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Efforts to draft a ministerial statement continued to flounder on Friday, despite continuing contact between leaders of competing political coalitions in Lebanon in the aftermath of the formation of a national unity Cabinet some two weeks ago. A day after the suspension of discussions related.

Six people, including a child, were killed in fierce clashes on Friday in Lebanon's northern city of Tripoli as fighters exchanged rocket-propelled grenades and sniper fire, a security official said. The 10-year-old boy, Yehya Abboud, died of injuries sustained earlier in the day when he was hit by a stray bullet, the official told

Senior Shiite cleric Sayyed Mohammad Hussein Fadlallah said the national dialogue should focus on the way that all Lebanese parties take part in the defense of Lebanon. "I do not believe that the permanent debate over the legitimacy of the resistance's weapons can change the fact that those arms are necessary for Lebanon," Fadlallah said.

The United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) Friday lodged a formal complaint with Israel for a series of violations of Lebanese airspace over a two-day period. In a press release Friday, UNIFIL spokeswoman Yasmina Bouzianne demanded Israel bring a halt to their over flights as they constituted.

The Lebanese Option Group (LOG), headed by Ahmad al-Assad, said Friday that the national unity government was unable to produce a ministerial statement, and that therefore it cannot achieve "any change as it [the Cabinet] is based on contradictions." The LOG released a statement on Thursday slamming the "new Cabinet's failures in dealing.

Syrian security forces at the Abboudiyeh border crossing in northern Lebanon detained on Thursday night a Lebanese army sergeant and a civilian, Al-Mustaqbal newspaper reported on Friday. Al-Liwaa newspaper said on Thursday that heavy shooting took place between the Syrian military unit and Lebanese sergeant Asaad al-Sawmai.

Chief veterinarian for the Indian UN battalion (INDBATT) Lieutenant Colonel Satvir Singh, in full uniform, lowers himself on one knee on the side of the road in the southern Lebanese town of Shebaa. He reaches under the goat as the shepherd's wife holds it by the scruff of its neck and pulls the heaving udder toward him.

We welcome recent moves by Syria to improve relations and positively engage with neighboring countries. We hope that indirect talks with Israel will lead as soon as possible to direct negotiations. The European side will fully support these efforts, as well as those made on other tracks, and will assist all actors involved in order to achieve a just.

Syrian skies seem to be finally clearing after a very long storm and the virtual shunning of President Bashar Assad from the international political scene for almost three years. Many may perceive the recent rapprochement between Syria and France as a mere dalliance, but others believe it can herald a new - and more peaceful - dawn in Lebanon.

Debate over the future of Hizbullah's weapons hindered a seventh effort on Thursday to draft a ministerial statement for the new national unity government. Following a meting headed by Prime Minister Fouad Siniora at the Grand Serail of a committee of ministers drafting the policy platform, Information Minister Tarek Mitri told reporters.

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon will not make any decision until the fall on when the head of the investigation of the killing of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri will take up the post of prosecutor at the long-awaited tribunal to try suspects in the assassination, UN Undersecretary for Legal Affairs Nicholas Michel told

Commander of the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) General Claudio Graziano said Thursday his troops and himself believed that lasting peace in Southern Lebanon was possible. Graziano stressed the dedication of the UNIFIL troops in pursuing their mission, in association with the Lebanese Armed Forces, "to ensure stability in the region."

Maronite Patriarch Nasrallah Butros Sfeir said Thursday there should be no armed factions outside state control, in a direct reference to Hizbullah. Sfeir made the remark to members of the Journalists Union who visited him at his seat in suburban Bkirki, north of Beirut. "States of the world have resistance [movements] but these are non-armed factions.

Former Premier Omar Karami on Wednesday night called on all political leaders to implement Article 95 of the Lebanese Constitution, which calls for the formation of a national council for the abolition of sectarianism in politics. "If I were the premier in charge of forming the Cabinet, I would have adopted the ministerial statement of the former government.

A 1 million euro ($1.56 million) project to improve irrigation in the Bekaa Valley town of Baalbek was launched Thursday by the Italian Embassy in Lebanon. Representatives from the embassy and Baalbek Municipality offered the aid, which was donated by the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, to over 300 local farmers at a ceremony in Baalbek.

Prime Minister Fouad Siniora's media office dismissed on Monday rumors circulated by some media outlets claiming that the dossier of the Lebanese detainees in Syrian jails was being neglected. "Such claims are an untrue smear against the government and the image of those dead or missing," the media office's statement said.

Maronite Patriarch Nasrallah Butros Sfeir said on Wednesday that it is good to realize that the Lebanese nationality should be given to Lebanese emigrants, who he said, "deserve it." "According to many people, the Lebanese nationality has been offered to lots of individuals who are not worthy of it, while depriving several others of this citizenship.

Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri said Wednesday that the ministerial statement committee's primary task is to draft a policy platform for the new government, while stressing that the committee, made up of an assortment of ministers from competing political coalitions, is not the "proper forum for a national dialogue."

A US initiative to resolve the dispute over the occupied Shebaa Farms is still on the table, and is being considered by US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, An-Nahar newspaper's correspondent in Washington on Wednesday quoted an American official as saying.

Italian Parliament Speaker Gianfranco Fini said on Wednesday that Italy has no intention of withdrawing its troops from the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL).Fini told the French weekly Politique Internationale that Italy can help restore peace to war-torn regions with the help of international cooperation.