BEIRUT (AFP) – Lebanon’s embattled pro-Syrian government said that it was unlikely to cooperate with a newly appointed UN commission of inquiry into the assassination of former premier Rafiq Hariri and hit out at France over opposition calls for an “uprising”. The announcement threatened to put Lebanon on a collision course with both the former colonial power and the United States, which is demanding an independent investigation into the bombing, in which 14 other people also died. Asked if his government would work with the UN team to be headed by senior Irish police officer Deputy Commissioner Peter Fitzgerald, Defence Minister Abdel Rahim Mrad said: “I do not think so.

BEIRUT (AFP) – The top US envoy to the Middle East called for the “complete and immediate” withdrawal of Syrian troops from Lebanon and demanded an investigation into the assassination of former prime minister Rafiq Hariri. “Mr Hariri’s death should give renewed impetus to achieving a free, independent and sovereign Lebanon,” Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs William Burns told reporters. “What that means is the immediate and complete implementation of UN Security Council Resolution 1559, and what that means is the complete and immediate withdrawal by Syria,” he said after talks with Foreign Minister Mahmud Hammud.

By BASSEM MROUE, Associated Press Writer BEIRUT, Lebanon – Screaming and weeping mourners clambered around the flag-draped coffin carrying the body of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri as hundreds of thousands of people turned out for his burial Wednesday, two days after a huge bomb killed the man credited with rebuilding post-civil war Lebanon.  Suspicions over Syrian involvement in Hariri’s assassination further charged the atmosphere, with his family and supporters warning officials of the pro-Syrian Lebanese government to stay away. Internationally, pressure mounted to find his killers, with Washington recalling its ambassador and the U.N. Security Council demanding Lebanon catch bring those responsible for Hariri’s slaying. More than 200,000 people crowded into central Beirut square around the towering Mohammed al-Amin Mosque, which Hariri built. It is also where the billionaire businessman who was Lebanon’s prime minister for 10 of the 14 years following the end of the 1975-90 civil was is to be buried.

By SAM F. GHATTAS, Associated Press Writer BEIRUT, Lebanon – Syria’s grip over Lebanon appears to be slipping under international pressure and increasingly bold Lebanese calls for Damascus to pull its army out. With the calls growing increasingly belligerent, Syria gave a pointed reminded that it still wields control, with its 15,000 troops deployed across the country. “The opposition has crossed all the lines,” warned Lebanon’s pro-Syria prime minister, Omar Karami. “If they think that Syria is now weak, this is not true. … We will show them,” Karimi told reporters, without elaborating.

By David Gardner It is midnight on Saturday in downtown Beirut and the Buddha Bar is heaving. A cavernous copy of its Parisian namesake, with a 20ft-high Buddha statue as its presiding spirit, the bar is just the latest incarnation of the Lebanese craving for novelty and gift for fun. The son of a Maronite Christian warlord assassinated, allegedly by the Syrians, during the 1975-90 civil war, thrusts his way through the throng to the bar with the help of a bodyguard out of central casting: black T-shirt, tailored leather jacket, wrap-around shades and designer stubble. A vast Johnnie Walker whisky icon towers over the bar itself, causing one regular patron to observe that,

BEIRUT, Feb 3 (AFP) – The Lebanese opposition has stepped up its campaign for Syrian troops to quit the country, on the back of mounting US impatience with Damascus, which left the Baathist regime on Thursday calling for dialogue. As Syrian Deputy Foreign Minister Walid Muwallem held a round of talks with dozens of politicians in Beirut on Wednesday, members of the anti-Damascus opposition met behind closed doors to turn the screws on the Syrian question. Afterwards, it called for a complete Syrian withdrawal in accordance with the Taef agreement and an immediate end to the “dangerous crisis” between Beirut and international community.

Lebanon, Politics, (arabicNews)2/1/2005 The Lebanese prime minister Omar Karami welcomed the return back of Maj. Michael Aoun who opposes the Syrian presence in Lebanon and lives in his exile in Paris since 14 years.
In a press statement Karami held with his Syrian peer Naji Otari, Karami said that several invitations were sent to him since a while to come back to Lebanon, stressing his right to that. He added that despite the fact that there are legal obstacles impeding this measure, these can be removed legally, denying that there is any hostility against Aoun.

By: Joseph Hitti, Jan 30 As we watch millions of ordinary Iraqis vote freely for the first time in their history, I cannot but contrast the process with that of Lebanese elections. Iraqis in Iraq are voting in their first ever parliamentary elections, and that is an unimaginable achievement that is likely to reverberate in neighboring Syria and elsewhere in the Arab World. But the Lebanese people have always voted (since the 1920s), except for a 20-year interruption caused by the Syrian occupation.

UNITED NATIONS (AFP) – The UN Security Council renewed the mandate of the UN peacekeeping force in southern Lebanon, but recommended the mandate be modified in the future, the UN announced. By a unanimous vote, the 15 members of the council agreed to extend the mandate of the peacekeepers for six more months, until July 31, 2005. The peacekeeping force, formally known as the UN Interim Force in Lebanon, was established in 1978 following an escalation of armed clashes along the Lebanese-Israeli frontier.