ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER, BEIRUT, Lebanon — Police have arrested four men who allegedly sold cell phone chips to members of the plot to assassinate former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri, court officials said Thursday.Investigating magistrate Elias Eid has accused the four traders of forgery and withholding information that could have helped the investigation into Hariri’s death, a court official said on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the inquiry.

A second court official said the four were accused of providing cell phone lines to those who planned and carried out Hariri’s assassination. The official, who also spoke on condition of anonymity for similar reasons, said the chips for the cell phones were later destroyed in a bid to eliminate evidence. The arrests had been requested by the chief U.N. investigator into the Hariri killing, Detlev Mehlis. French and German experts assisting the U.N. investigation have studied thousands of calls made before and after the assassination.The phone dealers – Majed al-Akhras, Mustafa Misto, Ayman Tarabay and Raed Fakhereddine – were among 10 detained for questioning this week, the officials said. The four were formally arrested Wednesday and the others were released on bond.

 BEIRUT, 22 September (IRIN) – Lebanon needs to review its domestic laws and policies to conform to international norms in order to combat widespread trafficking in human beings, especially women and children, a United Nations expert said."Lebanon’s victims of trafficking are often invisible because they suffer in places that remain hidden to the public eye such as private homes or hotel rooms," Sigmu Huda, the UN Special Rapporteur on human trafficking told reporters following a fact-finding mission that lasted from 8-15 September.

"Much remains to be done for the government to implement Lebanon’s international obligations related to human trafficking. A number of domestic laws procedures and policies have to be brought in conformity with international norms and standards," Huda, who is a human rights activist and lawyer from Bangladesh, said on Friday.She noted, however, that the Ministry of Labour had indicated they intended to present legislation on domestic migrant workers one month from September.  "One survey brought to my attention found that at least one out of every three Lebanese employers beats his or her domestic worker," Huda told reporters in the capital, Beirut, on Friday. "Some victims personally related incidents of traumatic sexual abuse to me."

 By ANNE GEARAN, AP,  NEW YORK — Saddled with debt and seeking economic ties beyond its former patron and overlord Syria, the newly elected government of Lebanon is looking for international help while the United States keeps up diplomatic pressure on Damascus to stay out of the way. Lebanese Prime Minister Fuad Saniora set a meeting Monday with Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and representatives of European and Muslim nations as he charts a delicate course of political independence after 29 years effectively occupied by neighboring Syria.

After decades of civil war and political turmoil, Lebanon has one of the highest national debts in the world _ measured as 165 percent of its gross national product or about $36 billion. Saniora hopes to win international debt relief, although most of the debt is held by Lebanese creditors, and pledges to stimulate the country’s sluggish economy. The conference on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly comes as a U.N. investigation into a political assassination in Lebanon draws closer to Syrian President Bashar Assad’s inner circle.  Assad skipped the annual gathering of nations in New York, and Syria was the only nation among 190 attending not to address the delegates.

  By ASSOCIATED PRESS, The United Nations’ probe of the assassination of Prime Minister Rafiq Hariri in Beirut has emboldened Lebanon’s activists to demand the release of at least 1,500 Lebanese nationals allegedly imprisoned in Syria. "This is a blatant violation of UN Security Council Resolution 1559," said Claude Hajjar, Beirut representative of the Guardians of the Cedars, the Lebanese political party that campaigned vigorously against the 30-year-long Syrian military presence in her native land. She came to Cyrpus  from Beirut to confer with her party’s leader, Etienne Sakr, popularly known as Abu Arz, who has been living there in exile.

Resolution 1559 also is the basis upon which a 60-member investigatory team led by Germany’s Detlev Mehlis has been trying to find out who was responsible for the 2,000-pound bomb that killed Hariri on February 14. It was detonated as he drove in a motorcade past the Lebanese capital’s posh St. George Hotel. The commission spent last Monday in Damascus and was expected to return for a longer stay early next week. Encouraged by the Mehlis commission’s probe, the Lebanese authorities have arrested four generals on suspicion of complicity in the plot to kill Hariri. They also detained Nasser Kandil, a former member of Parliament. He was released three weeks ago, but his passport was taken from him and he was ordered not to leave Lebanon.

BEIRUT, Lebanon – A powerful bomb exploded in a Christian neighborhood of eastern Beirut late Friday, killing at least one person and wounding 23, officials said. It was the latest in a series of bomb attacks to rock Lebanon’s capital. The bomb detonated just before midnight and heavily damaged the balconies and facades of several buildings along a street and destroyed at least two cars.Maj. Gen. Ashraf Rifi, commander of the Internal Security Forces, said the explosive had been placed in a bag that was hidden between two cars, and detonated with a timing device.The Lebanese Broadcasting Corp. correspondent at the scene said the explosion went off near a coffee shop killing its owner and wounding several people who were at his place.Wounded people could be seen carried to ambulances that rushed to the scene. Officials at Jitawi and St. Georges Hospitals said one person died and 23 others were wounded. For more pictures pls click "READ MORE" (pictures are being updated)

Lebanon last played China on Tuesday. Despite losing the game, the boys in red and white proved to be effective at limiting China’s towering NBA superstar, 7’5" (2.26m) Center Yao Ming. Yao (pictured right) was held to 14 points and missed most of the game after Lebanon’s Ali Fakhreddine took down Yao with an accidental elbow to the jaw.  The performance of the Lebanese national team in the Asian Basketball Championships paints a very telling story. While winning a single game is attainable by most teams, playing 8 games in 9 days against high caliber opponents is a testament to Lebanon’s resilience and determination to win. Coach Paul Coughter deserves significant credit for harnessing the winning streak and for leading the team to focus on achieving a higher standard.

While the coach and the team have done a terrific job, Lebanon’s fans deserve as much credit for motivating the team to think big. Despite the home court advantage for Qatar, Lebanon had the majority of the crowd on their side throughout the tournament. Filling the stands with red, white and green flags, Team Lebanon supporters have made the national team a force to be reckoned with. Please Click "READ MORE" to view pictures of this wonderful match.

 Beirut, 15 Sept. (AKI) – The UN commission investigating the death of former Lebanese prime minister Rafik Hariri has asked that banking secrecy be lifted on the bank accounts of nine Lebanese and Syrian citizens, to review financial transactions over the last five years. The list includes a number of high-ranking figures; the current Syrian interior minister, Ghazi Kanaan, who was head of Syrian security in Lebanon until 2002, his successor until April 2005, Rustum Ghazale, the current Lebanese defence minister, Elias al-Murr, the editor of ad-Diyar newspaper, Charles Ayub, and former Lebanese MP, Nasir Qandil.
The UN list comprises more than thirty people, who are suspected of involvement in Hariri’s murder.

 Police on Wednesday arrested three officials of an nationalist group, a day after they called on Lebanon to withdraw from the Arab League, a judicial official said. Prosecutor Mukhtar Saad said the three members of the Guardians of the Cedars were detained for "issuing a statement that incites internal sedition."

On Tuesday they gave a press conference in a hotel north of Beirut where they issued a statement, The group has long called for the expulsion of Palestinian refugees and their descendants from Lebanon. The statement also called Lebanon to withdraw from the Arab League "because we are not part of the Arab world." It added that the policy of pan-Arabism had brought only harm to Lebanon.  "Syria is worse than Israel," the statement added.