Prime Minister-designate Najib Mikati prepares for May elections, central bank issues CDs Locals cheered as the last Syrian soldiers rolled out of Lebanon after 29 years of occupation four days early on April 26. However, local business leaders still reeled from the events of the past three months, which drained employers of cheap Syrian labor, as expats returned with the military and tourism revenues plunged. The Lebanese Parliament made a strong effort towards building up legitimacy as quickly as Syria tore down its last outposts and burned its paperwork. President Emile Lahoud appointed business tycoon Najib Mikati prime minister-designate with the mandate of quickly organizing parliamentary elections. The interim government also raised $1.64 billion through ten-year Central Bank dollar certificates of deposits, while increasing rates on deposits on Lebanese pounds to discourage dollarization.

By Lin Noueihed BEIRUT (Reuters) – A U.N. team arrived in Lebanon on Thursday to verify whether Syria had withdrawn all its troops and intelligence agents in line with a Security Council resolution. In further signs of Syria’s waning influence in Lebanon, the new government replaced the pro-Syrian police, justice and intelligence chiefs, who were forced out under pressure from Damascus’s opponents, and removed the head of state security. Syria told the United Nations on Tuesday it had ended its 29-year military and intelligence presence in its tiny neighbor and was in full compliance with resolution 1559. But U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan said he could not confirm that until the U.N. verification mission had checked it.

By DONNA ABU-NASR Associated Press Writer HARET AL-NAAMEH, Lebanon Apr 28, 2005

By Nadim Ladki  BEIRUT (Reuters) – Lebanon’s pro-Syrian parliament speaker promised on Wednesday that elections, the first without a Syrian military presence for 33 years, would start on May 29.  Nabih Berri’s announcement, a day after Syria pulled its last soldiers and spies out of Lebanon after 29 years, means the parliamentary elections will be held on time as demanded by the international community and Lebanon’s anti-Syrian opposition. “I can confirm to the Lebanese that the elections will happen beginning on May 29,” Berri told reporters. He was speaking even before Prime Minister Najib Mikati’s new government had won a vote of confidence in parliament, a hurdle expected to be surmounted later in the day. Mikati is a wealthy businessman with close ties to Damascus.

By Lin Noueihed  RIYYAK, Lebanon (Reuters) – Syria withdrew its last soldiers and intelligence agents from Lebanon Tuesday, ending a 29-year military presence in its small neighbor. s the Syrian troops crossed the frontier in green buses, many Lebanese hailed their departure as the start of a new era, but analysts said Damascus would remain influential. “With the completion of the Syrian forces’ withdrawal from Lebanon, a new political era in the relations between the two brethren countries starts based on close cooperation in all fields,” Lebanon’s new Prime Minister Najib Mikati said. Syria told the United Nations it had completed its pullout from Lebanon in line with Security Council resolution 1559.

By Lin Noueihed  BEIRUT (Reuters) – Lebanon’s most powerful pro-Syrian security chief resigned on Monday, hours before the last Syrian forces were due to leave their tiny neighbor and end Damascus’ 29-year domination.  The resignation of Jamil al-Sayyed, head of the General Security, signaled the collapse of the Syrian-installed security apparatus that had effectively run Lebanon for years. “Security chiefs are usually appointed with politics and change when it changes,” Sayyed said in his resignation letter. Sayyed said last week he was ready to step aside during a U.N.-ordered international investigation into the Feb. 14 killing of former Prime Minister Rafik al-Hariri, which sparked angry protests against the Syrians many blamed.