Lebanese leaders pledge to hold election despite bombing

Lebanese leaders today pledged to press ahead with a divisive election for president, to be held in Parliament in the coming days, despite the car bombing assassination of an anti-Syrian MP.

The powerful bomb Wednesday killed Antoine Ghanem, an anti-Syria MP, and six others in a Christian neighbourhood of Beirut – and threatened to derail efforts to bring the country’s rival parties together to agree on a head of state ahead of time, before voting is set to begin next week.