A bloody three-month siege at a Palestinian refugee camp ended in a ferocious gunbattle with 39 al-Qaida inspired militants killed, 20 captured and three Lebanese soldiers dead on Sunday.

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.

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.

Lebanon's pro-Syrian president refused to endorse a draft accord sent to him by the Cabinet to create an international tribunal to try suspects in the assassination of a former premier.

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.

Workers at Lebanon’s only airport today prepared to receive a full flow of commercial flights as Israel pledged to lift an air and sea blockade imposed nearly two months ago when the war with Hezbollah guerrillas erupted.

Lebanon’s prime minister, caught in a vice of conflicting demands by Israel and Syria, side-stepped Israeli insistence that international forces be deployed on the Syrian border and said today that Lebanese troops already there posed no threat to its prickly Arab neighbour.

Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Moallem said today that Arab foreign ministers meeting in Beirut would discuss the possibility of holding an emergency summit on Lebanon later this week.

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.

Leaders of Lebanon’s rival factions agreed today to demand that Syria establish diplomatic relations, but continued to spar over the fate of the country’s president and the disarmament of the militant Hezbollah group.

US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice made a surprise visit to politically-volatile Lebanon 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.

MUSLIM rage over caricatures of the Prophet Mohammed spilled out of Syria yesterday into neighbouring Lebanon where thousands of protesters torched the Danish mission and ransacked a Christian neighbourhood.

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 BOMB killed an anti-Syrian politician yesterday in Beirut - the second such assassination in three weeks.

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

Anti-Syrian candidates appeared to be heading to victory in the last round of elections in northern Lebanon, early election results showed.

WITH Syria's nearly three decades of military involvement over, Lebanon yesterday announced that the first round of parliamentary elections would be held May 29, two days before the deadline.

With Syria’s nearly three decades of military involvement in Lebanon over, Lebanon today shifted its attention inward, announcing the first round of parliamentary elections would be held May 29, two days before the deadline.

Lebanon’s president has named moderate pro-Syrian lawmaker Najib Mikati as prime minister, breaking a political deadlock and reviving chances for holding parliamentary elections next month.

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.

UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan yesterday demanded that Syria withdraw all its troops from Lebanon before Lebanese parliamentary elections in April and May, marking the first time he has set a specific timetable for Damascus.

Syria’s army and intelligence agents completed the first phase of their pullback to eastern Lebanon’s Bekaa Valley and Syria today.

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.

A day after Lebanon’s biggest opposition demonstration, Syrian military intelligence began leaving an office in Beirut, protected by police.

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.

Pro-Syrian Omar Karami was reappointed Lebanese premier today – a move destined to increase the protests in the streets of Beirut.

Syria remained silent about the downfall of its puppet government in Lebanon today after Prime Minister Omar Karami was brought down by people power dubbed The Cedar Revolution.

LEBANON mourned assassinated former Prime Minister Rafik al-Hariri yesterday as opposition leaders bluntly implicated Syria in an attack that Lebanese authorities said might have been a suicide bombing.

RAFIK HARIRI, a billionaire who helped rebuild his country after decades of war but resigned as Lebanese prime minister last fall after a sharp dispute with Syria, was killed yesterday in a massive bomb explosion that tore through his motorcade.

The American University Hospital said Former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri was dead when he arrived at hospital after the massive bomb explosion that ravaged his motorcade on Beirut’s famed seafront corniche today.

Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri and his cabinet resigned today.

A defiant Lebanon greeted US Secretary of State Colin Powell today, with protesters shouting for him to leave and the government saying cross-border attacks on Israeli troops would go on.

Lebanon will tell the US Secretary of State that cross-border guerrilla attacks on Israeli forces are likely to continue, a senior official said shortly before Colin Powell’s arrival in Beirut today.