LEBANON’S Hezbollah yesterday rejected charges in a German magazine that it was behind the 2005 killing of statesman Rafik al-Hariri and said the “fabrications” were made to try to influence next month’s general election.

THE party of slain Pakistan opposition leader Benazir Bhutto will call on the UN for an inquiry into her assassination if it forms a government after elections next month, said a party spokesman yesterday.

LEBANESE anti-Syrian parliamentarian Walid Eido was killed yesterday when a bomb ripped through his car in western Beirut, security sources said.

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.

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.

Nadim Ladki, Beirut

ABOUT 2,000 Syrian troops have pulled out of eastern Lebanon over the past week, a senior Lebanese security source said yesterday, bringing Syria a step closer to ending its 29-year military domination of Lebanon.

A BOMBING in a Christian suburb of east Beirut overshadowed Easter celebrations yesterday and raised fresh fears of a slide back into Lebanon’s violent past.

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

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.

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.

PRIME Minister Ariel Sharon said yesterday Israel is prepared to make “painful compromises for peace”, and has begun co-ordination with Palestinians on Israel’s planned pull-out from the Gaza Strip.

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.