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Excerpt - BEIRUT, May 9 (Reuters) - Hezbollah gunmen took control of large areas of Beirut on Friday in a third day of fighting between the pro-Iranian group and fighters loyal to the U.S.-backed governing coalition. Security sources said at least 10 people had been killed and 20 wounded. The thud of exploding grenades and crackle of automatic gunfire echoed overnight in the worst internal strife since the 1975-90 civil war. Gunmen loyal to Hezbollah forced the pro-government Future News television off the air on Friday, said a senior official at the Beirut station. Future News is owned by Saad...

Thousands of people from rival camps are taking part in key memorials amid heightened tension in Beirut. Anti-Syrian groups have been marking three years since the assassination of former PM Rafik Hariri. Meanwhile supporters of Hezbollah are attending the funeral of a leader of the militant group, Imad Mughniyeh, just a few miles away. A huge security operation is under way in the city amid fears of clashes between pro- and anti-Syrian factions. Correspondents say the events come at a potentially explosive time, with no president and no working parliament. About 8,000 army and internal security force troops have been...

Lebanese parliamentary majority leader Saad Hariri revealed on Tuesday that he has evidence of Syrian assassination plots against himself and Prime Minister Fouad Siniora. Hariri made the claim in response to a question about alleged assassination plots against the leaders by Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's brother-in-law and head of intelligence Assef Shawqat. "We have intelligence about this and we are following it up," he told reporters. "The intelligence is correct and our security services are working on it. "There is cooperation between Lebanese security services and Arab security services to avoid such assassinations," he said, without specifying which countries were...

UNITED NATIONS - Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said in a report released Wednesday that he hopes to appoint judges to the international tribunal to prosecute suspects in the assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri by the end of the year. In the report to the Security Council, Ban said the tribunal would not be established until the U.N. had an estimated $35 million to fund its operations through the first year, as well as an additional $85 million in pledges to pay for the following two years. The Security Council approved a resolution in May to establish the tribunal...

UNITED NATIONS - The Netherlands has agreed to host the tribunal that will prosecute suspects in the assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri, the United Nations announced Friday. U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon will send a delegation to the Netherlands in the coming weeks to discuss arrangements, U.N. spokeswoman Michele Montas said. A deeply divided U.N. Security Council approved a resolution on May 30 to unilaterally establish an international tribunal after the speaker of the Lebanese parliament refused to call a session to have members ratify the statutes to create it. The vote was 10-0 with major powers Russia...

UNITED NATIONS - A U.N. 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 Thursday. While not identifying anyone, Belgian prosecutor Serge Brammertz said investigators had "significantly narrowed down" possible motives for the slaying to Hariri's political and personal relationships in Lebanon, Syria and other countries. He said investigators believe the U.N. Security Council resolution in September 2004 aimed at blocking Lebanon's pro-Syrian President Emile Lahoud from a second term "played...

Syria has called on its citizens to leave Lebanon ahead of an expected "eruption" in that country, Arab and Iranian press reports have said. The media reports were translated and made available by MEMRI in a special dispatch on Sunday. "In the past few days, Arab and Iranian media reports have pointed to the possibility that Lebanon's current political crisis may become a violent conflict after July 15, 2007," the MEMRI dispatch said. July 15 comes one day before a special UN Security Council meeting which is expected to discuss the possibility of stationing international experts on the Syria-Lebanon border,...

BEIRUT: The militant Hezbollah group and its ally Syria denounced the United Nations on Thursday for its decision to establish a tribunal to prosecute the killers of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri. Meanwhile, officials in Beirut reopened the road where Hariri was killed by a suicide truck bomb in February 2005. Mayor Abdel-Monem al-Ariss said the spot would remain "a historic symbol in the heart of Beirut." The tribunal has been at the core of a political crisis between the pro-Western government in Beirut and the Hezbollah-led opposition that has erupted into street clashes in recent months, killing 11 people....

BEIRUT, Lebanon - The militant Hezbollah group and its ally Syria denounced the United Nations on Thursday for its decision to establish a tribunal to prosecute the killers of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri. Meanwhile, officials in Beirut reopened the road where Hariri was killed by a suicide truck bomb in February 2005. Mayor Abdel-Monem al-Ariss said the spot would remain "a historic symbol in the heart of Beirut." The tribunal has been at the core of a political crisis between the pro-Western government in Beirut and the Hezbollah-led opposition that has erupted into street clashes in recent months, killing...

UNITED NATIONS - A deeply divided U.N. Security Council approved a resolution Wednesday to unilaterally establish an international tribunal to prosecute suspects in the assassination of Lebanon's former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri. The vote was 10-0 with five abstentions — Russia, China, South Africa, Indonesia and Qatar. Nine votes were needed for passage. Current Lebanese Prime Minister Fuad Saniora asked the council earlier this month to establish the tribunal. He cited the refusal of opposition-aligned Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri to convene a session to ratify the statutes to create the tribunal, which have already been approved by his government and...

The U.N. Security Council voted Wednesday to set up the international tribunal that would try ex-premier Rafik Hariri’s suspected assassins. The 15-member council adopted a legally binding resolution that sets June 10 as the date for the entry into force of an agreement between the U.N. and Premier Fouad Saniora’s government to establish the court. Ten countries voted in favor, with veto-wielding members Russia and China as well as South Africa, Indonesia and Qatar -- three non-permanent members -- abstaining. Immediately after the voting in New York, fireworks lit Beirut’s skies in celebration of the tribunal’s establishment. A sound...

DAMASCUS, Syria - President Bashar Assad said Thursday his country would not recognize a U.N.-mandated international tribunal on the assassination of the former prime minister of Lebanon if it infringes on Syrian sovereignty. The comments indicated Damascus would not cooperate with the court if it indicts Syrian citizens for the killing of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri — setting the stage for a possible confrontation with the U.N. if the tribunal is created. Assad made the comments in a speech to parliament, where his ruling Baath Party nominated him for a second seven-year term in office. In the speech, Assad...

BEIRUT, Lebanon - Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri locked out lawmakers from the chamber Tuesday, seeking to block efforts to approve an international tribunal to try suspects in the assassination of a former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri. It was the third attempt in as many weeks by lawmakers from the Parliament's anti-Syrian majority to try and force Berri, a key opposition figure, to open the chamber's doors and call a session. Tuesday's events have deepened both the paralysis in Parliament and the political crisis in Lebanon, which since December has been buffeted by an opposition campaign to bring down the Western-backed...

Lebanon's parliamentary majority leader accused Syria Thursday of blocking moves to end a political crisis in his country. On a visit to Brussels, Saad Hariri also urged the European Union to help pressure Damascus to stop undermining attempts to establish a tribunal to investigate his father's killing. "There have been efforts by Saudi Arabia and Iran to get the crisis in Lebanon resolved," he told reporters at the European Parliament.

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AIN ALAQ, Lebanon (Reuters) - Bombs exploded on two buses in a Christian area of Lebanon on Tuesday, killing at least three people and wounding 20 on the eve of the second anniversary of the killing of ex-Prime Minister Rafik al-Hariri.Government sources said most of the casualties were on public buses carrying people to work in Beirut from Ain Alaq village near Bikfaya, home town of former president Amin Gemayel whose son was assassinated by gunmen in November.The blasts wrecked the buses and other vehicles on a mountain road about 24 km (15 miles) northeast of Beirut. Pools of blood...

Home | About | Arab Leaders | Slavery | Ethnic Cleansing | Hate | Apartheid | Fascism | Clerics | MassRape | Victims | Treating Women | Links | Education Sites Lebanese Forces Free Lebanon 2LA Guardians of Cedars Blogs amarji    syriaexposed Mass graves The remains of at least 20 bodiesMass grave enearthed in Lebanon Bodies found in Lebanon mass grave Seeking answers to mass grave, emboldened Lebanon stands up to former Syrian masters More LEBANON: Discovery of second mass grave raises questions Murdering Lebanon's PM : Rafik Hariri Unsilenced Voices UN: Syria Behind Hariri Slaying (It's final) U.N. investigator...

UNITED NATIONS - Syria suggested Friday 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 U.N. An ongoing U.N. investigation into the February 2005 truck bombing that killed Hariri and 22 others has said the killing's complexity suggested the Syrian and Lebanese intelligence services played a role in the assassination. Syria, which has denied1107 involvement, said in a letter circulated Friday at U.N. headquarters that the tribunal should not be arranged until after the...

Creation of the United Nations body still faces significant hurdles. It must be endorsed by President Emile Lahoud, a Hezbollah ally who considers the cabinet approval unconstitutional. And the tribunal must win approval from the Lebanese parliament, which is dominated by pro-Western lawmakers but headed by Hezbollah ally Nabih Berri, a prominent Shiite leader who could delay the vote. Attempts by either Lahoud or Berri to derail the investigation could deepen the rifts and heighten tensions... As the Lebanese cabinet moved two weeks ago to give its initial approval to the tribunal, six Hezbollah allies in the Lebanese cabinet resigned...

Lebanon approves Hariri tribunal Soldiers were deployed in central Beirut ahead of the cabinet meeting Lebanon's cabinet has given final approval to a plan for an international tribunal to try suspects in the murder of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri. The emergency session was held without six pro-Syrian ministers after talks to bring them back to the cabinet failed. The pro-Western prime minister, Fouad Siniora, had offered to postpone the meeting if the ministers would return. Tensions between the two groups were escalated by the killing on Tuesday of industry minister Pierre Gemayel. Saturday sees the second day of...

The Iranian and Syrian backed Islamist Hezbollah MONSTER Global Dirty Mafia Finance Network "Hezbollah's Global Finance Network: The Triple Frontier" While the volume of illegal remittances from South America is not known exactly, ... 4 "Argentina, Brasil y Paraguay aumentan controles en caliente Triple ... http://www.meib.org/articles/0201_l2.htm CIUDAD DEL ESTE, at the triple border of Brazil, Argentina and Paraguay ... is sent from the Triple Border to finance Hezbollah, linking South American ... http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Front_Page/HH03Aa01.htmlHezbollah in America - Editorials/Op-Ed - The Washington Times ... The Washington Times Editorials/Op-Ed: Hezbollah in America. ... a 41-year-old businessman, at his Dearborn home on charges of...

Typical of Islamists, doing the crime and "denying" it afterwards... Living in a bubble. Just like 9/11, or Iranian Huzbullah massacre of 85 Argentinian Jews in 1994, or the killing of Hariri and now of Gemayls', these Islamic terrorists are so impressive living in a tighly closed hole, really think their denial "works". Is there anyone out there that really buys Iran, Syrian, Husbullah's "denial" of the murdering of all those anti Syrian Christian Lebanese? Are they that naiive or is it sheer stupidity? http://www.cnsnews.com/news/viewstory.asp?Page=/ForeignBureaus/archive/200611/INT20061122a.html[/url] More Assassinations Expected in Lebanon

Beirut - The assassination of Pierre Gemayel means that two more ministers need to resign or be killed in order to bring down the anti-Syrian government. As if one assassination were not enough bloodshed for one day, the murderers proceeded to target another anti-Syrian Member of Parliament - Michel Pharaon. Syria's allies in Lebanon are planning to take the streets on Thursday to demand the government resign. The pro-Syrian allies in Lebanon include Hezbollah, Michel Aoun's political party and Nabih Berri's Amal movement. Syria behind violent overthrow? As documented in the U.N. investigation, Syria has openly threatened Lebanese politicians...

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...

Hariri 'killed by suicide bomber' Mr Hariri was killed in a massive blast in February 2005 A UN inquiry into the killing of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri has found new evidence that he was probably killed by a suicide bomber.Its latest report says investigators believe a man who died in the February 2005 blast is likely to have detonated a truck bomb which killed Mr Hariri. The report says new leads as to who was behind the attack in Beirut have been uncovered, but it does not elaborate. Syria has denied involvement in the blast, in which...

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...

The Ain al-Hilwe Palestinian refugee camp in the Lebanese port city of Sidon has been infiltrated by some 200 al-Qaida and Taliban terrorists who are using it as a base for planning and launching attacks, Lebanese intelligence officials told the London-based Sunday Telegraph. The officials blame the terror group, which calls itself Esbat al-Ansar (League of Warriors), for a rocket attack on the Future TV station in Beirut last Saturday night. The blast devastated the newsroom of the station, which is controlled by Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri, but caused no injuries as no one was on duty at the...

Vatican Secretary of State Angelo Sodano (R) meets Saad Hariri, son of assassinated Lebanon's premier Rafik Hariri during a private meeting at the Vatican July 19, 2006. REUTERS/Osservatore Romano/Pool (VATICAN) Lebanon turned Wednesday to the Vatican for help in pressing for a cease-fire in the Middle East, dispatching the son of assassinated premier Rafik Hariri to meet with the Holy See's secretary of state.Vatican officials said Cardinal Angelo Sodano met Saad Hariri, leader of the anti-Syrian marjority in Lebanon's parliament whose father's assassination last year led to massive protests that drove Syria out of Lebanon.Hariri was scheduled to meet...

Aqaba, 13/7/2006, (Communication & Information Division - Royal Hashemite Court) -- His Majesty King Abdullah called on Israel to stop attacks on Lebanon and condemned the attacks which have targeted Lebanese civilians and civilian infrastructure. His call came during a meeting today Lebanese MP Saadedinne Hariri who arrived in Aqaba from Alexandria, Egypt. Hariri said in remarks to the press that he had come on a short visit to Jordan to "ask the king to use his good relations with world leaders to bring about an end to the attacks on the Lebanese people." The King assured Hariri that his...

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - The U.N. Security Council on Thursday extended for another year the mandate of the international commission investigating the murder of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik al-Hariri. A resolution adopted unanimously by the 15-nation council also authorized the commission to delve more deeply into a related investigation of 14 other bomb attacks in Lebanon that investigators suspect are linked to Hariri's assassination. The council acted after chief investigator Serge Brammertz reported "considerable progress" in the commission's work but gave no indication he knew yet who was behind the crime. Hariri, who became a critic of Syria's decades-long...

DEIR QANUN AN-NAHR, Lebanon - After 17 years behind bars in a Swiss jail for hijacking a plane and killing a passenger, Hussein Hariri's dream now is to fly a plane he built with his own hands. "One day when I was in prison, I landed on a book about planes dating back to World War II. I read it in 10 days," said Hariri, 39, who returned in 2004 to his native village of Deir Qanun an-Nahr, in southern Lebanon. "I was so taken by the book that I contacted the University of Lausanne ... and they gave me...

It had occured to me recently, that the whole Hariri murder conspiracy might not be true, former prime minister Rafic Hariri might not be dead. Why didn't anyone think of the whole story in this direction? It is a possibility that the person who was murdered in the Beirut blast on the 14th of february 2005 might be a decoy of PM Rafic Hariri,and that his son Saad Al Deen might have had something to do with this conspiracy. I'm not accusing anyone here, even PM Hariri might have been a part of this. It might sound crazy at first,...

Damascus: The Syrian government has officially asked interpol to arrest former vice President Abdul Halim Khaddam so he can face charges of treason and corruption. The request states that he should be turned over to Damascus so he can be questioned for charges including inciting a foreign country to attack Syria. Khaddam, who lives in France, gave an interview in December in which he said that Syrian president Bashar Al Assad had threatened former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri just months before he was assassinated. It is unlikely that France will agree to the request as Khaddam has lived...

US blocks Hariri suspects' assets A massive car bomb targeted Mr Hariri's motorcade in Beirut US President George W Bush has ordered a freeze on the assets of anyone linked to the assassination of Lebanon's former Prime Minister, Rafik Hariri. The order called for the assets to be blocked of anyone linked to the Hariri killing - or to "terrorist acts" in Lebanon in which Syria is implicated. Mr Bush said the order was based on UN findings against Lebanon and Syria. A UN probe has implicated top Syrian officials and their Lebanese allies in the February 2005 attack on...

A suspicious plastic bag was discovered to contain seven rockets near the home of Lebanese parliament member Bahia Hariri, sister of the late Lebanese Premier Rafiq Hariri. The bag was spotted on Monday night by a Syrian worker near Hariri's home in the southern Lebanese town of Majdalyoun, east of Sidon, according to the AFP. According to army sources, the rockets were Rocket Propelled Grenades (RPG), and in good condition. However, they were had not been primed for firing. Dozens of Lebanese security personnel were dispatched in the areas surrounding the Hariri villa to ensure that other similar items had...

14 February, 2006 LEBANON – SYRIA Crowds slam Syria which retorts by calling gathering a “phoney rally” by Youssef Hourany e Jihad Issa A million Lebanese demonstrate in Beirut on the first anniversary of the assassination of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri. Patriarch Sfeir talks about rally in positive terms, saying that the Lebanese came together “to defend a common cause, that of the man in the day of loyalty”. Beirut (AsiaNews) – A phoney rally in Beirut is how SANA, Syria’s state news agency, called this afternoon’s huge mass gathering in the Lebanese capital to commemorate the first anniversary of the...

BEIRUT (AFP) - Beirut turned into a sea of red and white flags as Lebanon marked one year since former premier Rafiq Hariri's murder, amid mounting calls for the ouster of pro-Syrian President Emile Lahoud. Acting interior minister Ahmad Fatfat said an estimated crowd of more than one million people massed in central Beirut to remember an event that sent shockwaves through Lebanon and dramatically changed its political landscape."As Lebanese, rather than Christians and Muslims, let us cry 'Lebanon First'," said Hariri's MP son Saad Hariri, calling for unity in a speech to the huge crowd from behind a bullet-proof...

BEIRUT, Lebanon - Hundreds of thousands of flag-waving Lebanese packed a square in central Beirut on Tuesday to mark the anniversary of the assassination of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri, a momentous event that ended Syria's long domination of its smaller neighbor. Thousands of troops and policemen, backed by armored vehicles, sealed off Beirut's downtown to bolster security. The government gave schools the day off and businesses closed to allow people to participate. Buses brought in people from the countryside. The demonstration in Martyrs' Square next to Hariri's grave drew mostly Sunni Muslims from the former leader's sect and Christian...

BEIRUT, Lebanon - A crowd of 500,000 flag-waving Lebanese packed a square in central Beirut on Tuesday to mark the first anniversary of the assassination of former Prime Minister Rafik al-Hariri. The turnout, reminiscent of huge protests after the Feb. 14, 2005, murder that forced Syria to bow to international pressure and leave Lebanon, looked set to give fresh impetus to the country’s anti-Syrian coalition that dominates the government after winning a general election in May and June. The coalition of Sunni Muslim, Christian and Druze political forces, which called the rally, is demanding to know the truth about Hariri’s...

For the first time on Monday, a relative of a victim of the September 11, 2001 attacks that were mostly carried out by Saudi nationals will speak in public in the kingdom. Sonia Tita Puopolo, is the daughter of Sonia Morales Puopolo, who was a passenger on American Airlines flight 11 that crashed into one of the towers of New York's World Trade Center.She is to speak during a session titled "Terrorism - The Human Toll" at the Jeddah Economic Forum starting in the Red Sea port city of Jeddah in the west of the ultra conservative kingdom on Saturday....

Leader of the Parliamentarian majority Saad al-Hariri urged the Lebanese people to celebrate his father s assassination anniversary which falls on February 14, describing this occasion as a national day. In his press conference he had held in Beirut on Sunday after an absence outside Lebanon that lasted for 6 months for security reasons, Hariri called on all Lebanese to participate in the celebration to be held in al-Hurriah (freedom) square in the downtown of Beirut, stressing the need that the Lebanese to cling to national unity. Saad Hariri had left Lebanon by the end of July 2005 under the...

BEIRUT, Lebanon, AP - A large billboard on a Beirut street corner bears a picture of Rafik Hariri with a counter ticking off the days since the former prime minister was assassinated and his killers have gone free. The counter will reach 365 on Tuesday. One year later, the aftershocks of the one-ton truck bomb that killed one of the country's most prominent politicians still rattle Lebanon and the Middle East. For Lebanese, the explosion on Feb. 14, 2005 — which also killed 20 others — is known as the "earthquake" that transformed the political landscape beyond imagination. It set...

DAMASCUS, Syria - Syria's president ordered a major Cabinet shake-up Saturday, signaling he has no plans to cave under growing U.S. and international pressure over the assassination of a former Lebanese leader and alleged failure to stop militants from crossing into Iraq. President Bashar Assad named his hard-line Foreign Minister Farouk al-Sharaa as vice president and replace him with his deputy, Walid Moallem, a former ambassador to the United States and United Nations. Al-Sharaa was also put in charge of implementing Syrian "foreign and information policies." The U.N. investigation into the assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri has...

Senior source in Damascus tells Ynet Syrian leader Assad interested in deal that would allow him to stay in power; the price: Incriminating senior officials behind Hariri killing, cutting aid to anti-U.S. fighters in Iraq. Assad still refusing to dismantle Hizbullah Syria's Assad wants a deal: Syrian President Bashar Assad is engaged in advanced contacts with the U.S. and France in a bid to work out an agreement that will allow him to stay in power, a senior source in Damascus told Ynet. According to the source, the contacts are being undertaken through Saudi intermediation and are meant to resolve...

oday the President met with the Senate Republican Conference at the Eisenhower Executive Office Building in Washington, to talk about a wide range of issues, he also met with Lebanon's parliamentary majority leader Saad al-Hariri, the son of murdered former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafiq al-Hariri, in the Oval Office of the White House, Hariri is the son of former Lebanese prime minister Rafik Hariri, whose assassination in Beirut a year ago set in motion a U.S led U.N. campaign to stifle Syria's domination of Lebanon and remove their troops from Lebanon

Questioning of four Syrians will begin on Monday in Vienna as part of the ongoing UN investigation into the assassination of former Lebanese premier Rafiq Hariri. The four include Lieutenant General Rustom Ghazali, Syria's former intelligence chief in Lebanon, and Hosam Hosam, who had previously implicated Syrian officials in the case before retracted his testimony and fleeing to Syria, according to Reuters. Ghazali, who had previously been identified as a suspect, had undergone an earlier round of questioning. Syria has denied any involvement in the February 14 explosion in Beirut which took the lives of Hariri and 22 others. It...

JIDDAH, Saudi Arabia (AP) - Syrian President Bashar Assad made surprise trips to Saudi Arabia and Egypt on Sunday, apparently seeking support from Arab leaders as he faces a U.N. probe into alleged Syrian involvement in the assassination of a former Lebanese leader. Arab diplomats said the trips were aimed at finding a face-saving way for Assad to handle U.N. requests to interview him about the Feb. 14 killing of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri in a Beirut bombing. Assad implied in a newspaper interview published Saturday that he has rejected U.N. investigators' second request to interview him on...

DAMASCUS (Reuters) - Syria has frozen the assets of former Vice President Abdel-Halim Khaddam and his family after lawmakers accused him of corruption and demanded that he be charged with treason for criticizing the president.The state-run al-Thawra newspaper ran a decree by the finance ministry, which it said was in response to parliamentary debates on Saturday. Officials were not immediately available for comment."The finance ministry issued a decree to freeze the assets of Abdel-Halim Khaddam, his wife, descendants male and female and their spouses and their descendants...pending judicial investigation," it said.Syria's parliament unanimously voted on Saturday to call on the...

CAIRO, Egypt - Syrian President Bashar Assad denied threatening Lebanon's former prime minister but suggested in an interview published Saturday that he would not allow U.N. investigators to interview him about Rafik Hariri's killing. Syria's former vice president Abdul-Halim Khaddam, who defected to France, told The Associated Press on Friday that Assad had threatened Hariri during their last meeting. "I don't know what others meant by threatening," Assad was quoted as saying in the Egyptian opposition weekly al-Osboa. "This never happened and the aim was to connect the threat with the assassination. The game is clear. Nobody attended the last...