai, which is undoubtedly the most powerful and dynamic platform for achieving this goal.

 By ANNE GEARAN, AP,  NEW YORK -- Saddled with debt and seeking economic ties beyond its former patron and overlord Syria, the newly elected government of Lebanon is looking for international help while the United States keeps up diplomatic pressure on Damascus to stay out of the way. Lebanese Prime Minister Fuad Saniora set a meeting Monday with Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and representatives of European and Muslim nations as he charts a delicate course of political independence after 29 years effectively occupied by neighboring Syria.

After decades of civil war and political turmoil, Lebanon has one of the highest national debts in the world _ measured as 165 percent of its gross national product or about $36 billion. Saniora hopes to win international debt relief, although most of the debt is held by Lebanese creditors, and pledges to stimulate the country's sluggish economy. The conference on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly comes as a U.N. investigation into a political assassination in Lebanon draws closer to Syrian President Bashar Assad's inner circle.  Assad skipped the annual gathering of nations in New York, and Syria was the only nation among 190 attending not to address the delegates.