Balint Szlanko reports from Beirut on the army’s victory over Fatah el-Islam and the prospect of transforming cross-party support into unity.

ARMY and police patrols stood guard yesterday as thousands of Lebanese went to vote in a key election to replace two assassinated lawmakers in the politically torn country.

A UN inquiry has identified people who may have been involved in the assassination of former Lebanese prime minister Rafik Hariri and is investigating new information about the buyers of a van used in the bombing, the chief investigator said.

Bomb blasts hit a pair of commuter buses in a co-ordinated attack that killed three people near Beirut today, on the eve of a massive rally marking the 2005 assassination of Lebanon’s former prime minister.

Syria suggested it may not cooperate with a planned international tribunal to prosecute the suspected killers of Lebanese prime minister Rafik Hariri because Damascus was not consulted on the plan, according to a letter circulated at the United Nations.

The coffin of Pierre Gemayel was passed overhead through the crowd into the church, handed from mourner to mourner, while in the square nearby hundreds of thousands of supporters unleashed their anger, burning pictures of Syria’s president and his allies in Lebanon.

Lebanon plunged into fear and gloom today as mourners came to the mountain town of Bikfaya to pay thier last respects to a Christian politician, whose assassination threatened to push the country’s political crisis over the brink.

With Independence Day celebrations cancelled, Lebanon was engulfed in fear and gloom today as it prepared to bury Christian leader and Cabinet minister Pierre Gemayel, whose assassination threatened to push a country in political crisis over the brink.

LEBANON’S government yesterday approved a UN plan for an international tribunal for the suspected killers of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri — despite the objections of the president and the resignation of six ministers.

A Lebanese Cabinet minister allied with Hezbollah resigned today, making him the sixth to quit in recent days.

Lebanese President Emil Lahoud said today damage caused by Israeli attacks during the 34-day conflict could cost his country more than €3.8bn, as he criticised UN peacekeeping forces for arriving too slowly to oversee Israel’s military pullout.

OTHER developments yesterday in the Middle East crisis

Israel will not be able to disarm Hezbollah by broadening its military offensive and instead must stop shooting and start talking, President Emile Lahoud said today.

Hundreds of thousands of Lebanese paid tribute to Rafik Hariri on the first anniversary of the former premier’s assassination today, waving flags and shouting anti-Syrian slogans in a show of strength aimed at reviving the “people power” spirit that helped break Damascus’ domination.

SYRIA’S ruling Ba’ath Party stripped former Vice-President Abdul-Halim Khaddam of membership and joined parliament in demanding he be tried for high treason, the official news agency SANA reported yesterday.

A coalition of Lebanese groups, angered by the recent assassination of a prominent anti-Syrian journalist, called today for the ousting of Lebanon’s pro-Syrian President Emile Lahoud.

THE brother-in-law of Syria’s president has been implicated in the assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri, according to a UN inquiry.

Lebanese President Emile Lahoud appointed the anti-Syrian coalition’s candidate Fuad Saniora as prime minister today to head the first Cabinet in 30 years to be free of Syrian interference.

A bomb killed an anti-Syrian politician today in Beirut – the second such assassination in three weeks.

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.

A SON of the assassinated former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri has launched his campaign to take his father's parliamentary seat.

Syria promised the UN yesterday that it will withdraw all troops from Lebanon before parliamentary elections, but did not mention a pullout of its intelligence operatives, as demanded by the Security Council.

A day after a bombing injured five people in Beirut, President Emile Lahoud pledged to do his utmost to end the spate of violence that has gripped Lebanon since last month’s assassination of former premier Rafik Hairiri.

A UN report into the killing of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri has demanded a new international investigation after determining that Lebanon’s authorities bungled, if not outright manipulated, their probe of the killing.

THE Irish-led UN fact-finding team has finished its probe into the killing of Lebanon’s former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri and will report its findings to Secretary-General Kofi Annan soon.

SYRIA has withdrawn nearly a third of its troops from Lebanon, a senior officer said yesterday.

LEBANON'S president reappointed pro-Syrian Prime Minister Omar Karami yesterday, risking a fresh battle with the opposition which had forced the Sunni Muslim politician to quit only 10 days ago.

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.

The withdrawal of Syrian troops to Lebanon’s eastern Bekaa Valley will be completed by the end of March, the presidents of both countries agreed today.

WITH shouts of "Syria out," more than 25,000 flag-waving protesters massed outside parliament yesterday sweeping out Lebanon's pro-Syrian government two weeks after the assassination of a former prime minister.

Calls have intensified for Rafik Hariri’s assassins to be caught, while pressure mounted against Syria amid increasing speculation over its perceived role in the killing of Lebanon’s popular former prime minister, whose burial was attended by more than 200,000 mourners.

Father-of-six Rafik Hariri, who died in a Beirut bomb blast today, was a business tycoon who became one of Lebanon’s most influential politicians and served as its prime minister for most of its post-civil war years. He was 60.

Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri and his cabinet resigned today.

Jockey Frankie Dettori is set to back a new horse by opening a chain of “wacky” restaurants with the celebrity chef Marco Pierre White.

The Lebanese editor of the London-based Asharq al-Awsat newspaper has been sentenced in absentia to one year in jail for falsely reporting that Lebanon’s president was the target of an attempted assassination, judicial officials said in Beirut.

Three men have been executed in the Lebanon despite a last minute plea from the Taoiseach not to carry out the death sentences.

Lebanese President Emile Lahoud is urging Russia help to restart the stalled Middle East peace talks.

Lebanese president Emile Lahoud has warned of a "never-ending conflict" in the Middle East.