BEIRUT (AFP) – Lebanese Prime Minister Fuad Siniora called for former power-broker  Syria to learn to treat its smaller neighbour as an independent state. "The Syrians must get used to dealing with Lebanon as an independent state, an independence which does no harm to Syria," he said in a statement carried by local newspapers on the eve of Lebanese independence day Tuesday.

"The Lebanese must also be persuaded that they live in an independent country which is free to take its own decisions," said Siniora, calling for "cordial and healthy ties with Syria, based on mutual respect". It will be Lebanon’s first independence day for almost 30 years without foreign troops deployed on its territory.

KIRYAT SHMONA, Israel (AFP) – Nov – 21 An Israeli army position in the disputed Shebaa Farms border area came under heavy artillery attack from the Lebanese militia Hezbollah. The artillery attack came as fighters from Hezbollah also launched an attack on the village of Ghajar where the majority of residents opted to take Israeli […]

MARJAYOUN, Lebanon (Reuters) Nov 21 – Israeli warplanes attacked targets on the Lebanese side of the border on Monday shortly after Hizbollah guerrillas launched a fierce attack on Israeli posts in the area, witnesses said. The witnesses said an Israeli military post in the Abbasiyeh area on the edge of the Shebaa Farms border area […]

According to the office of Israeli Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom he shook the hand of Lebanese President Emile Lahoud at a recent diplomatic event in Tunis. Lahoud’s office, however, denies the event ever took place, saying the account was "based on imagination". It also rejected a media report that his wife, Andree Lahoud, spoke with Shalom’s wife, Judy Nir-Mozes, on the sidelines of the conference.

According to the Israeli foreign ministry account, Shalom was standing near Lahoud as he shook the hands of dignitaries standing close by at a function the Tunisian government put on for delegates to a UN conference, foreign ministry spokesman Mark Regev said. State of war "We do not relate any diplomatic importance to this," Regev said, adding that the handshake – whether or not it took place – did not herald any moves towards peace talks with Lebanon.

 Iraq received a high score on the freedom index in which the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) ranked 20 countries on 15 indicators of political and civil liberty. The BBC commented that Iraqis no long live under a dictatorship and now have plenty of publications and political parties to choose from. But their freedom of movement is constrained by the bombings and kidnappings, and that is a big limitation.