By Michael Hirst in Beirut, Sunday Telegraph, Talking politics is normally a favourite pastime in Lebanon. But after a summer of war and an autumn of government in deadlock, Beirut’s shops, cafes and barbers have drawn a line under the heated national dialogue by banning all talk of current affairs on their premises.With the country’s inter-religious tensions at levels not seen since the bitter civil war of the 1980s, the outcome of the trial of strength between the government and the Hizbollah-led opposition is on everyone’s mind.But with little prospect of a swift resolution, and fed up with the custom lost due to a continuing six-week sit-in by Hizbollah protesters in central Beirut, many of the capital’s businesses now want a polite silence.
Banks have emailed staff requesting that they refrain from engaging in political conversation with customers, and some companies have gone as far as to block political websites from their computer systems."Signs are going up in shops, restaurants, nightclubs and even the backs of cars asking people to stop talking about politics," said Tarek Hamid, 42, who owns a boutique designer clothes shop in central Beirut. "If the politicians want to fight they should do it in the parliament and not go to the streets where they stop the people working."
الإنفراج على صعيد الأزمة الحكومية لأنه حريص على الأمانة التي أولاه إياها الدستور اللبناني وهذه الأمانة تخوله الرجوع إلى الدستور في كلّ خَطوة يخطوها مما يجري فضلاً عن قلقه على الأوضاع الإقتصادية والمعيشية التي تطاول كلّ المواطنين بلا إستثناء. 
BAGHDAD, Dec. 30 (Xinhua) — Iraq’s ousted president Saddam Hussein was defiant and calm, refusing to have a hood pulled over his head while he was led the gallows shortly after 6 a.m. (0300GMT) on Saturday. Iraqi state-run television, al-Iraqia, released videotape of Saddam final moments before execution. The video showed Saddam, wearing a white shirt without a tie and a dark overcoat, being led to the gallows with a calm and defiant face and was chatting with his two masked hangmen who placed the noose around his neck. The Iraqi television later showed footage of Saddam in a white shroud lying with his neck twisted to one side at an awkward angle, with what appeared to be blood or a bruise on his left cheek. Before the rope was put around his neck, Saddam shouted: "God is the greatest. Long live the nation and Palestine is Arab," Sami al-Askari, the political adviser to Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, told the Iraqi channel. The execution took place at an Iraqi army base in Kadhimiya, once was Saddam’s main military intelligence headquarters. 
By Maroun Khoury, Daily Star, BKIRKI: Maronite Patriarch Nasrallah Butros Sfeir said Thursday that the protests currently taking place in Lebanon can very easily engender chaos. Speaking during a meeting with a delegation of residents from the Bekaa regions of Baalbek and Deir al-Ahmar, Sfeir said that "protests like these are unfortunately allowed in Lebanon and if we look around us, we can see none of the countries allow their citizens to do what the Lebanese are doing these days." 
The New York Times, By HASSAN M. FATTAH, BEIRUT, Lebanon, Dec. 28 
By MARIA SANMINIATELLI, Associated Press Writer, VATICAN CITY – Pope Benedict XVI marked Christmas with a call for an end to violence around the world and urged people everywhere not to lose sight of their need for God in an age of technological marvels. 
BEIRUT, Lebanon: A Lebanese judge filed charges Wednesday against three journalists accused of breaking into the Beirut apartment of a witness in the assassination of former Premier Rafik Hariri, a judicial official said.Investigating Judge Elias Eid filed the charges against reporter Firas Hatoum, who works with the local New-TV station, as well as a cameraman and assistant, for breaking into and "tampering with criminal evidence" at the apartment of Mohammed Zuhair Siddiq, who is wanted in Lebanon in connection with the Feb. 2005 assassination of Hariri.
Arab League (AL) Secretary-General Amr Moussa Saturday said that the Arab mediation for Lebanese political crisis will continue and warned against more escalation, the Lebanese Broadcasting Corp. TV reported. "I can not say that the Arab initiative to solve the Lebanese crisis was a success nor I can say it was a failure, but I assure it will not stop," Moussa told reporters at a news conference held in Lebanese government offices. 
