Sep. 5, 2005
• Cabinet holds meeting in Serail, Thursday in Baabda
Cabinet is to meet this afternoon at five pm at the Serail. The ministers are to discuss the latest developments in the international inquiry in the February 14th bomb blast, which killed Former premier Rafik Hariri. Prime Minister Fouad Siniora will preside over today's meeting, which will not be attended by President Emile Lahoud. The head of state would head another cabinet meeting on Thursday this time at the Baabda presidential palace.

Sep. 5, 2005
• Aridi says no decision to block Baabda sessions
Information Minister Ghazi Aridi said there was no decision to boycott any cabinet session including the Thursday meeting in Baabda. Last week Communication Minister Marawan Hamadeh had called to boycott sessions taking place at the Baabda's palace. Aridi said Hamadeh's stance was personal. Speaking of the latest developments on Rafik Hariri's murder investigation, Aridi said it was just the beginning of searching for the truth. He said the majority could not only decide the fate of crucial issues in Lebanon beacuase he said there were other important political and spiritual leaders.

Sep. 5, 2005
• Jumblatt meets Nesrallah says resistance protects Lebanon
MP Walid Jumblatt met yesterday with Hizbollah chief Sayyid Hassan Nesrallah. Following the meeting Jumblatt expressed a change in stance regarding President Lahoud saying he was not a suspect in Rafik Hariri's murder. He was citing a statement made by head of the international inquiry Detlev Mehlis. Regarding Hizbollah's arm Jumblatt said they were no longer here to defend the Shebaa farms but protect Lebanon.

Sep. 5, 2005
•
Maouwad calls for Lahoud's resignation
Social Affairs Minister Nayla Maouwad called for the resignation of President Emile Lahoud. She said it was impossible to coexist with security apparatus and symbols. Maouwad accused Lahoud of blocking the work of the Lebanese justice in an allusion to the arrest last week of four of Lahoud's allies, and become their defender.

Sep. 4, 2005
• Lawyers of four pro-Syrians to call for bail
A Lebanese magistrate issued formal arrest warrants yesterday against four pro-Syrian generals charged with murder over the assassination of former Prime Minister Rafik al-Hariri, allowing them to be kept in custody. Judicial sources said Judge Elias Eid issued the warrants after interrogating all four men detained on Tuesday on the recommendation of a U.N. investigator leading an international probe into the killing of Hariri and 20 others in February. Judicial sources said the defense lawyers are now expected to ask that the four men be released on bail while investigations continue.
Report: The four men are charged with murder, attempted murder and carrying out a terrorist act. The sources said Defense lawyers are now expected to ask that the men who headed the main security agencies when Hariri was killed be released on bail while investigations continue. Judge Elias Eid questioned for three hours Presidential Guard chief Brigadier General Mustafa Hamdan, a close aide of pro-Syrian President Emile Lahoud. Calls for Lahoud to resign have grown since the detention of Hamdan, the only Lebanese security chief to keep his job after parliamentary elections in June ushered in an anti-Syrian majority for the first time since the end of the civil war. Eid also questioned the former head of General Security Major General Jamil al-Sayyed, once the most powerful of the pro-Syrian security chiefs. Lebanese police detained Hamdan and Sayyed, along with former police chief Major General Ali Hajj and former military intelligence chief Brigadier General Raymond Azar on Tuesday. The U.N. team questioned them before handing them over to the Lebanese authorities, but judicial sources said the Lebanese magistrate had not been given access to all the evidence, witnesses or witness statements. Their arrests marked the first major step towards a trial over the bomb blast which sparked a wave of public protests that led to the departure of Syrian troops in April and transformed Lebanese politics. The assassination has been widely blamed on Syria and its political allies in Lebanon at the time, charges vehemently rejected by Damascus. U.N. investigators also searched the Beirut offices of the Baath Party, the Lebanese branch of Syria's ruling party and questioned its leader Assem Qanso as a witness in the case.

Sep. 4, 2005
• Jumblatt tells Moustaqbal police regime is beaten
MP Walid Jumblatt said President Emile Lahoud's mandate was over and the police regime was beaten. In an interview with the daily Al Moustaqbal the head of the progressive Socialist party said he only asked for one thing; for the truth to be revealed because he said this would allow the re-establishment of democracy. One year ago Jumblatt and his party voted against Syria's will to extend Lahoud mandate for another there years.

Sep. 4, 2005
• Future Youth Movement plant 200 trees in memory of Hariri
On the occasion of the 200th day of the February 14th explosion, the Future Youth Movement planted 200 trees across Lebanon, including at Former Premier Rafik Hariri's resting place in Down Town Beirut. The movement said the trees were in memory of Hariri and symbolized the call for the truth and peace.

Sep. 4, 2005
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Syria kills five militants
Syrian security forces killed five members of an Islamist militant group during a gunbattle in the northwest of the country and discovered a cache of weapons. Syria's official SANA news agency said yesterday "The anti-terror squad raided on Friday evening a hideout of a terrorist group belonging to Jund al-Sham in the Hama governorate." It said Syrian forces also found an arsenal of weapons, bombs and explosives stashed in the group's hideout in Jibrin, a village near the city of Hama. It did not elaborate but Syrian security sources told Reuters all of the men killed in the gun battle were Syrian. Two Syrian security officers were wounded in the clash. Some terrorism analysts have linked Jund al-Sham to al Qaeda's leader in Iraq, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. The United States has piled pressure on Syria to seal its long eastern desert border with Iraq to stop militants from crossing to fight U.S. forces there. Syria says it is doing its best to control the frontier but calls on the U.S. and Iraq to do more on their side too.