WASHINGTON (AFP) – US officials urged Lebanon’s Christian opposition leader Michel Aoun to back a broad, reform-minded coalition for his country but renewed their opposition to the militant Islamist group Hezbollah. Former Prime minister Aoun, and now a member of the Lebanese parliament, met with senior US officials as part of a two-week visit to the United States begun on November 14.He conferred with David Welch, assistant secretary of state for Near Eastern affairs, and was meeting later Wednesday with Undersecretary for Political Affairs Nicholas Burns, number three in the State Department.
A State Department official, who asked not to be named, said the talks covered the investigation into the February 14 assassination of former Lebanese prime minister Rafiq Hariri.Also discussed was this week’s violence on the Lebanese-Israeli border and UN Security Council Resolution 1559, which calls for the disarmament of Hezbollah as well as an end to the Syrian presence in Lebanon. "We are encouraging … General Aoun to support a broad coalition of political parties as Lebanon struggles to implement political economic and constitutional reforms," the official said.
JERUSALEM, Nov 24 (Reuters) – Israel plans to return the bodies of three Lebanese Hizbollah gunmen slain in a fierce border clash, in hope of easing tensions with the guerrilla group and Beirut, Israeli security sources said on Thursday. Four gunmen died during a Hizbollah raid on Monday which Lebanese security sources said aimed, but failed, to seize Israeli soldiers who could be traded for Arabs jailed in Israel. 
Cheikh Walid el Khazen has been appointed as Counsellor and Charg
POL-US-LEBANON-AOUN Lebanese MP General Aoun supports disarming Lebanon’s Hizbollah WASHINGTON, Nov 23 (KUNA) — Lebanese MP, General Michel Aoun, said on Tuesday he supports the disarmament of Hizbollah.Aoun, a formerly exiled Lebanese Prime minister who recently returned to his country after Syria’s withdrawal this year, made the remarks at a news conference one day after Hizbollah fighters clashed with Israeli soldiers on the uneasy border between Israel and southern Lebanon, where Hizbollah remains largely supported by the majority Shiite Lebanese there.
BEIRUT, 22 November (IRIN) – "One day the Syrian secret service came to the factory where Koshaia used to work," said Jozef Chehwane, displaying a photo of his cousin. "They asked him to come for five minutes. That was in 1980, but those five minutes have lasted until today." Born in the northern Lebanese city of Batroun, the then 29-year-old Koshaia was a member of the Christian Phalange Party, which was opposed to Syria’s presence in Lebanon. 
Lebanon celebrated its independence today, free of Syrian troops for the first time in 29 years. Soldiers paraded before the president, prime minister ad parliamentary speaker in Martyr
By LAURIE COPANS, Associated Press Writer NOV 22
Marisa S. Katz, Faraya Mzaar, part of the Mt. Lebanon range, is visible beyond the city. In these world-class mountains
