SHOTLIST

++NIGHT SHOTS++

1. Exterior shot of Prime Minister's office in Beirut

2. Mid shot of Lebanese soldiers and armoured vehicle in position around Prime Minister's office

3. Mid shot of Lebanese soldiers

4. Wide shot of Lebanese soldiers and armoured vehicle

5. Wide shot of Prime Minister's office

6. Wide shot of Lebanese cabinet meeting

7. Mid shot of Lebanese Prime Minister Fuad Saniora sitting at head of meeting

8. Mid shot of picture of murdered Lebanese Industry Minister Pierre Gemayel placed in his position around meeting table

9. Various of cabinet ministers around table

10. Mid shot of picture of murdered Lebanese Industry Minister Pierre Gemayel

11. Cameras

12. Mid shot of Lebanese Minister of Information, Ghazi Aridi, at press conference

13. SOUNDBITE: (Arabic) Ghazi Aridi, Lebanese Minister of Information:

"(The cabinet) approved the creation of an international tribunal between Lebanon and the United Nations and authorised the Justice Minister to sign this agreement with the United Nations and also to send this approval to the Lebanese Parliament for authorisation.''

14. Cameras

STORYLINE

The Lebanese government on Saturday approved an international tribunal for suspects in the 2005 assassination of former prime minister Rafik Hariri, despite warnings of mass protests by its opponent Hezbollah.

Last-ditch attempts to reach a compromise between the government and the pro-Syrian camp, led by Hezbollah, appeared to fail as the cabinet moved forward with its meeting for a UN created court.

The tribunal is a key bone of contention in the power struggle between allies and opponents of Syria in Lebanon.

Anti-Syrian forces - mainly Christian and Sunni Muslim - dominate the government, but are facing a campaign by the mainly Shiite pro-Syrian camp to bring the government down.

The political crisis became potentially explosive this week with the assassination of an anti-Syrian politician, raising worries of more violence that could tear apart the country's fragile sectarian seams.

The anti-Syrian bloc brought out some 800,000 people for a mass rally at the funeral of the politician, Pierre Gemayel, on Thursday.

Hezbollah has shown it can bring out similar numbers for its protests - and if it goes ahead with its threatened demonstrations, many fear it could start a spiral of street action.

Earlier on Saturday, two key anti-Syrian Lebanese politicians met with Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri, an ally of Hezbollah and a Syria supporter, in an apparent attempt to find a compromise.

Prime Minister Fuad Saniora offered to put off the contentious Cabinet vote for several days if six pro-Hezbollah ministers who quit the government earlier this month returned.

Hezbollah demands that the government be changed to give it and its allies more power, or else it says it will launch mass protests to topple Saniora.

But the reconciliation bid appeared to have failed, and the Cabinet meeting approved a UN draft for the tribunal.

In the eyes of Hezbollah, the approval of the tribunal amounts to a rejection of its demands for a greater representation in the Cabinet.

The Shiite militant group and Lebanon's pro-Syrian president, Emile Lahoud, have denounced the current government as unconstitutional, because the constitution underlines that the government must represent all of Lebanon's main communities.

"(The cabinet) approved the creation of an international tribunal between Lebanon and the United Nations and authorised the Justice Minister to sign this agreement with the United Nations and also to send this approval to the Lebanese Parliament for authorisation,'' Information Minister Ghazi Aridi said after the vote.

Aridi's statement went on to say that Prime Minister Saniora insisted the approval of the tribunal was not meant as a provocation against Hezbollah and its allies.

For opponents of Syria, the court is a major priority, and they hope it will uncover the truth behind the February 2005 assassination of Hariri in a massive bomb blast that killed 22 others, which they accuse Damascus of orchestrating. Syria has denied any role in the killing.

The court, which will sit outside Lebanon and have a majority of non-Lebanese judges, is to try four Lebanese generals - top pro-Syrian security chiefs under Lahoud including his Presidential Guard commander, who have been under arrest for 14 months, accused of involvement in

Hariri's murder.

The UN investigation into Hariri's death has also implicated Brigadier General Assaf Shawkat, Syria's military intelligence chief and the brother-in-law of Syrian President Bashar Assad. But Shawkat is not in custody.

Hariri's death was the first in a string of attacks that killed five other prominent anti-Syrian figures - with Gemayel the most recent, in a bold daytime shooting on Tuesday.

Many Lebanese blame Syria in all the killings, which Damascus denies.

Since Gemayel's assassination, some ministers in Saniora's Cabinet have moved into the heavily guarded prime minister's building in downtown Beirut, fearing more slayings.

SHOTLIST

1. 'An-Nahar' newspaper building with big poster of Gibran Tueni on side

2. Close up on poster

3. People marching

4. Protesters shouting slogans

5. Various of demonstration, flag waving people

6. Various of closed shops, banks and schools

7. Various of security forces on the streets

8. Newspapers on sale

9. Various of newspapers

10. SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Vox pop:

"We ask for a firm decision about the Syrians and we call to impose sanctions on them and even change the regime. This regime looks very criminal, we cannot reach an understanding with them."

11. Various of mourning signs in Sassine Place in Ashrafieh (area of Beirut which Tueni represented in parliament), pictures of Tueni and Lebanese flags

12. Cars driving through the street with Tueni posters, part of funeral procession

13. Various of funeral procession, coffins (of Tueni and his two bodyguards) draped in Lebanese flags being taken through Sassine

14. Atef Majdalani, MP from Hariri bloc in parliament, reading newspaper

15. Cutaway photo of Atef Majdalani and former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri

16. SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Atef Majdalani, MP from Hariri bloc in Lebanese parliament:

"We call on the international community to stop these terrorist operations, these crimes and these assassinations that are being carried out by totalitarian regimes, by dictatorial and oppressive regimes."

17. Various of funeral, crowd holding signs and waving Lebanese flags

STORYLINE:

Thousands of flag-waving Lebanese - both Christian and Muslim - bid farewell on Wednesday to murdered newspaper editor Gibran Tueni.

The mass turn-out demonstrated the level of anger felt towards Syria, which has been blamed for the Monday car bombing which killed Tueni.

A general strike called in mourning for Tueni was widely respected with banks, businesses and schools closing their doors for the day.

Hundreds of Lebanese troops and police took up position in a central square where, on March 14, about a million people heard Tueni call for the withdrawal of Syrian forces from Lebanon.

An outspoken critic of Syria, Tueni was killed by a car bomb on Monday as he was being driven to work through an industrial suburb of Beirut.

The 48-year old was the fourth anti-Syrian figure to be killed since February.

The series of bombings began with the assassination of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri, who was killed in a truck bombing.

A previously unknown group has claimed responsibility for the blast that killed Tueni and two bodyguards, and wounded 30 other people.

But Tueni's colleagues and political allies have blamed Syria, which has denied involvement.

In the Beirut district of Ashrafieh, which Tueni represented in parliament, several thousand people marched behind his coffin and those of his bodyguards.

Others waited outside An-Nahar's offices in the city centre, where a giant portrait of Tueni hung down the side of the building.

Men, women and children - including families and political activists - waved Lebanese flags and held pictures of Tueni.

Many shouted slogans against Syria and its President Bashar Assad.

The strike that anti-Syrian groups had called in mourning for Tueni was observed not only in Beirut, but also in the southern provincial capital of Sidon and in the mountains of central Lebanon.

But in eastern Lebanon, where pro-Syrian groups are dominant, the strike call was ignored.

Opponents of Syrian influence in Lebanon are counting on the public anger over Tueni's killing to bolster their cause and close ranks in the face of what they see as a Syrian threat to pick off their leaders one by one.

Meantime, on Tuesday the chief U.N. investigator into the Hariri assassination, German magistrate Detlev Mehlis, told the U.N. Security Council that the latest evidence strengthened his belief that Syrian and Lebanese intelligence officials were involved in the murder.

Mehlis had interviewed Tueni as a witness.

Hariri's death in February sparked mass protests and intensified international pressure which forced Syria to withdraw its army from Lebanon after nearly three decades of political and military control.

Syria has denied involvement in Hariri's killing.

France circulated a resolution in the Security Council co-sponsored by Britain and the United States, which would broaden the scope of the U.N. investigation to include all the attacks in Lebanon since October 1, 2004.

The draft resolution seemed to deflect the Lebanese government's request for an inquiry into Tueni's killing and an international tribunal for the suspected killers of Hariri.

SHOTLIST:

1. Wide of city skyline

2. Mid of cars

3. Mid of pedestrians

4. Pan of traffic

5. People reading newspaper headlines

6. Tilt down of newspapers

7. Newspaper headline reading (Arabic): "The resignation is the gate for consensus"

8. Man reading newspaper

9. Close up of newspaper

10. SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Naim Saleh, resident

"The situation is getting worse and worse because we are moving from a security vacuum into a constitutional one, this is all because the division between the sects and the people is also affecting the government."

11. Mid of traffic

STORYLINE:

Beirut residents on Saturday awoke to a constitutional vacuum in the country's government, a day after the prime minister resigned as a sign of protest against government infighting.

Najib Mikati stepped down on Friday after the parliament was unable to agree on a law to govern elections set for later this year. He also objected to the Cabinet's refusal to extend the tenure of the country's police chief, who is about to retire.

Underpinning the political crisis are Lebanon's hugely sectarian politics and the fact that the country's two largest political blocs support opposite sides in Syria's civil war.

Lebanon and Syria share a complex network of political and sectarian ties, and many fear that violence in Syria will spread to Lebanon.

"The situation is getting worse and worse because we are moving from a security vacuum into a constitutional one, this is all because the division between the sects and the people is also affecting the government," said Beirut resident Naim Saleh.

There were signs of rising tensions before Mikati's speech.

Gunmen who support and oppose Syrian President Bashar Assad clashed on Friday in the northern Lebanese city of Tripoli, leaving six people dead and more than 20 wounded, according to state-run National News Agency.

Clashes between the Sunni neighbourhood of Bab Tabbaneh, which supports Syria's rebels, and the adjacent Alawite neighbourhood of Jabal Mohsen, which supports Assad, have broken out repeatedly in recent months.

Also in Tripoli, the Lebanese army said a soldier was killed and several others wounded during an army raid to capture several gunmen.

Mikati's resignation follows months of political wrangling in the Lebanese parliament that has yet to agree on a law to govern parliamentary elections planned for June.

The failure to agree on a law could delay the vote.

Also, the Hezbollah-dominated Cabinet has refused to extend the tenure of Maj. Gen. Ashraf Rifi, Lebanon's police chief, who is considered a foe by the Islamic militant group.

Lebanese President Michel Suleiman must accept Mikati's resignation for it to be official, a step that is all but a formality.

Mikati has been prime minister since June 2011, heading a government dominated by Hezbollah and its allies.

Their main rivals are a Western-backed coalition headed by former Prime Minister Saad al-Hariri, son of Rafik Hariri, who was also Prime Minister and killed in a truck bombing in 2005.

A Harvard-educated billionaire, Mikati was chosen to lead the government after Hezbollah forced the collapse of Lebanon's previous, pro-Western government over fears a U.N.-backed tribunal investigating the killing of the elder Hariri would indict Hezbollah members.

SHOTLIST

1. Wide of Druse leader Walid Jumblatt's news conference

2. SOUNDBITE (English): Walid Jumblatt, Senior Druse politician in the anti-Syrian coalition:

"I just accuse bluntly the Syrian regime. Because it does not want Lebanon, the people of Lebanon, to be free, independent, and to be safe and to be prosperous from the start. (Listens to reporter's question) By killing Pierre Gemayel they have killed one member of the Government, we still have the majority actually and we can approve the draft, the convention between the Lebanese government and the United Nations. They might kill another minister, its very possible, very plausible. And they might of course kill other members of parliament, because Pierre Gemayel was a member of parliament and a minister. So to reduce the majority in the parliament. They can do anything, because his only fear, Bashar (Syrian President Bashar Assad), is not to be indicted somewhere by the tribunal. And here I have to remind people that he said it, he acknowledged the fact indirectly that if a Syrian official is involved into the killing of Hariri (former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri), this Syrian is to be judged and tried. He said it in one of his famous so-called speeches. But even that he cannot afford it. Because he knows that if maybe a single corporal a single individual in Syria is involved into the crime, you know the system, their totalitarian system, is wholly involved.

3. Cutaway wide

4. SOUNDBITE (Arabic): Walid Jumblatt, Senior Druse politician in the anti-Syrian coalition:

"It seems that the Syrian regime has resumed assassinations or they are carrying on with their assassinations and they will continue to kill. I'm expecting more assassinations. But whatever they do, we are here, we are here, and we are going to win."

5. Jumblatt rising and leaving room at end of conference

6. Reporters leaving

STORYLINE:

A prominent Lebanese politician on Wednesday accused Syria of assassinating Lebanon's Industry Minister, Pierre Gemayel, in a Beirut suburb a day earlier.

Walid Jumblatt, a prominent Druse politician in the anti-Syrian coalition, blamed Damascus for the death.

"I just accuse bluntly the Syrian regime. Because it does not want Lebanon, the people of Lebanon, to be free, independent, and to be safe," Jumblatt said.

Gemayel, minister of industry and scion of a prominent political family, was killed on Tuesday when two cars blocked his vehicle at an intersection in

the suburbs of Beirut.

He was shot numerous times through a side window of his car.

His killing - the fifth murder of an anti-Syrian figure in Lebanon in two years - immediately drew condemnations from all quarters.

The United States condemned the slaying as an act of terrorism.

Syria too condemned the assassination and denied any role in it.

President George W. Bush accused Syria and Iran of seeking to undermine the government of Prime Minister Fuad Saniora, though he stopped short of blaming them for the 34-year-old's slaying.

In contrast however, Jumblatt openly accused Syria of being involved and he warned that the lives of more Lebanese political leaders could be in danger from the Syrian regime.

"They might kill another minister, its very possible, very plausible. And they might of course kill other members of parliament, because Pierre Gemayel was a member of parliament and a minister. So to reduce the majority in the parliament. They can do anything," said Jumblatt.

Jumblatt indicated that the slaying was linked to the plan for an international court to try suspects in former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri assassination.

"But we still have the majority actually and we can approve the draft, the convention between the Lebanese government and the United Nations," he said at the news conference.

Jumblatt said indictment by the international tribunal was something Syrian President Bashar Assad would want to avoid at all costs, and reason enough to kill other Lebanese leaders and "reduce the majority in the parliament."

"But whatever they do, we are here, we are here, and we are going to win," he declared to reporters.