SHOTLIST

Beirut - 28 February 2009

1. Wide pan of Beirut cityscape

2. Ein El Mraiseh street, site of explosion that killed former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri

3. Mid of Rafik Hariri statue

4. Mid of damage to building

5. Memorial flame where Hariri was assassinated

6. Set up of Member of Parliament Aatef Majdalani in his office

7. Close of photograph featuring Majdalani and Hariri

8. SOUNDBITE (Arabic): Aatef Majdalani, Lebanese legislator from the Future Movement bloc:

" The start of the international tribunal is the beginning of the saving of Lebanon and the start of the international tribunal is the beginning of the end of the political assassination."

9. Cutaway Hariri pin on Majdalani's lapel

10. SOUNDBITE (Arabic): Aatef Majdalani, Lebanese legislator from the Future Movement bloc:

" When the slain Prime Minister President Rafik Hariri was assassinated, the Syrian regime was in Lebanon and Lebanon was under the Syrian hegemony. The entire security was under their hands and that is why the international investigation committee pointed its accusation against the regime. I think that the tribunal should be able to try any suspect or criminal."

11. Tilt down exterior of Al-Amin mosque in central Beirut

12. Sign indicating "1475" days since Hariri's assassination

13. Various of Hariri's grave

14. Wide of Lebanese justice minister, Ibrahim Najjar, in his office

15. Cutaway close-up of Lebanese flag

16. SOUNDBITE (English): Ibrahim Najjar, Lebanese Justice Minister:

" The tribunal will be really independent and I think that, at least as far as Lebanese politicians are concerned, we have no intention whatsoever to interfere with the tribunal and its independence. This is really the way we see the tribunal functioning - with independence and capacity and only in order to find out the truth and to give their verdict."

17. Cutaway camera lens

18. SOUNDBITE (English): Ibrahim Najjar, Lebanese Justice Minister:

" Lebanon has really shocked with too many assassinations. I would say since more than 30 even 40 years. And it is about time now to terminate all that processes. We have to know who did what and this will be very benefit for us."

FILE: Beirut - 14 March 2005

19. Pan across protest crowd, protesters holding Lebanese flags

20. Mid of posters featuring Lebanese security chiefs being held up

Beirut - 28 February 2009

21. Set up of Samar Al-Hajj, wife of detained Brigadier General Ali Hajj

22. Portrait of Brigadier General Ali Hajj

23. SOUNDBITE (Arabic): Samar Al-Hajj, Wife of detained Brigadier General Ali Hajj:

" We have been detained illegally for three and a half years. There is no existence for any law that can justify the detention of freedom. The detention is justified by a non-existent authority, in an illegal prison which does not exist on the prisons' map in Lebanon and does not relate to the chief of police as other prisons. If we want to speak legally we should not go to The Hague, otherwise they can take them (the four pro-Syria generals) in an arbitrary way, exceeding all the protocols and keep them there until the end of the parliamentarian elections."

FILE: Beirut - 15 February 2005

24. Various of aftermath of explosion which killed Hariri, firefighters tackling blazing vehicle wreckage

STORYLINE

Investigators have pored over evidence for four years - a human tooth found at the bombing site, a suicide truck that was stolen in Japan and made its way to Lebanon, reams of phone records and hundreds of interviews.

Now the focus in one of the Mideast's most dramatic political assassinations is shifting to prosecution, with the convening on Sunday of an international tribunal on the slaying of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri.

Despite the start of proceedings in the Netherlands, it is still not known who will be accused in the suicide truck bombing that killed Hariri and 22 other people on a seaside street in Beirut on February 14, 2005.

Also unknown is the most politically explosive question - whether the proceedings will implicate Syria's government, which many Lebanese believe was behind the murder of a man who led opposition to the long Syrian military occupation of Lebanon.

Syria has denied any involvement.

The tribunal was welcomed on Saturday by Lebanese lawmaker Aatef Majdalani, of the Future Movement bloc, who said it would be the saving of Lebanon.

Majdalani said that Syria would be in the spotlight as Lebanon was under the Syrian regime at the time of the assassination.

The United Nations Security Council had to impose the mixed Lebanese-international Special Tribunal after Lebanon's parliament was too divided to approve it.

But Lebanese Justice Minister Ibrahim Najjar insisted that the tribunal would be truly independent.

Most likely the first defendants before the court will be four pro-Syria generals who led Lebanon's police, intelligence service and an elite army unit at the time of the assassination.

They are the only people in custody, though they have not been formally charged.

The wife of one of the four officers detained, Brigadier General Ali Hajj, on Saturday called their detention "illegal".

Some in Lebanon doubt the court will ever bring out the full truth, believing it might avoid digging deep to ensure Syria does not react by stirring up trouble in Lebanon and other parts of the region.

Trials could also further polarise Lebanon's politics, feeding the power struggle between pro- and anti-Syria factions.

Administrators have said the tribunal will take up to five years to finish its work, and the top UN prosecutor, Daniel Bellemare of Canada, said in a statement on Saturday that it will be thorough.

As prime minister, Hariri, a billionaire businessman, was credited with rebuilding downtown Beirut after the 1975-90 civil war, and with trying to limit Syria's influence.

In a country known for political assassinations, his killing stands out for its far-reaching impact and set off huge anti-Syrian street protests in Lebanon and intense international pressure which forced Damascus to withdraw all its troops from Lebanon a few months later, ending nearly three decades of military domination.

But his death also threw Lebanon into turmoil.

Anti-Syria factions supported by the West won control of the government but were unable to exert any authority while locked in a struggle with Syria's allies, led by the Hezbollah movement.

The first UN investigator into the killing, Detlev Mehlis of Germany, said the assassination plot's complexity suggested a role by the Syrian intelligence services and its pro-Syria Lebanese counterpart.

But the two chief investigators who followed Mehlis have worked quietly and have not named any individuals or countries as suspects.

Last April (2008), Bellemare said investigators had evidence Hariri's killing was done by a "criminal network" also linked to a series of bombings and shootings that have killed seven anti-Syria figures and caused other deaths since Hariri's assassination.

The UN team worked under tight security for fear of attacks or intimidation, living in fortified compounds in Beirut and travelling in heavily protected motorcades.

The team also kept tight control of information about the investigation.

One piece of evidence is the tooth of the suicide bomber.

Forensic examinations determined the truck's driver was a man in his 20s who was not from Lebanon, according to Bellemare's predecessor as top investigator, Serge Brammertz of Belgium.

Investigators interviewed hundreds of people, including the presidents of Lebanon and Syria.

They acquired records listing more than 5 billion telephone calls and mobile phone text messages.

They determined the truck used in the bombing was stolen in Kanagawa, Japan, in October 2004 and purchased two months later near the northern Lebanese city of Tripoli.

The probe has also seen numerous twists.

Husam Husam, a Syrian barber and self-proclaimed intelligence operative, at first implicated Syrian officials in testimony to investigators.

Then he left Lebanon for Syria and appeared on TV, recanting and saying the Hariri family paid him to frame Syria.

Lebanon's government dismissed the claim.

Another purported Syrian intelligence officer, Mohammed Zuhair Siddiq, was at first said to be a key witness, then a suspect - then he vanished while under house arrest in France.

A Lebanese man who was questioned about the sale of cell phone chips allegedly used for communicating in the bombing was found dead in what was ruled a car accident.

Syria's interior minister, Brigadier General Ghazi Kenaan, died in his Damascus office in late 2005 about a month after speaking with investigators.

Syrian officials said he shot himself to death, but some in Lebanon believe he was killed.

Kenaan ran Lebanon for two decades until 2003.

SHOTLIST:

1. Wide of funeral

2. Wife of Walid Eido, assassinated legislator, waving from balcony

3. Women crying and waving

4. Ambulance covered by Lebanese flag and poster of Eido

5. Youths chanting slogans whilst travelling with ambulance

6. Wide of funeral

7. Mid of Saad Hariri, son of Rafik Hariri, the assassinated former Lebanese prime minister, walking along in procession

8. Wide of funeral procession

9. SOUNDBITE: (English) Walid Jumblatt, Druse politician:

"Syrian regime with their allies are trying to reduce our majority in the parliament. They have killed yesterday a prominent member of parliament. They can kill three more, if they kill three more members we will lose the majority and this is their calculation so that the government of Saniora will fall down."

10. Mid of Hezbollah MP bloc's flag

11. SOUNDBITE: (Arabic) Hussein Hajj Hassan, Hezbollah MP:

"We condemn the terror act which led to the killing of legislator Walid Eido, his son, two of his bodyguards and several Lebanese citizens. And we think that these crimes are taking place and are synchronised by the political exposure in the country. We think that the politicians are invited to find a political solution to the crisis in order to deal with all the disputed issues, as well as dealing with the security exposure. Some intelligence parties are getting benefits and committing these acts of terror and committing seditious acts against the Lebanese."

12. Tilt down of Al-Khachekji Mosque, mourners, security

13. Wide of funeral procession, coffin being carried

14. Various mid shots of coffins being carried to mosque

15. Top shot of three coffins inside the mosque (containing bodies of Walid Eido, his son, and one of the bodyguards killed)

16. Relatives kissing a coffin

17. Saad Hariri, leader of the anti-Syrian majority bloc, in parliament arriving at the mosque

18. Worshippers praying at funeral

19. SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Saad Hariri, leader of the anti-Syrian majority bloc in parliament:

"No one should think that this people will kneel and be frightened. I tell the criminals: you will be punished and you will be dragged to prisons and will face justice, God willing."

20. Body being lowered into grave

21. Eido's son crying

22. Another body being lowered into grave

23. Wide pan of cemetery

STORYLINE:

Tens of thousands of mourners bade farewell on Thursday to victims of a powerful car bombing in Beirut that killed a prominent anti-Syrian legislator and nine others as the Lebanese government - reeling from another blow targeting its supporters - sought international help.

A bomb ripped through Walid Eido's car on Wednesday as he drove from a seaside sports club, also killing his 35-year-old son, two bodyguards and six passers-by.

Thursday's funeral procession swelled to tens of thousands of mourners who escorted coffins carrying the bodies of Eido, his son and one of the bodyguards killed.

The mourners followed ambulances covered with Lebanese flags that drove from the American University Hospital in West Beirut to a mosque at the Shohada Cemetery several kilometres (miles) away for a prayer service and internment.

It drove down the main thoroughfare of Corniche Mazraa in the Muslim sector of the capital, where pictures of the assassinated politicians were posted on walls and overpasses and Eido's widow waved to the crowds from a balcony.

Saad Hariri, leader of the anti-Syrian majority bloc in parliament to which Eido belonged, Druse politician Walid Jumblatt and other prominent anti-Syrian leaders also marched in the procession.

Jumblatt, an anti-Syrian MP, said that if the Syrian regime killed three more MPs, "we will lose the majority and this is their calculation so that the government of Saniora will fall down."

One Hezbollah MP, whose party is pro-Syrian, also condemned the killings.

"Some intelligence parties are getting benefits and committing these acts of terror and acting seditiously against the Lebanese," Hussein Hajj Hassan said.

At the Al-Khachekji mosque, male relatives sobbed and bent to kiss the coffins laid next to one another.

The spiritual leader of Lebanon's Sunni Muslims, Grand Mufti of the Republic Sheik Mohammed Rashid Kabbani, led the prayers, with Saad Hariri, son of assassinated former prime minister Rafik Hariri, at his side.

Saad Hariri said Lebanon would not kneel before the killers and promised they would be brought to justice.

"No one should think that this people will kneel and be frightened," he said. "I tell the criminals, you will be punished and you will be dragged to prisons and will face justice, God willing."

Lebanese Prime Minister Fuad Saniora has called for an emergency meeting of Arab foreign ministers and the international community to assist in the investigation of Eido's assassination.

The blast that killed Eido was a new blow to the stability of an already conflict-torn nation.

It came just three days after the government, together with the United Nations, started putting together an international tribunal ordered by the UN Security Council to try suspects in the killing of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri in Beirut two years ago - a move strongly opposed by Syria and its allies in Lebanon.

Eido was a prominent supporter of the tribunal, a staunch follower of Hariri and the seventh anti-Syrian figure killed in Lebanon in the past two years.

Many in Lebanon have accused Syria of being behind the killings, a claim Damascus denies.

Lebanon's majority coalition blamed Syria for Wednesday's assassination.

Syria controlled Lebanon for 29 years until it was forced out after Hariri's assassination, and its Lebanese opponents believe it is seeking to regain domination by plunging the country into chaos.

Businesses, schools and government offices were closed on Thursday after the government declared a day of national mourning.

The killings were likely to further enflame Lebanon's bitter power struggle between Saniora's Western-backed government and its Syrian-backed opponents, led by the Hezbollah militant group.

As the fighting in the north, pitting the Lebanese Army against Palestinian militants, with Palestinian refugees under siege, continues, many fear the violence there and in Beirut could push the polarised nation, with a fragile balance of ethnic and religious groups, into a new civil war.

SHOTLIST:

1. Tilt down of Al-Khachekji Mosque, mourners, security

2. Wide of funeral procession, coffin being carried

3. Various mid shots of coffins being carried to mosque

4. Top shot of three coffins inside the mosque (containing bodies of Walid Eido, his son, and one of the bodyguards killed)

5. Relatives kissing a coffin

6. Saad Hariri, leader of the anti-Syrian majority bloc, in parliament arriving at the mosque

7. Various of worshippers praying at funeral

8. SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Saad Hariri, leader of the anti-Syrian majority bloc in parliament:

"No one should think that this people will kneel and be frightened. I tell the criminals: you will be punished and you will be dragged to prisons and will face justice, God willing."

9. Body being lowered into grave

10. Eido's son crying

11. Another body being lowered into grave

12. Wide pan of cemetery

STORYLINE:

Tens of thousands of mourners bade farewell on Thursday to victims of a powerful car bombing in Beirut that killed a prominent anti-Syrian legislator and nine others as the Lebanese government - reeling from another blow targeting its supporters - sought international help.

A bomb ripped through Walid Eido's car on Wednesday as he drove from a seaside sports club, also killing his 35-year-old son, two bodyguards and six passers-by.

Thursday's funeral procession swelled to tens of thousands of mourners who escorted coffins carrying the bodies of Eido, his son and one of the bodyguards killed.

The mourners followed ambulances covered with Lebanese flags that drove from the American University Hospital in West Beirut to a mosque at the Shohada Cemetery several kilometers away for a prayer service and internment.

At the mosque, male relatives sobbed and bent to kiss the coffins laid next to one another.

The spiritual leader of Lebanon's Sunni Muslims, Grand Mufti of the Republic Sheik Mohammed Rashid Kabbani, led the prayers, with Saad Hariri, son of assassinated former prime minister Rafik Hariri, at his side.

Saad Hariri, leader of the anti-Syrian majority bloc in parliament to which Eido belonged, said Lebanon would not kneel before the killers and promised they would be brought to justice.

"No one should think that this people will kneel and be frightened," he said. "I tell the criminals, you will be punished and you will be dragged to prisons and will face justice, God willing."

Prime Minister Fuad Saniora has called for an emergency meeting of Arab foreign ministers and the international community to assist in the investigation of Eido's assassination.

The blast that killed Eido was a new blow to the stability of this conflict-torn nation.

It came just three days after the government, together with the United Nations, started putting together an international tribunal ordered by the U.N. Security Council to try suspects in the killing of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri in Beirut two years ago - a move strongly opposed by Syria and its allies in Lebanon.

Eido was a prominent supporter of the tribunal, a staunch follower of Hariri and the seventh anti-Syrian figure killed in Lebanon in the past two years.

Many in Lebanon have accused Syria of being behind the killings, a claim Damascus denies.

Lebanon's majority coalition blamed Syria for Wednesday's assassination.

Syria controlled Lebanon for 29 years until it was forced out after Hariri's assassination, and its Lebanese opponents believe it is seeking to regain domination by plunging the country into chaos.

SHOTLIST

1. Wide of area were bomb blast happened

2. Mid of men looking at the remains of a car

3. Cordon next to remains of a vehicle

4. People inspecting damage

5. Dented parked cars along the road

6. Mangled vehicles

7. Pan of damage

8.Damaged building

9. People looking at damage

10. SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Elie Roukoz, Beirut Resident:

" As you see the whole buildings are damaged, we felt that the ground is shaking up and down."

11. Cars along street in Beirut

12. Various of man reading paper

13. Pan of papers on the news stand

14. Mid of front page reading (ENGLISH) " MP Antoine Ghamen assassinated"

15. SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Samer Mrad, Beirut Resident

" We want to see and to know the hands behind such acts and who has the interest. This is only affecting the poor and miserable people."

16. Lebanese security forces convoy along street

17. SOUNDBITE: (Arabic) Saad Hariri, Lebanese lawmaker heading the main anti-Syrian alliance in Parliament:

"The presidency does not belong to Saad Hariri, or to Hassan Nasrallah, or to Nabih Berri, or to Michel Aoun, or to any other party. The presidency belongs to the people of Lebanon."

18. Cutaway

19. SOUNDBITE: (Arabic) Saad Hariri, Lebanese lawmaker heading the main anti-Syrian alliance in Parliament:

"The International Tribunal, which will try those cowardly criminal killers, will also try those who sabotage the presidential elections."

20. Various of locked up shops

STORYLINE

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

Wednesday's bomb killed Antoine Ghanem, an anti-Syria lawmaker, 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.

Investigators were at the sight examining the remains of the blast.

At least 67 were wounded in the explosion, which severely damaged buildings and set cars ablaze during rush hour on a busy street in the Sin el-Fil neighbourhood.

Ghanem, 64, a member of the right-wing Christian Phalange party, had returned from refuge abroad only two days earlier. He was the eighth anti-Syria figure and fourth governing coalition lawmaker to be assassinated in less than three years.

On Thursday Lebanese newspapers were focused entirely on the assassination.

Samer Mrad a Beirut resident said he wants to know who is behind the attack.

" We want to see and to know that hands behind such acts and who has the interest. This is only affecting the poor and miserable people," he said.

Coalition members blamed Syria for the death, but Damascus denied involvement, as it has for the previous seven assassinations, including the 2005 bombing death of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri.

Prime Minister Fuad Saniora asked the United Nations secretary-general in a letter to add the Ghanem assassination to an international probe into Hariri's slaying and other political crimes in Lebanon.

On Wednesday Hariri's son, who now heads the main anti-Syrian alliance in the Lebanese parliament, called the perpetrators of the attack "cowardly criminal killers".

"The presidency does not belong to Saad Hariri, or to Hassan Nasrallah, or to Nabih Berri, or to Michel Aoun, or to any other party. The presidency belongs to the people of Lebanon," Saad Hariri said.

Many people fear the divisions over the presidency could lead to creation of two rival governments, a grim threat to repeat the last two years of Lebanon's 1975-90 civil war when army units loyal to competing administrations battled it out.

President Emile Lahoud, an ally of Syria, is due to step down from the presidency by November 23 and government supporters see the vote as the opportunity to put one of their own in the post.

But Hezbollah and its allies have vowed to block any candidate they do not approve and they can do so by boycotting the ballots, preventing the needed two-thirds quorum of 85 votes.

If no candidate is agreed on by the time Lahoud steps down, Prime Minister Fuad Saniora and his cabinet would automatically take on executive powers.

If that happens, opposition supporters have said Lahoud might appoint a second government, a step many fear would break up the country.

Schools, universities and many businesses in Christian areas of Beirut, plus in the Mount Lebanon region north of the capital, closed on Thursday in a day of mourning and to observe a strike called by the Phalange Party.

A funeral was to be held Friday.

A U.N.-backed tribunal in the Netherlands is delivering verdicts Tuesday in the trial in absentia of four members of the Hezbollah militant group who are accused of involvement in the truck bomb assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri.

The verdicts were delayed by nearly two weeks as a mark of respect for victims of another devastating explosion - the detonation of nearly 3,000 tons of ammonium nitrate stored at Beirut’s port.

The Aug. 4 blast killed around 180 people, injured more than 6,000, left a quarter of a million with homes unfit to live in and plunged a nation already reeling from economic and social malaise even deeper into crisis.

Guilty verdicts could compound tensions in the tiny country. Hariri was Lebanon’s most prominent Sunni politician at the time of his Feb. 14, 2005, assassination, while the Iran-backed Hezbollah is a Shiite Muslim group.

The trial centered on the alleged roles of four Hezbollah members in the suicide truck bombing that killed Hariri and 21 others and wounded 226 people. Prosecutors based their case largely on data from mobile phones allegedly used by the plotters to plan and execute the bombing.

During the trial, which started in 2014 and spanned 415 days of hearings, the tribunal in Leidschendam, near The Hague, heard evidence from 297 witnesses.

Initially, five suspects were tried, all of them Hezbollah members. Charges against one of the group’s top military commanders, Mustafa Badreddine, were dropped after he was killed in Syria in 2016.

The remaining suspects are Salim Ayyash, also known as Abu Salim; Assad Sabra, Hassan Oneissi, who changed his name to Hassan Issa and Hassan Habib Merhi. They are charged with offenses including conspiracy to commit a terrorist act.

If they are convicted, hearings will be held at a later date to determine their sentences. As the U.N.-backed court has no death sentence, the maximum sentence is life imprisonment.

None of the men is ever likely to serve time as Hezbollah has vowed not to hand over any suspects. Prosecutors and defence lawyers can appeal the verdicts.

Hariri’s son Saad, himself a former prime minister, is attending the day-long delivery of the judgment and was one of four victims present in the courtroom for the hearing.

ARCHIVE: Beirut - 14 February 2005

++4:3++

1. Various of cars burning amid aftermath of bomb blast that killed Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri

2. Various aftermath shots of attack on Hariri's car, fire crews putting out flames

ARCHIVE: Beirut - 21 October 2004

++4:3++

3. Hariri walking to meet Lebanese President Emile Lahoud

4. Hariri meeting Lahoud

5. Close up Hariri

ARCHIVE: Date and location unknown

++4:3++

6. Various of Hariri at rally

7. Various of Hariri greeting people

8. Various of Hariri in meeting with officials

ARCHIVE: Paris, date unknown

++4:3++

9. Various of Hariri meeting French President Jacques Chirac

ARCHIVE: Beirut - 15 February 2005

++4:3++

10. Hariri's son Saad Hariri beside blast crater

11. Lebanese soldiers checking the site

12 . Various of Saad Hariri praying at the blast scene for his father

The trial of the Hezbollah members and supporters suspected of being behind the assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister, Rafik Hariri, will finally start this week, nine years after his murder.

The suicide truck bomb attack that killed Hariri and 22 others on February 14, 2005 was one of the most dramatic top-level assassinations the Middle East and immediately caused an increase in what were already huge sectarian divisions between Sunni and Shiite Muslims.

The United Nations-backed Special Tribunal for Lebanon will begin on Thursday on the outskirts of The Hague in the Netherlands.

However, the five key suspects behind the attack will be tried in absentia as they are still yet to be arrested.

They included four Hezbollah members indicted in 2011 with plotting the attack and another supporter charged last year. All of them remain at large.

The trial will be held under a hybrid system of international and Lebanese law.

Hezbollah has condemned the trial as a conspiracy by its archenemies the US and Israel. It's also denied any involvement in Hariri's assassination.

Despite widespread criticism of the trial, some inside Lebanon are optimistic that justice will prevail.

"We are confident that the Special Tribunal for Lebanon will conduct these proceedings and the procedure in a very fair way in order to let the Lebanese at last find out the truth," said Ibrahim Najjar, a former Lebanese Justice Minister.

Other are hoping that the trial will help bring an end to the string of political assassinations which have rocked the country since Hariri's death.

The last attack was on December 27, 2013 when former finance minster Mohammed Chatah, a Hezbollah critic and also former aide to Hariri, was killed in a car bombing in Beirut.

"We and the international community wanted the tribunal to punish the criminals and to stop political assassinations," said legislator Atef Majdalani, a member of the Future Movement bloc that is headed by Hariri's son, Saad, also a former prime minister.

"Truth will emerge, justice is coming, therefore you should either move along this road, the road of justice, or justice will get you," Majdalani added.

But many question whether justice will indeed be done while the key defendants in the case are still at large.

AP TELEVISION

++16:9++

1. Wide of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri's grave with photos of him in the background and the statute of the Special Tribunal for Lebanon next to the grave

2. Close of the UN-ratified Statute reading (Arabic) "Statute of the Special Tribunal for Lebanon"

3. Mid of Hariri grave with photo on top

4. Wide of former Lebanese Justice Minister Ibrahim Najjar walking in his house

5. SOUNDBITE (English) Ibrahim Najjar, former Lebanese Justice Minister:

"We are confident that the Special Tribunal for Lebanon will conduct these proceedings and the procedure in a very fair way in order to let the Lebanese at last find out the truth."

6. Close of Najjar's hands holding a pair of glasses

7. SOUNDBITE (English) Ibrahim Najjar, former Lebanese Justice Minister:

"I think that for the first time since 1943, Lebanon is about now to discover the truth within an independent tribunal."

8. Close of photograph of Najjar

9. SOUNDBITE (English) Ibrahim Najjar, former Lebanese Justice Minister:

"Yes, there is a fear, at least somebody, some witnesses have declared that they fear to appear before the court and to say everything they have in mind or in their knowledge. I think that there is a real fear because when you kill a witness the truth is affected, that is why I think that there are special precautions, special undertakings that have been decided by the tribunal in order to protect them."

10. Mid of traffic at the explosion site where Hariri was killed

11. Close of Hariri statue

12. Atef Majdalani, Lebanese Member of Parliament walking

13. SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Atef Majdalani, Future Movement MP:

"We and the international community wanted the tribunal to punish the criminals and to stop political assassinations, and to say that political assassinations will not solve any problems and that criminals responsible will be punished."

14. Close of photo of Majdalani and Hariri

15. SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Dr Atef Majdalani, Future Movement MP:

"Truth will emerge, justice is coming, therefore you should either move along this road, the road of justice, or justice will get you and punish the criminals among you."

FILE: AP TELEVISION

14 February, 2005

++4:3++

16. Various of Hariri assassination blast site with burnt out cars and emergency services attempting to control flames

17. Wide top shot of people gathering at Martyrs' Square in Beirut

SHOTLIST

November 21, 2006

1. Tracking shot showing soldiers and crowd around Pierre Gemayel's car

2. Front shot of damaged car

3. Bullet holes in Gemayel's car window

4. Bullet holes in door on other side of car, zoom in to bloody interior of car

5. Soldiers making their way to scene

November 21, 2006

6. Wide of news conference room

7. SOUNDBITE (Arabic): Fuad Saniora, Lebanese Prime Minister:

"To your lovely parents, to your wife and children, to all who love you and to all free men, I pledge to you that your blood will not go in vain."

8. Wide of conference ending

9. Cutaway close-up of Lebanese flag

10. SOUNDBITE (Arabic): Emile Lahoud, Lebanese President:

"This speech was meant for the Lebanese, meant to congratulate them for independence day. But we were all Lebanese surprised by this criminal act that killed Pierre Gemayel at this time. Who ever committed this crime is following crimes that started with (the assassination of the) late Prime Minister Rafik Hariri, and because of this, I tell you, that at this particular time we have to be united."

++Night Shots++

11. Crowd gathered outside hospital

12. Walid Jumblatt, a prominent Druse politician in the anti-Syrian coalition, making his way through the crowd

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

"We won't let them divide us in Lebanon and the international tribunal to prosecute those responsible for political assassinations in Lebanon will come soon.''

November 21, 2006

++Night Shots++

14. Wide exterior of St. Joseph's hospital

November 21, 2006

++Night Shots++

15. SOUNDBITE: (Arabic) Amin Gemayel, father of Pierre Gemayel and former Lebanese President:

"Today Pierre died as a martyr for his cause. All I ask from the people who loved Pierre is to protect the cause, Pierre killed for the cause of Lebanon, for the cause of freedom.''

16. Amin Gemayel being consoled by Walid Jumblatt

November 21, 2006

17. Wide of people gathered inside St. Jospeh's hospital

18. Man with poster of Pierre Gemayel, shouting

19. Men chanting

20. SOUNDBITE (English) Gemayel supporter, Vox Pop:

"We will not forget him after some months. We must work together in a very progressive way and in a peaceful way also."

November 21, 2006

++Night Shots++

21. Various of angry protesters gathering and scuffles with security personnel

22. Crowd of supporters chanting with raised fists

23. Tilt up of supporters demonstrating with poster of Pierre Gemayel

November 21, 2006

++Night Shots++

24. Fire burning on the street, with soldiers monitoring situation

25. Pan across protesters gathered near the fire

26. Crying women holding photographs of Pierre Gemayel

FILE - Recent

27. Pierre Gemayel arriving in car

28. Various of Pierre Gemayel with father Amin, a former president

FILE - 1982

29. Various of Bashir Gemayel (uncle of slain minister) in military uniform on left reviewing militia with his father (in suit), Pierre Gemayel (grandfather and namesake of slain minister)

30. Various of funeral of Bashir Gemayel

November 21, 2006

31. Pull out to wide of fires in street

STORYLINE

Pierre Gemayel, an anti-Syrian politician and scion of Lebanon's most prominent Christian family, was gunned down Tuesday in an assassination that heightened tensions amid a showdown between opponents and allies of Syria that threatens to topple the US-backed government.

Gemayel, the industry minister, was the fifth anti-Syrian figure to be killed in the past two years and the first member of the government of Prime Minister Fuad Saniora to be slain.

Saniora went on national television to call for unity and warned of "sedition" against Lebanon.

"I pledge to you that your blood will not go in vain," Saniora said, eulogising Gemayel.

Lebanon's President Emile Lahoud called for citizens to be united in this tragic time, a sentiment that was echoed by Walid Jumblatt, a prominent Druse politician in the anti-Syrian coalition.

"We won't let them divide us in Lebanon and the international tribunal to prosecute those responsible for political assassinations in Lebanon will come soon," Jumblatt said as he offered condolences to Amin Gemayel, father of the slain minister.

Amin Gemayel, a former Lebanese president, told reporters that his son had "died as a martyr".

"All I ask from the people who loved Pierre is to protect the cause, Pierre killed for the cause of Lebanon, for the cause of freedom,'' he told reporters.

The killing has sparked condemnation across the world and from crowds of supporters in Beirut.

Emotional crowds gathered in the streets, with some angry protesters scuffling with security personnel.

There were fires in the streets as many supporters pledged to keep Gemayel's memory alive.

"We will not forget him after some months. We must work together in a very progressive way and in a peaceful way also," said one supporter.

Gemayel's fatal shooting will certainly heighten the political tension in Lebanon, where the leading Muslim Shiite party Hezbollah has threatened to topple the government if it does not get a bigger say in Cabinet decision making.

Witnesses said Gemayel was shot in his car in Jdeideh, a Christian neighbourhood, his constituency on the northern edge of Beirut.

They said a car rammed Gemayel's car from behind and then an assailant stepped out and shot him at point blank range.

Gemayel was rushed to a nearby hospital seriously wounded, the Lebanese Broadcasting Corporation (LBC) and Voice of Lebanon, the Phalange Party's radio station, reported.

The party radio later said he was dead, as did the National News Agency.

Gemayel was a member of the Phalange party and supporter of the anti-Syrian parliamentary majority, which is locked in a power struggle with pro-Syrian factions led by Hezbollah.

He was first elected to parliament in 2005 and was believed to be the youngest legislator in the legislature, where anti-Syrian groups dominate.

The Gemayels have been a political dynasty in Lebanon. The name is famous, and also infamous in some quarters for being a driving force behind the right wing Phalange Party - that fielded the largest Christian militia during the 1975-90 civil war between Christians and Muslims.

The slain minister of industry was the son of former President Amin Gemayel and nephew of Bashir Gemayel, a former president assassinated after the Israeli invasion in 1982 for his tacit collaboration with the Jewish state.

That assassination led to the Christian militia massacre of Palestinians in Sabra and Chatila in September 1982.

Pierre Gemayel's grandfather and namesake founded the Phalange Party in 1936 after a visit to Nazi Germany.

Gemayel is the fifth anti-Syrian figure to be assassinated in the past two years in Lebanon.

Former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri was killed in a massive car bombing in February 2005.

The journalist and activist Samir Kassir and former Communist Party leader George Hawi were killed in separate car bombings in June last year.

And lawmaker and newspaper manager Gibran Tueni was killed in a car bombing in December.

SHOTLIST

1. Wide of police checkpoint outside Roumyeh prison

2. Mid of policemen

3. Zoom into car carrying the released suspects leaving prison grounds

4. Close of released suspect inside the car

5. Cars leaving

6. Tilt up of fireworks

7. People cheering, pan to man firing AK-47 in celebration

8. Women trilling

9. Men dancing

10. Man beating drum

11. Man distributing sweets

12. Exterior of AlMashari Islamic charity association

13. SOUNDBITE (Arabic), Sheikh Abdulkader al-Fakahani, al-Ahbash spokesman:

"We have known from the first moment that they were innocent and their arrest was not legal. The Lebanese justice released them today and that's what we were after."

14. Men cheering

STORYLINE

Three men jailed for more than three years in the assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri were set free on bail on Wednesday, days before an international tribunal was to begin trying the case.

The judge did not explain his decision to release two Lebanese brothers on a bail of 500,000 Lebanese pounds (330 US dollars) each and a Syrian man on a bail of just 100,000 Lebanese pounds (67 US dollars).

The three could still be prosecuted in the case, although no one has been charged in the suicide bombing that killed Hariri and 22 others on a seaside street in Beirut on February 14, 2005.

Investigating judge Saqr Saqr's decision, carried by the official news agency, said four other suspects in the bombing - all pro-Syrian Lebanese generals - would remain jailed, which could allow them to be turned over to the international court.

As the news of the release of the Abdel-Al brothers filtered down, several hundred supporters gathered outside offices of Ahmed's faction in a Muslim neighbourhood of Beirut to await their arrival.

Some beat drums, others handed out candy, set off firecrackers or fired off pistols into the air in celebration.

A spokesman for the pro-Syrian Islamic group, known as al-Ahbash, welcomed the release of the brothers, saying it knew they were innocent from the start.

At the time of the assassination, the generals headed the police, military intelligence, a General Security agency, and the Presidential Guard Brigade.

The late Hariri had close ties with Western leaders and was credited with helping rebuild Beirut after the 1975-1990 civil war and trying to limit

neighbouring Syria's influence over Lebanon.

Following his assassination, Syria's army withdrew after mass protests, which also sparked political upheaval and violence.

The UN Security Council ordered an independent investigation into the assassination after its fact-finding mission found that the Lebanese

investigation was flawed.

The Security Council set up the mixed Lebanese-international tribunal in the Netherlands at the Lebanese government's request after parliament split between the majority and the opposition and failed to ratify an agreement with the UN.

The case has been handed over to the tribunal.

The first UN investigator, German Detlev Mehlis, said the plot's complexity suggested Syrian and Lebanese intelligence services played a role.

Hariri's supporters accuse Damascus of the bombing, but Syria denies involvement.

Two of the men freed on Wednesday - brothers Mahmoud and Ahmed Abdel-Al, a member of a pro-Syrian Sunni Muslim fundamentalist group - were detained in 2005.

A UN probe into the slaying said Mahmoud made "interesting" phone calls February 14, including one to former President Emile Lahoud, just before a truck bomb killed Hariri, raising questions about the president.

But the office of Lahoud, a Hariri rival and Syria's staunchest ally, denied the president received the call.

Lahoud's extension of his term in September 2004 for three more years, under pressure from Syria, triggered a sharp disagreement between Damascus, then a dominant power in Lebanon, and Hariri, who opposed the measure then relented before resigning two months later.

Ahmed Abdel-Al was named by the U.N. probe in 2005 as a "key figure" who had extensive contacts with top Lebanese security officials before and after the blast, and tried to hide information from investigators.

The third man freed, Syrian Ibrahim Jarjoura, was arrested in 2006 on suspicion he gave false evidence and misled the investigation.

SHOTLIST:

01 March 2009

1. Wide of Beirut city skyline

2. Mid of Lebanese army Armoured Personnel Carrier (APC) on road

3. Close of APC

4. Wide of traffic on city street

5. Mid of Lebanese army APC under bridge

6. Wide of Al-Amin mosque

7. Close of mosque

8. Wide of people standing around murdered former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri's grave inside the Al-Amin mosque

9. Mid of people reciting versus of the Quran at Hariri's grave

10. Mid of Hariri's grave with pictures of Hariri in background

11. Close of Hariri's picture

01 March 2009

12. Wide of people gathering around Hariri's grave

13. Pull out to wide of Lebanese politicians laying a wreath on Hariri's grave

14. SOUNDBITE (English) Marwan Hamadeh, Lebanese legislator from the Democratic Gathering bloc:

"It is the beginning of truth, the beginning of justice and I think that it is a page that is being opened in the history of Lebanon, the page of Justice, the end of impunity and it is a lesson for many regimes around us in the Middle East."

15. Mid of May Chidiac, a Lebanese journalist and survivor of a targeted car bomb attack, laying flowers at grave

16. Photo of Hariri

17. SOUNDBITE (English) May Chidiac, Lebanese journalist and survivor of a targeted car bomb attack:

"We have suffered too much from killing and killing attempts and the explosions that were put here and there for many decades so now we hope this chapter will be over and will be closed."

18. People leaving the Hariri memorial ceremony

FILE: 26 October 2000

19. Convoy of Hariri arriving at presidential palace after being elected Prime Minister

20. Hariri getting out of car and walking into presidential palace

21. Various of meeting between Hariri and then Lebanese President Emile Lahoud

22. Hariri talking mobile phone

STORYLINE:

An international tribunal to prosecute suspects in the assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri was starting work on Sunday at its headquarters in a village outside The Hague.

Despite the start of proceedings, it is still not known who will be accused in the suicide truck bombing that killed Hariri and 22 other people on a seaside street in Beirut on 14 February 2005.

Lebanese army forces in armoured personnel carriers were deployed on the streets of Beirut on Sunday to maintain calm.

Hundreds of Hariri supporters gathered peacefully around his grave in downtown Beirut, to mark the beginning of the International Tribunal with many expressing their support.

Marwan Hamadeh, a Lebanese legislator who was targeted by a car bomb in Beirut in 2004, said the tribunal turned a page in Lebanon's history.

Hamadeh said the tribunal "is the beginning of truth, the beginning of justice" and he hoped it would be a "lesson for many regimes around us in the Middle East".

Also paying her respects at the graveside on Sunday was May Chidiac, a Lebanese journalist who also survived a car bomb attack.

Chidiac said she hoped the tribunal would spell the end of the suffering of the Lebanese people.

Four pro-Syrian generals are being held in Lebanese custody although none of them have been formally charged with Hariri's murder.

The generals led Lebanon's police, intelligence service and an elite army unit at the time of the assassination.

Court prosecutor Daniel Bellemare of Canada said he expects to request within weeks for Lebanon to transfer to the court the four generals.

As prime minister, Hariri, a billionaire businessman, was credited with rebuilding downtown Beirut after the 1975-90 civil war, and with trying to limit Syria's influence.

Many in Lebanon believe Syria was behind the assassination.

Syria has denied any involvement.

After the assassination, mass street protests in Lebanon and international pressure forced Syria to withdraw its troops from its neighbour after a 29-year presence.

The Special Tribunal for Lebanon to investigate Hariri's killing was set up by the UN Security Council in 2007 and comprises both foreign and Lebanese judges.

It is based in the Netherlands to ensure the safety of staff and an impartial trial.

The judges have not yet been sworn in and the names of Lebanese judges have been withheld out of fears for their safety.

Some in Lebanon doubt the tribunal will ever bring out the full truth, believing it might avoid digging deep to ensure Syria does not react by stirring up trouble in Lebanon and other parts of the region.

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, on a trip through Africa, issued a statement praising Sunday's tribunal opening.

He said the commencement marked a "decisive milestone" in the efforts by all Lebanese and the international community to uncover the truth, and bring those responsible to justice.

The Hariri court is the latest international tribunal to be based in the Netherlands.

The Hague is home to the International Court of Justice, the Yugoslav war crimes tribunal and the International Criminal Court.

A United Nations tribunal in The Hague will finally deliver verdicts this week in the case of four members of the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah, accused of assassinating former prime minister Rafik Hariri more than 15 years ago.

The verdicts in The Hague are likely to raise tensions in Lebanon still further, a fortnight after the port explosion in Beirut.

Hariri was blown up by a truck bomb in the Lebanese capital in 2005, in an attack that killed a total of 22 people and injured several hundred others.

He was Lebanon's most prominent Sunni politician at the time and was seen as generally pro-Western, while Hezbollah is a Shiite movement backed by Iran.

The death of Hariri changed the face of Lebanese politics and split the country into two broad factions - one of them largely pro-Western, the other influenced heavily by Iran and Syria.

The killing triggered widespread street protests which eventually led to Syrian troops withdrawing from Lebanon, although Syria denied any role in his murder.

The UN tribunal was set up in 2007 under a Security Council resolution, and initially five suspects were tried in absentia in the case, all of them Hezbollah members.

One of the group's top military commanders, Mustafa Badreddine was killed in Syria in 2016.

The four remaining defendants are Salim Ayyash, also known as Abu Salim; Hassan Oneissi, who changed his name to Hassan Issa; Hassan Habib Merhi; and Assad Sabra.

They are charged with offenses including conspiracy to commit a terrorist act and face maximum sentences of life imprisonment if convicted.

Sentences will not be announced Tuesday but will be determined at later hearings.

But they are unlikely to serve any prison time: despite international arrest warrants, they still haven't been handed over to the court, and Hezbollah has vowed they never will be.

Even if they are all convicted, Hezbollah as a group will not officially be blamed as the tribunal only accuses individuals, not groups or states.

Marwan Hamadeh served under Hariri as economy minister, and was himself the target of a car bombing in 2004, a year before Hariri died.

Hamadeh survived, although one of his bodyguards was killed.

He said that even if no individual is brought to justice at the end of the tribunal hearing, the case will have succeeded in sending a message about the organisation or the country that ordered Hariri's death.

"It's going to say there is an organization in Lebanon and elsewhere in the Middle East who has been, until now, using political murder as a way of putting countries under their control," he said.

The verdicts are expected to add to the current turmoil in Lebanon, still reeling after the Beirut port blast.

Lebanese officials believe the port explosion was caused by the accidental ignition of nearly 3,000 tons of ammonium nitrate which was stored in a warehouse there.

While it remains unclear what caused the fire that led to the explosion, Hezbollah - which maintains huge influence over Lebanese politics - is being sucked into the public fury directed at the country's ruling class.

Beirut - 1 August 2020

1. Various of traffic on road where former Lebanese prime minister Rafik Hariri was assassinated in 2005

2. Various of statue of Hariri

3. SOUNDBITE (English) Marwan Hamadeh, former economy minister who survived:

"It's going to be a great, great moment, not only for me as a victim but for me as a Lebanese, as an Arab and as an international citizen looking for justice everywhere. This is the first time a special tribunal has been created to focus and to investigate a case where a single assassination then developed into serial murders, has really completely turned over the fate of one country."

4. Glass plaque bearing Hariri's image in Hamadeh's office

5. SOUNDBITE (English) Marwan Hamadeh, Lebanese legislator and survivor of a political assassination:

"It's going to be a message, it's going to say there is an organization in Lebanon and elsewhere in the Middle East who has been, until now, using political murder as a way of putting countries under their control."

6. Close of Hamadeh's hands

7. SOUNDBITE (English) Marwan Hamadeh, Lebanese legislator and survivor of a political assassination:

"Beside the justice of men, there is a Godly justice and the major suspects - either Iranian, Syrian or Lebanese, who were involved in a way with the Hariri assassination - have evaporated (disappeared)."

8. Exterior of Al-Amin Mosque in Beirut

9. Closeup of mosque minarets, with tower of neighbouring St George's Cathedral on right

10. Various of Hariri's grave site

11. SOUNDBITE (English) Omar Nashabe, former consultant for the defense team in the Special Tribunal of Lebanon:

"This is the first international tribunal for terrorism and it was set up without the approval of the Lebanese parliament, whereas it relies on Lebanese law that actually criminalizes terrorism because there is no international consensus on how to define terrorism. So it did not get the approval of the local parliament and it was passed under chapter seven."

12. Books on wall of Nashabe's office

13. SOUNDBITE (English) Omar Nashabe, former consultant for the defense team in the Special Tribunal of Lebanon:

"There are no indications that there are any surprises that would actually be so radical and dramatic. I think the indictment that has been amended several times in the main case, the charges that are in the indictment will be most likely confirmed by the court. This will lead, later on, to perhaps and very likely that we will have an appeal so therefore it is not the end of the course."

ARCHIVE: Beirut - 14 February 2005

++4:3++

15. Various of cars burning amid aftermath of bomb blast that killed Hariri

SHOTLIST:

AP Television

1. Wide of funeral

2. Wife of Walid Eido, assassinated prominent anti-Syrian legislator waving from balcony

3. Women crying and waving

4. Ambulance covered by Lebanese flag and Eido's poster

5. Youths chanting slogans whilst travelling with ambulance

6. Wide of funeral

7. Mid of Saad Hariri, son of Rafik Hariri the slain former Lebanese prime minister walking along in procession

8. Wide of funeral procession

9. SOUNDBITE: (English) Walid Jumblatt, Druse politician and anti-Syrian legislator:

"Syrian regime with their allies are trying to reduce our majority in the parliament. They have killed yesterday (Wednesday) a prominent member of parliament. They can kill three more, if they kill three more members we will lose the majority and this is their calculation so that the government of Saniora will fall down. We have got to resist and we are calling and will call for elections for the lost MP Walid Eido and for the other one, Pierre Gemayel (assassinated minister) Whatever the price is, we have to do it to not allow the Syrians to achieve their aims."

10. Top view of funeral procession

11. Mid of officials during funeral

12. Mid of Hezbollah MP bloc's flag

13. SOUNDBITE: (Arabic) Hussein Hajj Hassan, Hezbollah MP:

"We condemn the terror act which led to the killing of legislator Walid Eido, his son, two of his bodyguards and several Lebanese citizens. And we think that these crimes are taking place and are synchronised by the political exposure in the country. We think that the politicians are invited to find a political solution to the crisis in order to deal with all the disputed issues, as well as dealing with the security exposure. Some intelligence parties are getting benefits and committing these acts of terror and acting seditiously against the Lebanese."

14. Hezbollah and Lebanese flag

AP Television

15. Mid of Ghazi Aridi, Lebanese information minister

16. SOUNDBITE: (Arabic) Ghazi Aridi, Lebanese information minister:

"Somebody is trying to say that neither the international tribunal nor anything else can secure the Lebanese or their leaders. We will keep resisting and we will face this series of terrorist acts."

POOL

17. Wide of crowd outside mosque

23. Spiritual leader of Lebanon's Sunni Muslim, Grand Mufti of the Republic Sheik Mohammed Rashid Kabbani leading prayers with Saad Hariri next to him and other men praying

24. Jumblatt seated

25. Young men crying over coffin

26. Men leaving mosque

27. Coffins being carried out of mosque

POOL

28. Coffins being carried out of mosque

29. People leaving mosque

30. Coffins being carried into cemetery

STORYLINE:

Tens of thousands bade farewell on Thursday to victims of a powerful car bombing that killed a prominent anti-Syrian legislator and nine others as the government - reeling from another blow targeting its supporters - sought international help.

The bomb ripped through Walid Eido's car on Wednesday as he drove from a seaside sports club, also killing his 35-year-old son, two bodyguards and six passers-by.

The funeral procession swelled to tens of thousands, escorting Eido's body and that of his son and a bodyguard behind ambulances covered with Lebanese flags.

It drove down the main thoroughfare of Corniche Mazraa in the Muslim sector, where pictures of the slain politicians were posted on walls and overpasses and Eido's widow waved to the crowds from a balcony.

Saad Hariri, leader of the anti-Syrian majority bloc in parliament to which Eido belonged to, Druse politician Walid Jumblatt and other prominent anti-Syrian leaders also marched in the procession.

Jumblatt, an anti-Syrian MP, said that if the Syrian regime kill three more MPs, "we will lose the majority and this is their calculation so that the government of Saniora will fall down."

"We have got to resist and we are calling and will call for elections for the lost MP Walid Eido and for the other one Pierre Gemayel (assassinated minister) whatever the price is, we have to do it to not allow the Syrians to achieve their aims," he said.

One Hezbollah MP, whose party is pro-Syrian, also condemned the killings.

"Some intelligence parties are getting benefits and committing these acts of terror and acting seditiously against the Lebanese," Hussein Hajj Hassan said.

The blast that killed Eido was a new blow to the stability of an already conflict-torn nation.

It came just three days after the government, together with the United Nations, started putting together an international tribunal ordered by the UN Security Council to try suspects in the killing of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri in Beirut two years ago.

The tribunal has been strongly opposed by Syria and its allies in Lebanon.

"Somebody is trying to say that neither the international tribunal nor anything else can secure the Lebanese or their leaders. We will keep resisting and we will face this series of terrorist acts," Ghazi Aridi, the Lebanese information minister said.

Eido was a prominent supporter of the tribunal, a staunch follower of Hariri and the seventh anti-Syrian figure killed in Lebanon in the past two years.

Many in Lebanon have accused Syria of being behind the slayings, a claim Damascus denies.

Lebanon's majority coalition blamed Syria for Wednesday's assassination.

Syria controlled Lebanon for 29 years until it was forced out after Hariri's assassination, and its Lebanese opponents believe it is seeking to regain domination by plunging the country into chaos.

Businesses, schools and government offices were closed on Thursday after the government declared a day of national mourning.

The killings were likely to further enflame Lebanon's bitter power struggle between Saniora's Western-backed government and its Syrian-backed opponents, led by the Hezbollah militant group.

As the fighting in the north, pitting the Lebanese Army against Palestinian militants, with Palestinian refugees under siege, continues, many fear the violence there and in Beirut could push the polarised nation, with a fragile balance of ethnic and religious groups, into a new civil war.

SHOTLIST:

POOL

1. Mid of funeral procession with Saad Hariri, son of Rafik Hariri the slain former Lebanese prime minister raising his open palm to the crowds

2. Mid of banner with image of Walid Eido and his son

3. Mid of people waving Lebanese flags during procession

4. Wide of men walking along in funeral procession

5. Mid of Walid Jumblatt, Druse politician walking along in procession

6. Mid of funeral procession

AP Television

7. Mid of Ghazi Aridi, Lebanese information minister

8. SOUNDBITE: (Arabic) Ghazi Aridi, Lebanese information minister:

"Somebody is trying to say that neither the international tribunal nor anything else can secure the Lebanese or their leaders. We will keep resisting and we will face this series of terrorist acts."

POOL

9. Wide crowd outside mosque

10. Jumblatt and other politicians shaking hands with officials inside mosque

11. Wide of crowd outside mosque

12. Tilt-up from coffins to men praying inside mosque

13. Wide pan across crowd outside mosque

14. Jumblatt seated

15. Spiritual leader of Lebanon's Sunni Muslim, Grand Mufti of the Republic Sheik Mohammed Rashid Kabbani leading prayers with Saad Hariri next to him and other men praying

16. Jumblatt seated

17. Young men crying over coffin

18. Men leaving mosque

19. Coffins being carried out of mosque

20. Zoom out from poster of Walid Eido and his son to wide of crowd outside mosque

STORYLINE:

Beirut on Thursday mourned the victims of a powerful car bombing that killed a prominent anti-Syrian legislator and nine other people as the government, reeling from another blow targeting its supporters, sought international help.

Prime Minister Fuad Saniora has called for an emergency meeting of Arab foreign ministers and the international community to assist in the investigation of Walid Eido's assassination near a popular waterfront promenade in Beirut.

The bomb ripped through his car on Wednesday as he drove from a seaside sports club, also killing his 35-year-old son, two bodyguards and six passers-by.

On Thursday the bodies of Eido and his son were slowly being taken in ambulances from the American University Hospital in West Beirut to the Verdun neighbourhood where the slain politician lived.

The funeral procession went through the main thoroughfare of Corniche Mazraa in the Muslim sector, where pictures of the slain politicians were posted on walls and overpasses.

Thousands of mourners gathered on the streets, waving Lebanese flags, those of the Hariri Future movement and banners of various Sunni factions.

"Somebody is trying to say that neither the international tribunal nor anything else can secure the Lebanese or their leaders. We will keep resisting and we will face this series of terrorist acts," Ghazi Aridi, the Lebanese information minister said.

Thursday's funeral procession swelled to tens of thousands escorting the coffins to a mosque at the Shohada Cemetery several kilometres (miles) away for a prayer service and internment.

Saad Hariri, leader of the anti-Syrian majority bloc in parliament to which Eido belonged to, Druse politician Walid Jumblatt and other prominent anti-Syrian leaders also marched in the procession.

At the mosque, male relatives sobbed and bent to kiss the coffins laid next to one another.

The spiritual leader of Lebanon's Sunni Muslim, Grand Mufti of the Republic Sheik Mohammed Rashid Kabbani led the prayers, with Saad Hariri at his side.

The blast that killed Eido was a new blow to the stability of this conflict-torn nation.

It came just three days after the government, together with the United Nations, started putting together an international tribunal ordered by the UN Security Council to try suspects in the killing of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri in Beirut two years ago, a move strongly opposed by Syria and its allies in Lebanon.

Eido was a prominent supporter of the tribunal, a staunch follower of Hariri and the seventh anti-Syrian figure killed in Lebanon in the past two years.

Many in Lebanon have accused Syria of being behind the slayings, a claim Damascus denies.

Lebanon's majority coalition blamed Syria for Wednesday's assassination.

Syria controlled Lebanon for 29 years until it was forced out after Hariri's assassination, and its Lebanese opponents believe it is seeking to regain domination by plunging the country into chaos.

Businesses, schools and government offices were closed on Thursday after the government declared a day of national mourning.

The killings were likely to further enflame Lebanon's bitter power struggle between Saniora's Western-backed government and its Syrian-backed opponents, led by the Hezbollah militant group.

Many fear the violence could push the polarised nation, with a fragile balance of ethnic and religious groups, into a new civil war.

SHOTLIST:

++PLEASE BE ADVISED: GRAPHIC IMAGE OF CHARRED CORPSE IN EDIT++

Beirut - 13 June 2007

1. Firemen working on blackened car still on fire, pan of devastation

2. Tracking shot through debris to car still on fire

3. Firemen hosing down vehicle

4. Tracking shot through people and debris

5. Firemen hosing down smouldering wreckage

6. Burnt out car, zoom in to charred body in vehicle

7. Emergency vehicle driving down road with people running behind

8. Wide of rescue teams covering body under blanket near ferris wheel at waterfront

9. Close up another body under a blanket

10. Exterior of American University Hospital

11. Mid of relatives grieving, woman crying

12. Various of ambulances arriving, sirens wailing

13. Back of ambulance arriving at hospital, people chasing after ambulance

14. Various of injured being taken out of ambulance

15. Wide of Majority Leader Saad Hariri addressing a speech to the Lebanese people

16. SOUNDBITE: (Arabic) Saad Hariri, Lebanese Parliament Majority Leader:

"This is the first terrorist crime that has targeted Lebanon and the Lebanese people since the international tribunal formally started operating. The international community and the brothers of Walid Eido in the Arab and Islamic world are invited today to take their responsibilities and act against terrorism and against the cowardly criminal who is behind this crime."

17. Close up of two Lebanese flags

FILE: Date and location unknown

18. Various file of Lebanese MP Walid Eido, who was killed in blast

STORYLINE

An explosion, apparently from a bomb-rigged car, rocked Beirut's seafront on Wednesday, killing an anti-Syrian lawmaker and nine others, security officials said.

The 65-year-old lawmaker, Walid Eido, was the seventh opponent of Damascus to be killed in two years in the conflict-ridden country.

Eido's son, two bodyguards and six others were also killed in the explosion, security officials said. Eleven others were wounded, they said.

A car was in flames and black smoke was seen rising from a narrow street off the main waterfront in Manara, which is in the Muslim sector of the capital.

The Lebanese Broadcasting Corporation TV station said the explosion came from a bomb-rigged car, a method that has been used to assassinate opponents of Syria over the past two years.

The body of a woman, covered in blood, was seen being pulled away from the scene, which is near an amusement park and a military club.

The explosion shattered windows of apartments in the area, knocked down walls and scattered debris on top of parked cars.

The explosion occurred less than two kilometres (less than a mile) from the site of a suicide truck bombing that killed former anti-Syrian Prime Minister Rafik Hariri and 22 others in February 2005.

The UN Security Council earlier this month ordered the creation of a tribunal to prosecute those responsible for Hariri's assassination, despite the opposition from Syrian-backed groups in Lebanon.

The issue of the tribunal has sharply polarised the country. It is at the core of a deep political crisis between the Western-backed government led by Prime Minister Fuad Saniora and the Syrian-backed opposition led by Hezbollah.

Hariri's killing sparked huge protests against Syria, which was widely seen as culpable. Syria denied involvement but was forced to withdraw its troops from Lebanon, ending a 29-year presence.

Before Eido, the last anti-Syrian figure to be killed was 34-year-old Pierre Gemayel, the industry minister, who was killed by assassins' bullets in November.

A series of other explosions have hit Lebanon over the past three weeks, killing at least two people. Lebanese troops also are battling Islamic militants in a Palestinian refugee camp in the northern part of the country.

Hariri's Future bloc, dominated by moderate Sunnis, has come out strongly in support of the Lebanese army in their fight against Fatah Islam.

It also comes amid after tensions between Sunnis and Shiites in Beirut in recent months that has killed 11 people.

Eido was one of the vocal opponents of Hezbollah-led protests and sit-ins in downtown Beirut outside the prime minister's office since December 1 in a campaign to force Prime Minister Fuad Saniora to step down. He has called the encampment in downtown Beirut by the opposition as "occupation."

LEBANON REVIEW 2014

SOURCE: AP TELEVISION/POOL/FUTURE TV

RESTRICTIONS: MIDDLE EAST EXTRA CLIENTS ONLY/NO ACCESS

LENGTH: 7.06

SHOTLIST:

AP Television

Beirut, Lebanon - 2 January 2014

++16:9++

1. Various of people crowding round the site of car bomb

2. Wide of the crowd being held back by police

3. Mid of soldiers arriving at the scene

AP Television

Beirut, Lebanon - 16 January 2014

++16:9++

4. Wide of people removing piece of cloth covering a billboard featuring image of former Lebanese Prime Minister, Rafik Hariri, words reading: (Arabic) "Time for Justice"

5. Close-up of digital clock showing number '1', counting the number of days the trial will take

6. Tilt-down from billboard to people gathered around sign

AP Television

Beirut, Lebanon - 14 February 2005

++4:3++

7. Various of Hariri assassination blast site with burnt out cars and emergency services attempting to control flames

AP Television

Beirut, Lebanon - 8 March 2014

++16:9++

8. Various of women marching

9. Mid of women holding posters outside the Lebanese parliament

AP Television

Beirut, Lebanon - 6 April 2014

++16:9++

10. Wide of Lebanese Prime Minister Tammam Salam arriving at the Grand Serail

11. High shot of Salam and relatives sitting down and surrounded by the media

12. SOUNDBITE: (English) Tammam Salam, Lebanese Prime Minister:

"I am sure we will be able to put matters in the right perspective taking into consideration what our people, what the Lebanese, are looking forward to."

AP Television

Tripoli, Lebanon - 3 April 2014

++16:9++

13. Pan across Syrian refugees at UNHCR (United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees) registration centre

14. Tilt-up from Syrian refugee child Omar to his mother Bushra, who is the one millionth Syrian refugee to be registered in the region

15. Bushra and her children accompanied by UNHCR employee

AP Television

Beirut, Lebanon - 12 November 2014

++16:9++

++AUDIO AS INCOMING++

16. SOUNDBITE: (English) Maha Yahya, Carnegie Centre for Middle Eastern Studies:

"The challenge today is waking up to the realisation that this is a very protracted conflict. It's not going to end tomorrow. It's going to take some time. We don't know how long, but there is a large number of people who are not going home soon."

AP Television

Beirut, Lebanon - 23 April 2014

++16:9++

17. Pan of lawmaker and former army commander, Michel Aoun, arriving at parliament

18. Pan of lawmaker and former Prime Minister, Fouad Saniora (right) arriving

19. Pan of presidential candidate Henry Helou (left) and lawmaker Akram Shohayeb arriving

Pool

Beirut, Lebanon - 23 April 2014

++4:3++

20. Various of lawmakers counting votes

AP Television

Beirut, Lebanon - 19 November 2014

++16:9++

21. SOUNDBITE: (English) Sami Nader, Middle East affairs analyst and Professor at Saint Joseph University, Beirut:

"The Lebanese missed the opportunity to elect a president 'Made In Lebanon' by May 25. After this, the problem now to get a solution you need kind of a regional consensus. You need a deal between Iran and Saudi Arabia, mainly. And this deal doesn't seem in (on) the horizon yet."

AP Television

Beirut, Lebanon - 20 June 2014

++16:9++

22. Wide of police standing outside the hotel in Hamra where suspects were arrested

23. Wide shot of the area where the suspects where arrested

AP Television

Beirut, Lebanon - 25 June 2014

++16:9++

24. Close-up of hotel room where a suicide bomber detonated his vest in the Savoy Hotel in Raouche, Beirut

25. Wide of first responders

26. Wide of tourists leaving the hotel on foot and answering questions from reporters

AP Television

Arsal, Lebanon - 6 August 2014

++16:9++

27. Wide of smoke rising in mountain area above Arsal

28. Close-up shot of smoke rising

29. Various of army tanks pulling into Arsal

30. Various of ambulances driving into Arsal

31. Wide of soldiers riding in armoured vehicles

AP Television

Beirut, Lebanon - 19 November 2014

++16:9++

32. SOUNDBITE: (English) Sami Nader, Middle East affairs analyst and Professor at Saint Joseph University, Beirut:

"This Arsal war showed how fragile is the situation in Lebanon. How the borders are not really controlled. And how much capabilities and support the Lebanese army need."

AP Television

Fnaydek, Lebanon - 3 September 2014

++16:9++

33. Various of crowd carrying the coffin containing body of Lebanese soldier Sergeant Ali Sayid, moving towards mosque, AUDIO: gun fire

34. Poster showing Sayid

AP Television

Beirut, Lebanon - 19 November 2014

++16:9++

35. SOUNDBITE: (English) Sami Nader, Middle East affairs analyst and Professor at Saint Joseph University, Beirut:

"The Lebanese army in a way was victim. Yes, the Lebanese army was isolated. It's the only remaining Lebanese institution. One has to keep in mind that we don't have a president, there is a void at the level of the presidency, the parliament is practically freezed, all what they have achieved is to prolong their own mandate, to extend their own mandate and the Lebanese government is really in a very fragile situation."

Future TV - No Access Lebanon

Tripoli, Lebanon - September 2014

++16:9++

36. Wide of people waving Islamic State flags

37. Mid of Sheikh Khaled Hoblos speaking to the crowd

AP Television

Tripoli, Lebanon - 26 October 2014

++16:9++

38. Wide of soldiers running

39. Wide shot of soldiers firing weapons

40. Various of families being evacuated

AP Television

Beirut, Lebanon - 20 November 2014

++16:9++

41. SOUNDBITE: (English) Nadim Houry, Human Rights Watch:

"There is a lot of speculation today about ISIS' strength in Lebanon. But at this stage there is no indication that ISIS is going to seep through Tripoli tomorrow and control the city. Quite the contrary. I mean we saw that the army was actually able to beat back many of these groups and that actually many of these groups, while they may be Islamist, are not necessarily affiliated with ISIS."

AP Television

Brital, Lebanon - 10 September 2014

++16:9++

42. Various of Syrian tents burnt to the ground

43. SOUNDBITE: (Arabic) Khaled Darwish, 11-year-old Syrian refugee:

"When we returned, we found that the tents were all burnt and black and I found all my toys burnt. Everything was burnt. Even my bicycle was burnt. All my toys and my ball."

AP Television

Beirut, Lebanon - 15 December 2014

44. High shot of Wahda al-Sayyed, wife of kidnapped soldier Khaled Moqbel, pouring gasoline on tyres in street

45. Police trying to move al-Sayyed away, but she throws lighted paper to set tyres on fire

46. Wide of tyres burning

47. Soldier guarding the scene

48. Pan right of pictures of captured soldiers and police officers on a billboard

49. Wide of photos next to tents where relatives of the kidnapped are protesting

AP Television

Beirut, Lebanon - 26 November 2014

++16:9++

50. Wide of memorial to mark the death of Lebanese singer Sabah

51. Close-up of photograph of Sabah

52. SOUNDBITE: (Arabic) Lina Fghali Maalouf, Relative of Sabah:

"The people have lost a column from Baalbek's ancient ruins."

53. Mid of friends hugging in grief

54. Pull focus of decoration

LEADIN:

2014 has been a tumultuous year for Lebanon, as Syria's civil war continued to spill over into the country.

From managing one million refugees, to suicide bombings and clashes between government forces and Islamic militants, the past year has been a challenging one.

STORYLINE:

January 2nd, just two days into the new year and a deadly car bomb shakes the Beirut suburb Haret Hreik - known for being a Hezbollah stronghold.

The attack kills five people, wounds dozens more and raises fears that the country is being pulled in opposite directions by sectarian tension.

January also signals the start of the long-awaited trial over the assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafic Hariri - nine years after his death.

From The Hague, in the Netherlands, the Special Tribunal for Lebanon (STL) will try five suspects, all tied to Hezbollah, for Hariri's death.

There are still many questions to answer, not least the whereabouts of the five suspects - they've not been caught and are being tried in absentia.

In February, ten months after becoming prime minister, Tammam Salam finally forms a government.

Salam's 24-member national unity Cabinet includes members of the Western-backed coalition as well as those of the Iran-backed Hezbollah group and its allies.

"I am sure we will be able to put matters in the right perspective taking into consideration what our people, what the Lebanese, are looking forward to," he says at the time.

Many hundreds of women and activists march to Lebanon's parliament to show their support for victims of domestic violence to mark International Women's Day on 8 March.

Several high profile cases of domestic murders hit the headlines in 2014.

This year, the first Lebanese law against domestic violence was passed, offering Lebanese women some protection from abuse.

April 3rd is something of a milestone in the country.

Three years after the beginning of the Syrian conflict, Lebanon saw the one millionth Syrian to be registered as a refugee.

Almost one in four people in Lebanon are now refugees from neighbouring Syria.

"The challenge today is waking up to the realisation that this is a very protracted conflict. It's not going to end tomorrow. It's going to take some time. We don't know how long but there is a large number of people who are not going home soon. So their needs need to be addressed very quickly before it explodes in all of our faces," says Maha Yahya, from the Carnegie Centre for Middle Eastern Studies.

The country's infrastructure - from schools and hospitals to rubbish collection - remains over burdened, with some communities now imposing restrictions on refugee numbers.

In May, President Michel Suleiman left office, leaving behind an empty seat after parliament failed to elect his successor. The 25 May deadline passes, but no replacement is found.

"The Lebanese missed the opportunity to elect a president 'Made In Lebanon' by May 25," explains political analyst Sami Nader.

"After this, the problem now to get a solution you need kind of a regional consensus. You need a deal between Iran and Saudi Arabia, mainly. And this deal doesn't seem on the horizon yet."

A candidate must secure at least a two thirds majority in the 128-member parliament to become president.

Despite holding parliamentary meetings throughout the year to try and solve the issue - to this day the position remains unfilled.

In June and July the country is once again on high alert after a series of suicide bombings.

Suspects arrested in Hamra in June are believed to be affiliated with the Islamic State group and are said to have been planning an attack against the Speaker of Parliament, Nabi Berri.

Days later, flames engulf part of the four-star Duroy Hotel by Beirut's corniche after a suicide bomber blows himself up during a police raid on his room.

The suicide bomber was a Saudi national. His collaborator, also Saudi. This adds to the strain between Lebanon and the Gulf states.

The boldest incursion of jihadi fighters into Lebanese territory comes in August, when militants launch an offensive on the Syrian-Lebanese border town of Arsal.

The army regains control of the area, but locals and Syrian refugees, who have already fled the neighbouring civil war, are displaced once again.

In early August it's reported that 20 soldiers and policemen have been taken hostage by the militants.

"This Arsal war showed how fragile is the situation in Lebanon. How the borders are not really controlled. And how much capabilities and support the Lebanese army need," says Nader.

On 28 August, social media starts to report that one of the captives, soldier Ali Sayid, has been beheaded.

Massive crowds attend his funeral on 3rd September in Fnaydek.

A few days later the group says it has beheaded a second soldier, 20-year-old Abbas Medlej - sparking fears for the other hostages held by the group.

"The Lebanese army in the way was victim," says Nader.

"Yes, the Lebanese army was isolated. It's the only remaining Lebanese institution. One has to keep in mind that we don't have a president, there is a void at the level of the presidency, the parliament is practically freezed, all what they have achieved was to prolong their own mandate, to extend their own mandate and the Lebanese government is really in a very fragile situation."

The country's sectarian crisis comes to a head in October when fighting between government forces and gunmen erupts in Tripoli.

The city has become a hot bed for Islamic militants with firebrand clerics like Sheikh Khaled Hoblos openly preaching in the streets.

Nadim Houry of Human Rights Watch, appeals for calm.

"There is a lot of speculation today about ISIS' strength in Lebanon. But at this stage there is no indication that ISIS is going to seep through Tripoli tomorrow and control the city. Quite the contrary."

"I mean we saw that the army was actually able to beat back many of these groups and that actually many of these groups, and that although many of these groups while they may be Islamist, are not necessarily affiliated with ISIS. But almost, that sort of the issue here is, I think the main challenge is ISIS is able to frame the terms of the debate in many countries.

"And what is needed in Lebanon are pre-emptive strategies to undercut the potential implementation, or growth of ISIS movements."

The four day gun battle claims 20 lives as the army slowly regains control of Tripoli's Bab al-Tabbaneh neighbourhood - though the gang leaders they're hunting escape.

After three years of accepting Syrian refugees into the country, Lebanon has had enough.

On 18 October, it's reported that officials have closed the border between the two countries, despite pressure from the UN to keep it open.

According to official numbers, more than 1.2 million Syrian refugees now live in Lebanon - representing more than 20 percent of the population.

Refugees also appear to be targeted by disgruntled Lebanese citizens.

Eleven-year-old Khaled Darwish came back to his tent to find it burned to the ground.

"When we returned, we found that the tents were all burnt and black and I found all my toys burnt. Everything was burnt. Even my bicycle was burnt. All my toys and my ball," he says.

As the year draws to a close, the soldiers and police officers held hostage by Islamic militants, are no closer to being released.

The families of the hostages continue to protest, their anger now aimed at the government who they say haven't done enough.

Four soldiers have so far been executed by their captors.

The 26 November, saw the passing of one of the country's legendary singers.

Lebanese diva Sabah, died aged 87.

Mourners pay tribute to her incredible musical talent, provocative charm and huge heart.

As relative Lina Fghali Maalouf says, "The people have lost a column from Baalbek's ancient ruins."

===========================================================

Clients are reminded:

(i) to check the terms of their licence agreements for use of content outside news programming and that further advice and assistance can be obtained from the AP Archive on: Tel +44 (0) 20 7482 7482 Email: info@aparchive.com

(ii) they should check with the applicable collecting society in their Territory regarding the clearance of any sound recording or performance included within the AP Television News service

(iii) they have editorial responsibility for the use of all and any content included within the AP Television News service and for libel, privacy, compliance and third party rights applicable to their Territory.

SHOTLIST:

++NIGHT SHOT++

1. Pan of offices of the Lebanese Prime Minister Fuad Saniora

++INTERIOR SHOTS++

2. Saniora and Lebanese ministers standing for a minute's silence after the death of anti-Syrian legislator Walid Eido.

3. Saniora and ministers sit

4. Various of cabinet meeting

5. Saniora speaking at news conference

6. SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Fuad Saniora, Lebanese Prime Minister:

"The series of assassinations against the deputies, ministers and those who work in the political, educational and information domains are continuing in an attempt to affect the strength of the majority."

7. Cutaway of cameraman

8. SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Fuad Saniora, Lebanese Prime Minister:

"We are calling the council of foreign ministers of the Arab league for an extraordinary meeting, and to show responsibility towards Lebanon, towards its people and for the future of freedom. Also we are requesting the technical and security assistance of the United Nations to prevent these ugly crimes and to enlarge the international investigations to include this new terrorist crime which was committed after the ratification of the international tribunal (a few) days ago."

9. Close up of camera lens

10. Saniora leaving media conference

++NIGHT SHOTS++

11. Fire truck inside the cordoned off area near the explosion site with people walking around

12. Damaged vehicle in front of cordoned off area

13. Various of damaged building

14. Mid of fire officers directing fire truck backwards

STORYLINE:

The Lebanese government held an emergency meeting on Wednesday evening after anti-Syrian legislator Walid Eido and at least nine other people were killed when a bomb-rigged car, rocked Beirut's seafront earlier in the day.

The 65-year-old lawmaker, Walid Eido, was the seventh opponent of Damascus to be killed in two years in the conflict-ridden country.

Lebanese prime minister Fuad Saniora and government ministers stood at the Lebanese parliament for a minute's silence during their cabinet meeting.

After the meeting Fuad Saniora declared Thursday a national day of mourning and called for an emergency meeting of Arab leaders and for the international community to help in the investigation into Eido's killing.

"The series of assassination against the deputies, ministers and those who work in the political, educational and information domain are continuing in an attempt to affect the strength of the majority," said Saniora.

Saniora also called on the United Nations to assist Lebanon with their security so they could prevent what he called, "ugly crimes," from happening in the future.

"We are requesting the technical and security assistance of the United Nations to prevent these ugly crimes and to enlarge the international investigations to include this new terrorist crime which was committed after the ratification of the international tribunal (a few) days ago.''

Eido's son, two bodyguards and six others were also killed in the explosion, security officials said. Eleven others were wounded, they said.

Investigations were still taking place at the site of the explosion on Wednesday night with many security officials and fire trucks at the scene

The explosion occurred less than two kilometres (less than a mile) from the site of a suicide truck bombing that killed former anti-Syrian Prime Minister Rafik Hariri and 22 others in February 2005.

The UN Security Council earlier this month ordered the creation of a tribunal to prosecute those responsible for Hariri's assassination, despite the opposition from Syrian-backed groups in Lebanon.

The slain lawmaker, Walid Eido, was a prominent supporter of the tribunal.

Many Lebanese have accused Syria of being behind the slayings, a claim Damascus denies.

Eido's supporters quickly blamed Syria for Wednesday's assassination.

SHOTLIST:

1. Wide of people walking down esplanade

2. Sun rising behind palm tree

3. Various of empty streets

4. Closed department stores

5. Close up of padlock

6. Security officers at scene of bomb attack

7. Wide of debris from bomb blast

8. Various of building damaged in bomb blast

9. Various of debris from bomb blast

10. Police tape and vehicles destroyed in bomb blast

11. SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Abu Mohammad, Beirut resident:

"It was very well planned and they wanted to kill them all. We ask God to put an end for this crisis and to reveal the truth."

12. Wide of newspaper stand

13. Mid of newspaper headlines

14. Close up of newspapers with headlines reading in English: "March 14: MP (Member of Parliament) Walid Eido assassinated in Beirut bombing" and French: ''Walid Eido, new martyr for liberty.''

STORYLINE:

The streets in Beirut were largely deserted on Thursday morning, the day after anti-Syrian legislator Walid Eido and at least nine other people were killed when a bomb-rigged car, rocked Beirut's seafront.

The 65-year-old lawmaker, Walid Eido, was the seventh opponent of Damascus to be killed in two years in the conflict-ridden country.

Lebanese Prime Minister Fuad Saniora has declared Thursday a national day of mourning for Eido and the other victims.

Shop owners were complying with the prime ministers wishes and had not opened their stores early on Thursday morning in Beirut.

At the scene of the attack security officials could be seen patrolling the area where the bomb exploded.

Debris from the blast was still scattered around the blast site.

One resident from Beirut, Abu Mohammad said the bomb blast was well planned.

"They wanted to kill them all. We ask God to put an end for this crisis and to reveal the truth."

At the newspaper stand, Eido's death was the major story in all of the Lebanese newspapers. ''Walid Eido, new martyr for liberty,'' read the headline of one French language newspaper.

Wednesday's explosion occurred less than two kilometres (less than a mile) from the site of a suicide truck bombing that killed former anti-Syrian Prime Minister Rafik Hariri and 22 others in February 2005.

The UN Security Council earlier this month ordered the creation of a tribunal to prosecute those responsible for Hariri's assassination, despite the opposition from Syrian-backed groups in Lebanon.

The slain lawmaker, Walid Eido, had been a prominent supporter of the tribunal.

Eido's son, two bodyguards and six others were also killed in the explosion, security officials said.

Eleven others were wounded, they said.

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

Beirut

1. Various of car wreckage of Tueini

2. Various of aftermath of explosion

3. Wide exterior of the Grand Serail

4. Close-up of Lebanese flag

5. Wide interior of the High Security council meeting

4. Mid shot of Lebanese Prime-Minister Fuad Saniora

5. Various of council's meeting

Beirut

6. SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Fuad Saniora, Lebanese Prime-Minister:

"We will not surrender, we will not surrender. The criminals continue to kill us one after the other. We will not surrender whatever is the price."

7. Cutaway cameramen

8. SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Fuad Saniora, Lebanese Prime-Minister:

"This hideous crime occurs while Judge Detlev Mehlis presents his report, with whatever indications and significance it has especially after what has been recently said as declarations and threats that are very clear."

9. Wide of news conference

10. Various of Saniora meeting ambassadors

Beirut

10. Sit-in in Christian Ashrafieh neighbourhood (central Beirut)

11. Various of sit-in

12. Man holding poster of journalist and lawmaker Gibran Tueini

13. More of sit-in

14. Security forces

Damascus

15. SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Mehdi Dakhlallah, Syrian Information Minister:

"Actually I think Lebanon's enemies are responsible for all these explosions that are happening nowadays. No matter how the relationship between Syria and Lebanon is, or what in JebranTueni's attitude towards Syria was and what he announced. Syria condemns the killing of Gobrin Tueni, Syria totally refuses these charges because it is against Syrian policy and manners."

16. Street scene

STORYLINE:

Lebanese Prime Minister Fuad Saniora said Monday he will ask the United Nations to set up a new inquiry into anti-Syrian journalist and MP Gibran Tueni's slaying and previous bombings and to create an international tribunal to try suspects in the Hariri assassination.

"The criminals continue to kill us one after the other. We will not surrender whatever is the price," Saniora said.

A previously unknown group, "Strugglers for the unity and freedom in the Levant," claimed responsibility for the blast, but many quickly implicated Damascus in the slaying.

The statement's authenticity could not be independently confirmed.

The bombing came the day that the U.N. Security Council received a U.N. inquiry's report into the assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri.

New evidence has only reinforced investigators' belief that the Syrian and Lebanese intelligence services were likely involved in the assassination of Lebanon's former prime minister, a U.N. probe said in the new report Monday.

The 25-page report from German prosecutor Detlev Mehlis' team again accused Syria of trying to obstruct his probe when it demanded that he revise his findings after a crucial witness recanted his testimony.

Mehlis will brief the council on Tuesday.

Meanwhile, in the Christian quarter of Ashrafieh, Tueni's constituency, orthodox churches tolled their bells. Dozens of Tueni supporters held a sit-in to mark the death of the lawmaker.

Police said Tueni was one of three people killed when a car bomb exploded as his motorcade drove through the hilly industrial suburb of Mkalles.

The others were his driver and an unidentified passerby. Another 30 people were wounded in the bombing, which started a fire that destroyed at least 10 vehicles.

Tueni, 48, who had championed the U.N. investigation into Hariri's killing, had returned only Sunday from France, where he had been staying periodically for fear of assassination.

The U.N. inquiry reported in October that Syrian and Lebanese intelligence officials were implicated in Hariri's death.

Syrian Information Minister Mehdi Dakhlallah denied his government was involved in the killing.

After Hariri's death, Tueni played a prominent role in the leadership of the mass demonstrations that, combined with international pressure, succeeded in forcing Syria to withdraw its troops from Lebanon in April, ending a 29-year presence in the country.