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1. Ahmad Abu Adass In 2005, the last year of his life, Ahmad Abu Adass was 22 and still living with his parents in Beirut, Lebanon. He was kind and liked people, his friends later told investigators, but none of them thought he was very sophisticated. The best way to describe him was simple, one said. He was generous and a little naïve. He was very weak, physically. A Sunni Muslim of Palestinian descent, Adass had become interested in religion and now spent many hours at the Arab University Mosque near his home. It was there, after a prayer session,...

AP: Lebanon's President Emile Lahoud declares a state of emergency and orders the army to take over, hours before his terms ends. Breaking news, headline only.

BEIRUT, Lebanon - Lebanon's political tumult intensified as President Emile Lahoud said the country is in a "state of emergency" and handed security powers to the army before he left office Friday without a successor. The rival, pro-Western Cabinet rejected the declaration. Lahoud's final announcement created new confusion in an already unsettled situation, which many Lebanese fear could explode into violence between supporters of Prime Minister Fuad Saniora's Western-backed government and the pro-Syria opposition led by the Shiite militant group Hezbollah. The departure of Lahoud, a staunch ally of the Syrian regime during nine years in office, was a long-sought...

Lahoud says would name Suleiman as provisional successor if camps fail to agree on permanent one. BEIRUT - Lebanese President Emile Lahoud said Thursday he would name army chief General Michel Suleiman as his provisional successor if the country's competing political camps fail to agree on a permanent one. He was speaking ahead of a planned parliamentary vote this autumn to elect a new president, with the country's pro- and anti-Syrian blocs in a deadlock that threatens to exacerbate ongoing political paralysis. A successful vote requires the 128-seat house to muster a quorum of 86 MPs but this will require...

Opposition Mass Protests as of 3 p.m. Friday in Downtown Beirut Hizbullah and allied forces called for mass protests as of 3 p.m. Friday in downtown Beirut in a bid to topple Premier Fouad Saniora's government amid heavy security in the capital to prevent chaos. "The opposition forces, on the basis of their constitutional rights, call on all Lebanese, whatever their religious confession, to demonstrate peacefully in an open-ended sit-in as of 3 p.m. Friday for a national unity government," said a statement released by the opposition leadership and carried by Hizbullah's Al-Manar television. The statement said the main...

Hizbullah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah in a speech aired Sunday urged his supporters and anti-Syrian allies to be "psychologically" ready for street protests to demand for a national unity government. But Nasrallah, who did not set a date for the demonstrations, warned that the protests should be peaceful and avoid riots. "We have to be psychologically prepared to take to the streets because we may send for you 24 hours ahead or 12 hours or even 6 hours (in advance)," Nasrallah threatened. "There has to be a patriotic opposition in the street … our action is peaceful and civilized,"...

The Lebanese cabinet approved on Monday a U.N. draft text setting up an international tribunal to try former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri's suspected assassins. "We unanimously approved the draft," Saniora told a news conference after the three-hour meeting. "With this decision we tell the murderers that we will not give up our rights no matter what the difficulties and obstacles are," he said. "Our only aim is to achieve justice and only justice. Without it and without knowing the truth, the Lebanese will not rest and we cannot protect our democratic system and political freedom now and in the...

"It was da joos!"Lebanese President Emile Lahoud is using a photograph from Qana to illustrate a point in his address to the UnTIed Nations. I'll do my best to pull a transcript of his speech to find out what the context in which he's using it is, but needless to say, I doubt he's saying, "This illustrates the cynical nature of the activist press." This does appear to be "an historic" moment in the eyes of the press. The wires are flooded with various angles of this exact same pose, sent across by two of the major agencies so far....

A Syrian national suspected of involvement in the assassination of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri said that Syrian President Bashar Assad and his Lebanese counterpart Emile Lahoud ordered the killing, the Lebanese Media reported Sunday. Mohammed Zuhair Siddiq, the witness in the massive bombing that killed Hariri and 21 others in central Beirut on Feb. 14, 2005, accused Assad and Lahoud of giving the orders to assassinate Hariri, An Nahar daily newspaper said. In a live interview with Al-Arabiya channel late on Saturday from his residence in Paris, Siddiq said that he saw the car used in the assassination with...

Lebanese President Emile Lahoud said that "Lebanon has not only defeated Israel, but also the plans for the state's partition." Lahoud made the statement during a speech to the nation that was broadcast on Lebanese media channels. (Roee Nahmias)

As Lebanon plunges deeper into ruin and chaos as a result of Hizballah’s “gang war” tactics against Israel’s expanded military campaign to degrade the power of the Islamist party, Hizballah, Syria, and its allies in Lebanon are devising plans to subvert an international agreement on a multinational force to guard the Israel-Lebanon border. They are also preparing for a political comeback in a postconflict Lebanon by riding the wave of the victory Hizballah is sure to claim whatever the outcome—a supposed triumph that in reality will be at best a Pyrrhic victory. Hizballah’s Political Offensive From the time the...

Lebanese President Emil Lahoud said today that he supports the Hizbullah terrorist organization. "I support the Hizbullah because they liberated our land," Lahoud said, adding that the Lebanese army does not have the wherewithal to confront the IDF, but that it will defend Lebanon as much as it can. Hizbullah is a part of the current Lebanese government, with one of its members serving as Lebanon's minister of energy. Lahoud is widely regarded by Lebanese citizens as a Syrian agent in the country's regime.

Hezbollah and its backers, not the government, now appear in control of Lebanon's fate. After moderating their stance in recent years, the guerrillas surged back to the war front with a surprise attack on Israel and a sophisticated arsenal, leaving Lebanon's politicians and army looking nearly powerless. The government seems paralyzed over how to deal with Hezbollah, whose Shiite Muslim fighters have had near autonomy in the south for more than a decade. Hezbollah leader Sheik Hassan Nasrallah acted Sunday like the man holding Lebanon's reins, though he looked tired and stressed as he vowed that his group had...

U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice arrived in Beirut Thursday on a surprise visit aimed to support efforts by anti-Syrian groups to oust President Emile Lahoud. Rice, who is on a regional tour, has met with Foreign Minister Fawzi Salloukh at Rafik Hariri International Airport. She will also hold talks with Prime Minister Fouad Saniora and other Lebanese officials during the visit that will last for only several hours. "The sole purpose of this trip is to express support for the Lebanese people and for the Lebanese government as they try to recover fully their sovereignty," Rice said upon...

CAIRO , December 31, 2005 (IslamOnline.net) - The bombshell dropped by former Syrian vice-president Abdel Halim Khaddam on a possible Syrian role in the assassination of Lebanese ex-premier Rafiq Hariri has sent seismic waves in Damascus and would tighten the noose around the Arab country, experts agreed on Saturday, December 31. “Khaddam’s testimony at this critical juncture in Syrian history has, in effect, sent shock waves across the country’s political landscape and ushered in grave consequences,” Syrian opposition writer Akram Al-Beni told IslamOnline.net. Speaking from Paris, where he has lived since resigning as vice-president in June, Khaddam said in...

Beirut (AsiaNews) – The Maronite Patriarch Nasrallah Sfeir is fast becoming a point of reference not only for Christians but for the entire nation. This is increasingly felt as Lebanon lives through a difficult time, thanks to internal repercussions of the Mehlis report and debate surrounding the future of the President of the Republic Emile Lahoud. Yesterday, in his homily, the Patriarch once again underlined the need of a spiritual revival based on values of faith in the Eucharist, and he expressed concern about the current state of affairs: there is a prevalent “perplexity which has gripped the minds of...

SECURITY forces yesterday arrested a pro-Syrian militant alleged to have telephoned Lebanese President Emile Lahoud minutes before the country's former prime minister Rafik Hariri was killed by a car bomb in February. The arrest of Mahmoud Abdel-Al intensifies pressure on Mr Lahoud to resign in the face of a damning UN report that accuses Syrian and Lebanese officials aligned to him of conspiring to kill Hariri. Mr Lahoud, a staunchly pro-Syrian head of state, has denied receiving the call, and has appealed for calm across Lebanon in the wake of the report, which is set to reshape the political destinies...

Lebanon: Lahoud spoke at UN but few listened Sunday, 18 September, 2005 @ 12:44 PM New York, NY - Lebanese president General Emile Lahoud has addressed the U.N. General Assembly in New York, but few listened to his speech, since all world leaders who count left their seats at the hall when the Lebanese president took the floor... the Beirut press reported on Saturday." The hall was empty from heavyweights and the president drew warm applause only from members of the Lebanese delegation that accompanied him ," according to An Nahar newspaper, that described the cold shoulder treatment Lahoud got...

BEIRUT (AP)--U.S. President George W. Bush has invited Lebanon's prime minister, but not its president, to a reception in New York next week, a sign that President Emile Lahoud is being isolated internationally as calls rise for his resignation. U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has also left Lahoud off the guest list for her reception on the sidelines of next week's U.N. summit, despite her meeting the Lebanese president when she visited Beirut in July, diplomats said. Lebanon's leading newspaper An-Nahar, which opposes the pro-Syrian Lahoud, reported Friday that the Bush administration had withdrawn an invitation to Lahoud. But...

The chief of a UN investigation of the assassination of former Lebanese premier Rafiq Hariri has named presidential guard chief, Mustafa Hamdan, as a suspect in the case. "On the basis of evidence gathered, we have a suspect, Mustafa Hamdan," Detlev Mehlis told the French newspaper Le Figaro in an interview published on Wednesday. Brig. Gen. Mustafa Hamdan is considered President Lahoud's closest military aide. Following Hariri's killing the Lebanese opposition demanded that Hamdan be sacked. "He was one of the first persons questioned because we had information that he is one of those who gave orders to change the...