An Israeli bomb has landed close to an aid convoy in Lebanon, injuring three people.

ISRAELI air strikes killed 42 people across Lebanon yesterday, including 10 civilians hit on a southern bridge, on the sixth day of a bombardment that has wreaked the heaviest destruction in Lebanon for over 20 years.

The continuing Israeli offensive against Lebanese-based Hizbollah guerrillas has seen Brent crude mark a new high this morning.

THE firebrand former general Michel Aoun emerged yesterday as Lebanon’s main Christian political force after scoring a stunning win in parliamentary elections only weeks after returning from exile.

ANTI-SYRIAN rivals battled it out at the ballot boxes yesterday as voters crowded polling stations to vote in the most crucial round of Lebanon’s parliamentary elections.

HIZBOLLAH’S big win at the ballot box in south Lebanon will bolster its determination to keep its weapons in the face of international pressure to disarm, senior pro-Syrian leaders said yesterday.

SYRIA’S staunchest allies Hizbollah and Amal headed for a clean sweep in south Lebanon’s polls yesterday in the first general election since Syrian troops quit their smaller neighbour.

ALMOST all Syrian troops left north Lebanon yesterday, ending an unbroken 29-year presence.

LEBANON President Emile Lahoud looks set to ask outgoing pro-Syrian prime minister Omar Karami to form a government, a step sure to anger the anti-Syrian opposition who pressured him to resign in the first place.

SYRIA, under world pressure to quit Lebanon, promised yesterday to shift its troops to eastern areas this month, but the presidents of the two countries failed to set a deadline for a full withdrawal.

SYRIA is due to start pulling back its forces in Lebanon to the Bekaa Valley today, in the first stage of what it says will be a swift two-phased withdrawal of its troops.

Nidal al-Mughrabi, Gaza

ISRAELI Prime Minister Ariel Sharon intends to evacuate all Jewish settlers from Gaza, his deputy said yesterday. The move hardens a pledge to pursue a landmark withdrawal plan rejected by his own Likud party.

ISRAELI troops killed eight Palestinians yesterday in the deadliest raid in the Gaza Strip in more than a month, casting a shadow over a new American push to salvage a battered peace plan.

ISRAELI troops killed an Islamic militant who tried to infiltrate a Jewish settlement in the Gaza Strip yesterday after it rejected a conditional ceasefire proposal by Palestinian President Yasser Arafat.

ISRAEL threatened Syria yesterday after Hizbollah guerrillas in Lebanon fired anti-aircraft shells that killed an Israeli teenager on Israel’s northern border, but said it hoped to defuse tension through diplomacy.

THE US ratcheted up the pressure on Syria yesterday by threatening sanctions over charges that Damascus is harbouring Iraqi leaders, developing chemical weapons and supporting terrorism.

ISRAEL joined pressure on Syria yesterday, demanding it get Hizbollah guerrillas out of Lebanon and accusing it of supporting terrorism.

More than 1,600 troops paraded through Dublin today, with President Mary McAleese taking the salute, to mark the withdrawal of Ireland's United Nations force from Lebanon.