BEIRUT, Lebanon – The curtains are drawn shut. Security guards are on constant watch, pacing the hallways and searching visitors. Bomb detectors, police armored vehicles and checkpoints monitor traffic outside. The Phoenicia Hotel, a famous Beirut tourist draw, has become a fortress. The Phoenicia was the premier hotel in Beirut during the city’s heyday in the 1960s and 1970s, but was then destroyed by fierce fighting in the 1975-1990 civil war. Its rebuilding and reopening in the 1990s made it a symbol of the capital’s revival.

The hotel is housing about 40 Lebanese lawmakers from the ruling coalition who say they fear death at the hands of their foe Syriaas the deeply divided parliament tries again to pick a president on Monday.It’s like voluntary house arrest," lawmaker Mustafa Alloush said, sitting on a couch in a 14th-floor suite of an annex of the hotel as two security guards listened in.

"By staying here, we are hopefully making it more difficult, though not impossible, for them to kill us," he told The Associated Press on Tuesday.Since legislator Antoine Ghanem was killed in a Sept. 19 car bombing, Alloush and his colleagues have been living under strict security in the five-star annex neighboring the hotel on Beirut’s seaside, hoping to avoid a similar fate.Failure to pick a replacement for President Emile Lahoud  whose term expires Nov. 24, could result in two rival administrations

Back in the safety of the Phoenicia’s annex, lawmakers pass the time reading newspapers, surfing the Internet, receiving visitors and watching movies. "Some of the guys also like to play cards. Others enjoy discussing politics or talking about literature and art," Alloush said. The legislator from lush green northern Lebanon tells of his longing to see the sun, saying he’s been out of the hotel twice in nearly two months since he moved in. An AP photographer was told by security escorts at the hotel he could do "anything except open the curtains," apparently for fear of snipers. Video footage was not permitted. "This is a precedent, to have politicians from the ruling majority being targeted like this," Alloush said. "

BEIRUT (AFP) nov 7 – Fires have destroyed dozens of hectares (acres) of woodlands across Lebanon, just weeks after earlier forest firesdevastated mountainous parts of the country, an army spokesman said on Wednesday. A total of 1,542 dunums (154 hectares) were destroyed on Tuesday and Wednesday morning, in addition to the 807 dunums (81 hectares) burnt on Monday," the spokesman who did not wish to be identified told AFP.

Emergency crews backed by army helicopters struggled to extinguish blazes that were still raging across southern and northern Lebanese mountains, as well as in the Shouf region southeast of Beirut, he said.The flames have destroyed forests of pine and oak trees as well as olive groves, valleys and woods, but there were no reports of casualties.

BEIRUT (AFP) – Lebanon’s Maronite bishops warned on Wednesday that the deadlock between the ruling coalition and the opposition over the presidential poll due next week was threatening the unity of the country. The persistence of both sides to stick to their position is placing the country in a big crisis and complete paralysis," said the bishops of the largest Christian community in Lebanon where the president is traditionally a Maronite.

"It is obstructing the democratic regime … and leading Lebanon into unprecedented divisions," they said in a statement. "We reiterate our call for unity so the election can be carried out on time according to the constitution."Despite international pressure for the election to go ahead, officials say parliament speaker Nabih Berri is expected to postpone for a third time a special session planned for next Monday to elect a new president.

BEIRUT: Hopes rose for an end to the power struggle in Lebanon on Thursday after two days of talks in Paris between parliamentary majority leader MP Saad Hariri and the head of the opposition Reform and Change bloc, MP Michel Aoun. "Meetings are going very well and will continue," Hariri said before leaving the French capital after a third meeting with Aoun.Speaker Nabih Berri called Hariri while he was in Paris to inquire about the latest developments, as well as to mark the occasion of the birthday of the MP’s father, slain former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri.

Hariri told reporters before leaving Paris that consensus on who will take over the presidency when incumbent Emile Lahoud’s term ends on November 24 would continue to be a subject for "upcoming meetings." Thursday’s talks, he added, focused on the international court that will try suspects in the assassinations of of his father and others.Hariri said he had asked for a "united national stance" from the opposition against the series of assassinations that have plagued the country for much of the past two years.

A joint statement released by Aoun and Hariri prior to Thursday’s talks said they were focusing on finding solutions to the political deadlock that has paralyzed Lebanon for almost a year. The statement said the talks were characterized by "a high spirit of responsibility regarding the serious circumstances encountered by Lebanon at the political, security and economic levels."

by Lamia Radi, BEIRUT (AFP) – Wanted: Angelina Jolie’s luscious lips or Lebanese sex bomb Haifa Wehbe’s nose or breasts. Clutching pictures of their idols, Arab women are flocking to Lebanon which has become a hub for plastic surgery in the Middle East. The boom in plastic surgery started in 2000 in Lebanon, which then became THE destination for ‘plastic surgery tourism’ in the Middle East," plastic surgeon Tony Nassar, who owns the Brazilian Esthetic Clinics in Beirut, told AFP.

By Hiedeh Farmani