Beirut, 28 Nov. (AKI) – The Lebanese government is expected on Thursday to ask UN secretary general Kofi Annan to extend the 25 December deadline for the completion of a probe into the assassination of former Lebanese premier Rafik Hariri. Lebanese premier Fuad Siniora government’s wants more time to be given to German judge Detlev Mehlis who is heading the commission of inquiry, Lebanese parliamentary sources say. An extension will enable the commission to complete the investigations and to work together with Lebanese authorities to prepare the trial of those alleged to be responsible for the 14 February bomb blast that killed Hariri and 20 others in a Beirut street.
According to the sources, the Lebanese government will also decide on Thursday whether to request the creation of an international tribunal to try the suspects or whether the proceedings will be handled by Lebanese judges. Damascus will on Tuesday dispatch five top Syrian security officials to Vienna where they will be questioned by Mehlis in connection with Hariri’s killing. According to a report in the London-based Arab daily, al-Hauyat, the five are: Colonel Rustum Ghazale, former head of Syrian intelligence in Lebanon; his deputy Jamaa Jamaa; two of his aides, Abd al-Karim Abbas and Zaher Yunis; and, Samih al-Qashani, who co-ordinated the activities of Syrian intelligence operatives in the northern Lebanon region of Metn.
BEIRUT, Lebanon, Nov. 27 (UPI) — Saudi newspapers reported Sunday that King Abdullah bin Abdul Aziz mediated between Syria and the U.N. which ended a deadlock between the two sides. The London-based ash-Sharq al-Awsat and al-Hayat dailies quoted Saudi King Abdullah as saying he proposed to U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan and French President Jacques Chirac that Syrian officials sought for questioning by a U.N.-appointed investigation commission be questioned at the U.N. headquarters in the Austrian capital, Vienna. 
By Rhonda RoumaniSpecial to The Washington Post Saturday, November 26, 2005; Page A17 DAMASCUS, — Syria said Friday it would allow five officials to be questioned at U.N. offices in Vienna about the February assassination of former Lebanese prime minister Rafiq Hariri. The deal ends a month-long stalemate in which Syria faced possible U.N. sanctions. The date for the interviews will be determined in consultation with chief U.N. investigator Detlev Mehlis, Syria’s deputy foreign minister, Walid Mouallem, told reporters in the capital, Damascus. The agreement "aborts any justification for economic sanctions against Syria," Mouallem said.
"Banking in the region is not achieving its real potential due to low level of corporate governance," said Dr Omar Bin Sulaiman, Director General of Dubai International Financial Centre Authority, in a keynote speech delivered at the Annual Arab Banking Conference 2005 ‘Banking in a Risky World’ in Lebanon. 
Lebanese film and TV production company, Darkside, recently undertook the production of a full length Lebanese feature film on High Definition. The musical comedy, titled L
NAQURA, Lebanon (AFP) – Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah called for the capture of Israeli soldiers, as the Jewish state returned the bodies of three fighters of the Lebanese Shiite movement killed in clashes. During a ceremony to honour those killed, Nasrallah told militants it was their duty to try to capture Israeli soldiers, to use as bargaining chips for the release of Lebanese held by Israel.
Beirut – United Nations investigators on Thursday questioned a Lebanese army colonel named in a UN report as one of the officials in charge of wire-tapping slain former prime minister Rafik al-Hariri, security sources said. The investigators, accompanied by Lebanese police, searched the home of Colonel Ghassan Tufayli who was head of the Lebanese military intelligence’s surveillance unit, the sources said.
