SHOTLIST:

AP TELEVISION

Beirut, Lebanon - 17 August 201

++16:9++

1. Street where former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri was killed in a blast in 2005

2. Sign reading (Arabic) "Place of the assassination of Prime Minister Hariri and his comrades"

3. Statue commemorating the assassination

4. Various of Hariri''s grave

5. Close up of Hariri''s photograph

6. SOUNDBITE: (English) Mohammad Kabbani, Member of Parliament:

"We are on the start of a new stage which is the tribunal is going to start its work. Up till now we were only having accusations. The trial will start soon. We are backing the tribunal as we did always and we think that it will reach the fact and it will also reach justice."

7. Kabani walking away

8. SOUNDBITE: (Arabic) Mohammad Faisal, Bierut resident:

"We are supporting the indictment decision and if they are strong enough (refers to Lebanese government) they must arrest the four men."

HANDOUT (SPECIAL TRIBUNAL FOR LEBANON WEBSITE)

9. STILL of Assad Sabra, suspect

10. STILL of Hassan Oneissi, suspect

11. STILL of Mustafa Badreddine

12. STILL of Salim Ayyash

AP TELEVISION

FILE: Beirut, Lebanon - 14 February 2005

++4:3++

13. Various of immediate aftermath at the blast scene

SPECIAL TRIBUNAL FOR LEBANON

++16:9++

14. Various of pages of Indictment document issued by the Special Tribunal for Lebanon

STORYLINE

Prosecutors analyzed a vast network of telephone records to link four Hezbollah members to the 2005 assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri, but there was no clear smoking gun in the case, according to an indictment unsealed on Wednesday.

The special court investigating Hariri''s murder unsealed the 47-page indictment against four members of the Iranian-backed Shiite militia Hezbollah for alleged involvement in the truck bombing that killed Hariri.

"We are on the start of a new stage which is the tribunal is going to start its work," said Lebanese Member of Parliament Mohammad Kabbani, from the "4th of March Bloc

"Up until now we were only having accusations. The trial will start soon. We are backing the tribunal as we did always and we think that it will reach the fact and it will also reach justice."

The publication comes after the Special Tribunal for Lebanon said last week that Lebanese authorities had been unable to arrest the four suspects or serve them with their indictments, a move that some of the Beirut residents would like to see.

The suspects include Mustafa Badreddine, a Hezbollah commander and the suspected bomb maker who blew up the U.S. Marine barracks in Beirut in 1983, killing 241 Americans.

The other suspects are: Salim Ayyash, also known as Abu Salim; Assad Sabra and Hassan Oneissi, who changed his name to Hassan Issa.

They are accused of involvement in the 14 February 2005 truck bombing that killed Hariri and 22 others - a number that includes a suicide bomber.

Hezbollah has denied involvement and said it will never turn over the suspects.

Prosecutors acknowledge in the indictment''s preamble that they have no smoking gun linking the suspects to the attack, despite years of painstaking investigations.

The file relies to a large extent on circumstantial evidence "which works logically by inference and deduction," the indictment said.

With Lebanon apparently unable to arrest the suspects, the court - unusually for an international tribunal - could try the suspects in their absence.

The indictment that was released, which has many words and numbers blotted out in black ink, relies substantially on telephone records linking the suspects to the crime.

It alleges that a "red network" of cell phones was used by members of the assassination team.

The phone records showed a flurry of calls shortly before Hariri''s assassination, then they stopped being used two minutes before the explosion and were never used again.

The indictment said the records showed "a coordinated use of these phones to carry out the assassination."

Hezbollah leader Sheik Hassan Nasrallah has long sought to cast doubt on the security of the Lebanon''s telephone network, however, and he will likely use the tribunal''s evidence to further cast doubt on the court''s claims.

Nasrallah has called the tribunal an Israeli plot against Lebanon.

Lebanese officials have confirmed that Israel has penetrated and has great control over Lebanon''s telecommunications networks.

In 2010, authorities detained two senior employees of one of the country''s two cellular telecommunication companies on suspicion that they were spying for Israel.

They remain in detention several months after their arrest.

SHOTLIST:

AP TELEVISION

Beirut, Lebanon - 17 August 201

++16:9++

1. Street where former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri was killed in a blast in 2005

2. Sign reading (Arabic) "Place of the assassination of Prime Minister Hariri and his comrades"

3. Statue commemorating the assassination

4. Various of Hariri''s grave

5. Close up of Hariri''s photograph

6. SOUNDBITE: (English) Mohammad Kabbani, Member of Parliament:

"We are on the start of a new stage which is the tribunal is going to start its work. Up till now we were only having accusations. The trial will start soon. We are backing the tribunal as we did always and we think that it will reach the fact and it will also reach justice."

7. Kabani walking away

8. SOUNDBITE: (Arabic) Mohammad Faisal, Bierut resident:

"We are supporting the indictment decision and if they are strong enough (refers to Lebanese government) they must arrest the four men."

HANDOUT (SPECIAL TRIBUNAL FOR LEBANON WEBSITE)

9. STILL of Assad Sabra, suspect

10. STILL of Hassan Oneissi, suspect

11. STILL of Mustafa Badreddine

12. STILL of Salim Ayyash

AL MANAR

++PLEASE NOTE AL MANAR IS CONTROLLED BY HEZBOLLAH++

Beirut - 17 August 2011

++4:3++

13. Wide of audience

14. SOUNDBITE: (Arabic), Sheik Hassan Nasrallah, Hezbollah leader:

"The text in our hands now is based on conclusions and analysis and not on clear evidence. It''s based on circumstantial evidence and is not credible. What we are hearing from the public makes us more convinced that it''s based on politicisation and injustice and accusations. And those honourable resistance fighters should not be called charged, but unjustly treated."

15. Wide of audience

AP TELEVISION

FILE: Beirut, Lebanon - 14 February 2005

++4:3++

16. Various of immediate aftermath at the blast scene

SPECIAL TRIBUNAL FOR LEBANON

++16:9++

17. Various of pages of Indictment document issued by the Special Tribunal for Lebanon

STORYLINE:

A long-awaited international indictment unsealed on Wednesday offers no direct evidence linking four Hezbollah suspects to the 2005 assassination of Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri, despite years of painstaking investigations.

The indictment, which relies heavily on circumstantial evidence such as telephone records to link the men to the crime, played into efforts by the powerful Iranian-backed Hezbollah to discredit a case that has consumed and divided Lebanon for more than six years.

"The text in our hands now is based on conclusions and analysis and not on clear evidence," Hezbollah leader Sheik Hassan Nasrallah said in a speech in Beirut on Wednesday.

"Those honourable resistance fighters should not be called charged, but unjustly treated," he added.

Much of the information contained in the indictment had been leaked to the media over the past two years, which Nasrallah said was a sign that the probe was tainted beyond repair.

Lebanon''s most powerful political and military force, Hezbollah has vowed never to turn over the suspects, although a trial may be held in absentia.

The suicide truck bomb that killed Hariri on 14 February 2005 was one of the most dramatic political assassinations in the Middle East.

A billionaire businessman, Hariri was Lebanon''s most prominent politician after the 15-year civil war ended in 1990.

In the six years since his death, the investigation has sharpened some of Lebanon''s most intractable issues: the role of Hezbollah, which commands an arsenal far greater than the national army, and the country''s dark history of sectarian divisions and violence.

Hariri was one of Lebanon''s most powerful Sunni leaders; Hezbollah is a Shiite group.

Prosecutors analysed a vast network of telephone records to link the "assassination team" to the suicide truck bombing that killed Hariri and 22

others, according to the 47-page indictment.

Investigators tracked the movements of the suspects using their phones'' locations as recorded by cell phone towers.

The indictment says the records showed "a coordinated use of these phones to carry out the assassination."

According to the records, there was a flurry of calls shortly before Hariri''s murder, but they stopped two minutes before the explosion.

The phones were never used again.

The indictment also says the assassins tracked Hariri''s movements over several weeks to establish the routes and movements of his convoy and the location of his vehicle in it.

On the day of the murder, they detonated some 2,500 kilograms (5,510 pounds) of explosives packed into a Mitsubishi van parked near a hotel along Beirut''s Mediterranean waterfront.

Prosecutors acknowledge in the indictment''s preamble that they have no direct evidence linking the suspects to the attack.

The file relies to a large extent on circumstantial evidence "which works logically by inference and deduction," the indictment said.

SHOTLIST:

LEBANESE STATE TV

++4:3++

1. Wide exterior of Lebanese parliament

2. Close of Lebanese flag

3. Wide interior of Lebanese parliament in session

4. Mid of Lebanese members of parliament (MPs)

5. SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Marwan Hamadeh, Lebanese Member of Parliament:

++Various cutaways of parliament during soundbite++

"No, Mr. Prime Minister Mikati, your friend Hariri wasn't just martyred. He was assassinated with two tons of explosives, along with him, your colleagues, your friends and your citizens. For them, you have a holy responsibility that will follow you, will chase you, forever and ever. The worst series of the worst crimes in the history of Lebanon is being treated with irreverence, without investigation, without question and without punishment, and now after 30 years it is on the precipice of being solved, and its executors, God willing, and those who ordered it, will be known."

6. Close of Prime Minister Najib Mikati

7. Mid of MPs

AP TELEVISION

++16:9++

8. Set-up of UN defence official, Francois Roux

9. SOUNDBITE (French) Francois Roux, UN defence chief in Rafik Hariri case:

"My message to these individuals is the following: an arrest warrant has been issued against you today. The only person in the world who can get you out of this arrest warrant is a lawyer. So, make contact as soon as possible with a lawyer."

10. Cutaway of hands

11. SOUNDBITE (French) Francois Roux, UN defence chief in Rafik Hariri case:

"If the accused, or some of them, do not contact lawyers, then they will be tried in absentia. In that case, I myself have to assign lawyers on this list to defend the accused. But clearly those lawyers won't have contact with the accused, they won't know their points of view, and their job will certainly be more difficult."

12. Cutaway of hands

STORYLINE:

Lebanon's parliament began three days of contentious debate on Tuesday, over the government's response to UN-backed indictments of four Hezbollah members in the 2005 murder of former prime minister Rafik Hariri.

In parliament on Tuesday, MP Marwan Hamadeh told Lebanon's new Prime Minister, Najib Mikati, that he had "a holy responsibility that will follow you, will chase you, forever and ever" to bring Hariri's killers to justice.

Hamadeh himself was injured in a car bomb explosion on October 1, 2004 that killed his driver and injured his bodyguard.

The blast is considered to have been the beginning of a series of assassinations of Lebanese politicians and journalists, one of which claimed the life of Rafik Hariri.

Tuesday's session in Beirut pitted Lebanon's rival factions against each other. Hezbollah and its allies are on one side, and a Western-backed coalition led by Hariri's son, Saad, is on the other.

On Monday, Saad Hariri accused Mikati of bowing to pressure from Hezbollah, which is refusing to turn over four members indicted by the UN-backed tribunal for the truck bombing that killed the Lebanese statesman in 2005.

Mikati fired back, suggesting Saad Hariri - himself a former prime minister - was trying to exploit his father's death for political gain and tear apart the country.

The implication of the Iranian-backed militant group Hezbollah in one of Lebanon's most stunning crimes threatens to bring a new and violent crisis in this Arab nation on Israel's northern border.

The Shiite militant group denies any role in the killing and vows never to turn over any of its members.

Also on Tuesday, the defence chief at the UN tribunal investigating the assassination of Rafik Hariri has urged the four Hezbollah members indicted in the slaying to come forward.

Francois Roux says the men will be tried in absentia if they stay in hiding.

"My message to these individuals is the following: an arrest warrant has been issued against you today. The only person in the world who can get you out of this arrest warrant is a lawyer. Make contact as soon as possible with a lawyer," Roux said.

Roux said that his office would help them prepare their defence.

The tribunal last week indicted the men in the 2005 assassination of Hariri, a prominent Sunni statesman.

Hezbollah's leader Hassan Nasrallah denies his Shiite group had any role in it and has vowed never to hand the men over.

SHOTLIST:

Beirut - 30 June 2011

++16:9++

1. Wide exterior of Justice Palace

2. Mid of Justice Palace sign

3. Mid of media outside the Justice Palace

4. Set up of Future Movement bloc Member of Parliament, Atef Majdalani

5. Photograph of Majdalani with Saad Hariri, son of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri

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

"We consider the release of the indictment today is part of our martyr's rights, and this indictment is the first step to achieve the truth then justice in order to stabilise Lebanon."

FILE: Beirut - 14 February 2005

++4:3++

7. Various of explosion site where Rafik Hariri was killed

FILE: Beirut - 2004

++4:3++

8. Various of Rafik Hariri giving a speech

STORYLINE:

A U.N.-backed court investigating the 2005 assassination of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri delivered an indictment and four arrest warrants Thursday, the latest turn in a case that has transformed this Arab nation and brought down the government earlier this year.

The names of the accused were not released, but the court has been expected to accuse members of the Iran-backed militant group Hezbollah.

Many fear that could lead to street protests and plunge the violence-wracked

country back into a new crisis.

The long-awaited indictment was confirmed by the office of Hariri's son, Saad.

According to tribunal rules, Lebanese authorities now have 30 days to serve the indictments on suspects or execute arrest warrants. If they fail, the court can then order the indictment published and advertised in local media.

Saad Hariri also served as Lebanon's prime minister. But he was forced from office in January, when Hezbollah and its allies toppled his government in a conflict over the tribunal.

The group, which is also backed by Syria, fiercely denies any role in the killing and says the tribunal is a conspiracy by Israel and the United

States.

The dispute over the investigation encapsulates Lebanon's most explosive conflicts: the role of Hezbollah, the country's most powerful political and military force; the country's dark history of sectarian divisions and violence; and Lebanon's fraught relationship with neighbouring Syria.

Rafik Hariri was killed along with 22 other people in a massive truck bombing along Beirut's waterfront on February 14, 2005.

The indictment raises concerns of a possible resurgence of violence that has blighted this tiny Arab country of four million people for years, including a devastating 1975-1990 civil war and sectarian battles between Sunnis and Shiites in 2008.

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. Wide of meeting between Lebanese Prime Minister Fouad Saniora (right) and parliament majority leader Saad Hariri

2. Hariri sat in blue suit

3. Hariri with Saniora

4. Wide of news conference

5. SOUNDBITE: (Arabic) Saad Hariri, parliament majority leader:

"Today what happened was an attempt to kill our soldiers and policemen. This is a blow to Lebanese security. The International Tribunal is coming. Nobody will stop it. There is a conspiracy that they are making right and left."

6. Press cutaway

7. SOUNDBITE: (Arabic) Saad Hariri, parliament majority leader:

"I don't think that there is any support for Fatah Al-Islam from any Lebanese political party and whoever supports them, let him announce it."

8. Hariri leaving news conference

STORYLINE:

Saad Hariri, head of Lebanon's largest Sunni political faction and leader of the country's parliamentary majority, urged supporters on Sunday to cooperate with authorities after renewed violence in northern Lebanon on Sunday.

The fighting between security forces and Fatah Islam militants left more than 30 people dead and threatens to further destabilise the country.

Lebanon is facing its worst political fall out between the Western-backed government and pro-Syrian opposition since the end of the 1975-90 civil war.

Street battles were fought in Tripoli on Sunday, a predominantly Sunni Muslim city, while guns pounded shells on a Fatah Islam stronghold located in a Palestinian refugee camp nearby.

Hariri, who met for talks with Prime Minister Fouad Saniora in Beirut, told reporters afterwards that the violence may have been linked to efforts to set up an international tribunal that would try the killers of his father, former Premier Rafik Hariri.

Hariri was assassinated in February 2005.

"This is a blow to Lebanese security. The International Tribunal is coming. Nobody will stop it," Hariri said.

SHOTLIST

LBC

1. Wide pan of Martyrs' square

2. Close of flags, pull out to wide of crowd

3. Pull out from people on monument of wide of rally

AP TELEVISION

4. Lebanese army helicopter flying above the crowds

5. Tilt down from Al-Amin mosque to Lebanese security forces

6. Lebanese army Armoured Personnel Carriers

7. Bahiya Hariri (Rafik Hariri's sister) near the grave

8. Pan from Walid Jumblatt, a pro-government member of Parliament, to graves

9. Crowds around the grave

10. Medium of Hariri's grave

11. Saad Hariri with Hariri's family reading versus of Quran near the grave

12. Medium of Saad Hariri

13. People carrying flags

FUTURE TV

14. Mid of politicians including Samir Geagea, Bahiya Hariri and Saad Hariri through bullet-proof glass during one minute silence UPSOUND OF BELLS RINGING

LBC

15. Al-Amin mosque

16. Pull out of crowd

17. Pull our from picture of Hariri on building to crowd

POOL

18. SOUNDBITE: (Arabic) Saad Hariri, Lebanese parliamentary majority leader and son of Rafik Hariri:

"We are sticking to the truth to know who was behind the assassination of Rafik Hariri and all the martyrs who were killed in defending Lebanon and to the justice to suit the killer and to the international tribunal to stop the cycle of terrorism, blood and the serial assassinations that killed our elite for 30 years."

AP TELEVISION

19. Prime Minister's office building with pro-Hezbollah protesters tent in the foreground

20. Tents behind barbed wires

21. SOUNDBITE: (Arabic) Hussein al-Haj Hassan, Hezbollah member of parliament

"There is absolutely no attempt (by the opposition) to impede the international tribunal...there are serious observations. The discussion that is taking place within constitutional frameworks could lead to the approval of a revised bill for the problem to establish an international court for prosecuting the killers, not for political exploitation."

LBC

22. Various of crowds leaving Martyrs' Square

STORYLINE

Tens of thousands of Lebanese packed into a Beirut city square and held aloft the nation's flag Wednesday to mark the emotive, politically-charged second anniversary of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri's assassination.

Hariri was Lebanon's most prominent politician and was killed by a massive truck bomb on 14 February, 2005.

Fears for public safety at such a mass gathering were high, the day after two bombs in Beirut left three people dead, and prompted the government to deploy hundreds of troops in case of further violence.

The country's continuing and long-running power struggle was played out in Martyrs' Square, where a mass of government supporters gathered next to Hariri's grave.

A much smaller number of mainly pro-Hezbollah opposition supporters remained camped in tents close by to demand the government's resignation.

Backed by armoured cars, soldiers erected a razor wire barrier to separate the two groups.

The opposition made clear it wanted the anniversary to pass without violence.

Politicians, including members of the former leader's family, gathered at Rafik Hariri's graveside for prayer.

At exactly 1055 GMT - the time of the fatal explosion - the crowd fell silent except for a muezzin's Islamic call to prayer and the tolling of a church bell.

Then the country's leading politicians addressed the crowd.

"We are sticking to the truth to know who was behind the assassination of Rafik Hariri and all the martyrs who were killed in defending Lebanon and to the justice to suit the killer and to the international tribunal to stop the cycle of terrorism, blood and the serial assassinations that killed our elite for 30 years," said Said Hariri, Lebanese parliamentary majority leader and son of the former leader.

The UN investigation into his father's assassination has become a thorny point of contention in Lebanon's power struggle.

Hezbollah's power struggle with the government of Fuad Saniora is seen in the region as the militant Shiite group's muscle-flexing attempt to build on its success in the ground war with Israel in south Lebanon during the summer war.

Some observers say Hezbollah is trying to secure a position of strength in the cabinet with the power of veto which could be utilised against the international tribunal.

However, Hussein al-Haj Hassan, a Hezbollah member of parliament told AP Television News: "There is absolutely no attempt (by the opposition) to impede the international tribunal... there are serious observations. The discussion that is taking place within constitutional frameworks could lead to the approval of a revised bill for the problem to establish an international court for prosecuting the killers, not for political exploitation."

The probe is slowly proceeding, but Lebanon's approval of UN-backed court to try the suspects has been held up by the deep internal divisions between the pro-American government and the opposition, led by the Iranian- and Syrian-backed Hezbollah.

Supporters of Saad Hariri and of the government, now made up of his allies accuse Syria of being behind his father's slaying.

Syria was forced to withdraw its troops from Lebanon two months after Hariri's death after intensive regional and international pressure, but denies any involvement his death.

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.

SHOTLIST

1. Tilt-up of rubble to people setting up security cordon

2. Pan from wreckage of one car to wreckage of another car

3. Soldiers shouting orders

4. Paramedic running to help, pan to vehicle being hosed

5. 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."

6. Cutaway

7. 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."

8. Wide view from above blast site

STORYLINE

A powerful bomb killed an anti-Syria lawmaker and six others in a Christian neighbourhood of Beirut on Wednesday, threatening to derail an effort by an already deeply divided parliament to elect Lebanon's next president in voting to begin next week.

Antoine Ghanem, a 64-year-old member of the Christian Phalange party who had returned from refuge abroad only two days earlier, was the eighth

anti-Syria figure and fourth lawmaker from the governing coalition to be assassinated in less than three years.

Coalition members blamed Syria, but Damascus denied involvement, as it has for the previous seven assassinations, including the 2005 bombing of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri, a killing that ignited huge protests that forced Syria to withdraw its troops after a three-decade occupation.

Hariri's son, who now heads the main anti-Syrian alliance in the Lebanese parliament, called the perpetrators of Wednesday's 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.

SHOTLIST:

AP TELEVISION

1. Wide shot of thousands gathered in crowded square

2. Various of crowd waving Lebanese flags and anti-Syrian banners

3. Mid shot of upside down poster of pro-Syrian President Emile Lahoud

Zen TV - Lebanon

4. Hariri's son Saad Hariri praying at his graveside next to square

AP TELEVISION

5. Crowd observing one minute's silence at 1055GMT, the time of Hariri's assassination

AP TELEVISION

6. SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Saad Hariri, son of Rafik Hariri:

"They (the Syrians) left for us in Baabda (Lebanese presidential palace) a deposit of the tutelage regime." (referring to President Lahoud)

ZEN TV POOL

7. SOUNDBITE: (Arabic) Walid Jumblatt, Druse leader:

"There can be no stability and no freedom while the symbol of subservience to the Syrian regime remains in Baabda (Lebanon's presidential palace). We say to him (Lebanese President Emile Lahoud) : the terrorist Bashar installed you and the valiant Lebanese people will remove you."

AP TELEVISION

8. Pan of crowd

AP TELEVISION

9. SOUNDBITE (English) Ghazi Aridi, Information minister:

"It (There) will be the international tribunal and the truth will be very clear for all the Lebanese people and the international community."

AP TELEVISION

10. Mid shot of soldiers

11. Various of crowd

12. Various of soldiers at rally

STORYLINE:

Hundreds of thousands of Lebanese paid tribute to Rafik Hariri on the first anniversary of their former premier's assassination on Tuesday.

Waving flags and shouting anti-Syrian slogans they put on a show of strength aimed at reviving the "people power" spirit that helped break Damascus' domination of its politics and pressed Syria to withdraw its troops.

Groups opposed to any Syrian influence in their country - buoyed by a turnout that police put at about 800,000 and organisers said was more than a (m) million - stepped up demands for the resignation of Lebanon's pro-Syrian president, Emile Lahoud.

But it remained unclear if they will be able to consolidate control of the government.

So far, the bloc led by those affiliated to the slain former premier's son, Saad - politicians who are a majority in government and Parliament - have been unable to force out President Emile Lahoud or catch those responsible for Hariri's killing or a series of bombings that have killed 11 people, including three prominent anti-Syrian figures.

But the demonstration certainly boosted the sagging morale of these groups, buffeted by the killings and bombings.

The crowds fell into silence at 12:55 p.m. (1055GMT) - the time when a huge truck bomb exploded on a downtown street as Hariri's motorcade drove by a year ago, killing him and 20 others.

Saad Hariri returned to Beirut on Sunday - after months of self-imposed exile in Saudi Arabia and France for fear of assassination - to rally the divided former opposition for the demonstration.

He prayed at his father's grave before addressing the crowds. "They (the Syrians) left for us in Baabda, a deposit of the tutelage regime," he told them, referring to the Baabda presidential palace, inhabited by President Lahoud.

"There can be no stability and no freedom while the symbol of subservience to the Syrian regime remains in Baabda," Walid Jumblatt, a major anti-Syrian Druse politician said, echoing Hariri, before adding, "the terrorist Bashar installed you and the valiant Lebanese people will remove you, " a searing denunciation of the the Syrian president, Bashar Assad.

Neither Lahoud nor Syria had any immediate reaction. Syria has denied any role in Hariri's killing or the subsequent bombings but has stalled on cooperation in the UN probe into the former prime minister's death.

Three of the four top Lebanese generals close to Lahoud have been arrested in connection to the slaying.

But Lahoud has remained. The anti-Syrian groups in Parliament are short of the two-thirds needed to force him out.

"The truth will be very clear for all the Lebanese people and the international community," information minister

Ghazi Aridi said of the investigation.

Before its troop pullout, Syria had dominated Lebanon with its army and security services for nearly three decades, first entering in 1976 to quell a fratricidal civil war that did not end until 1990.

SHOTLIST:

++PLEASE BE ADVISED, OTV IS A PRO-MICHEL AOUN (CHRISTIAN LEADER, ALLIED TO HEZBOLLAH) STATION++

OTV - NO ACCESS LEBANON

Beirut - 19 September 2007

1. Pan from car on fire to smoke and fire coming off another vehicle

2. Wide of another vehicle on fire, people in street

AP TELEVISION

Beirut - 19 September 2007

3. Tracking shot of vehicle on fire, smoke

4. Various of firemen trying to extinguish flames

5. Damaged building

6. Tilt-up of rubble to people setting up security cordon

7. Pan from wreckage of one car to wreckage of another car

8. Body of man lying on street

9. Body lying in front of car wreckage

10. Body lying on street under cover, tilt-up to soldiers shouting orders

11. Paramedic running to help, pan to vehicle being hosed

12. Tilt-down from damaged building to car still on fire being hosed.

13. Fireman hosing fire

14. Close-up of blood on tarmac

AP TELEVISION

FILE: Date and location unknown

15. Various of blast victim Antoine Ghanem, a member of the right-wing Christian Phalange Party

AP TELEVISION

Beirut - 19 September 2007

16. Set-up of Telecommunications minister, Marwan Hamadeh

17. SOUNDBITE: (English) Marwan Hamadeh, Telecommunications minister:

"Once more the Syrian regime is using its terrorist skills to assassinate one after the other the MPs belonging to the Lebanese independence movement majority. We lost an MP three months ago, we lost a minister seven months ago. We have been since the assassination of prime minister Hariri being targeted one after the other, in order to deplete the majority of its numbers and to impose a comeback of Syria over Lebanon. We will not surrender to Bashar Assad's terrorist threats to Lebanon."

18. Close-up of photo showing Hamadeh with former Lebanese Prime Minister, Rafik Hariri

AP TELEVISION

Beirut - 19 September 2007

19. 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."

20. Cutaway

21. 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."

AP TELEVISION

Beirut - 19 September 2007

22. Wide view from above blast site

23. View from above of emergency services and soldiers at the site

24. Wide view from above of the blast site

STORYLINE:

A powerful bomb killed a pro-government Parliament member and six others on Wednesday in a Christian suburb east of the Lebanese capital, security officials said.

The blast targeted Antoine Ghanem, 64, a member of the right-wing Christian Phalange Party, said the officials, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorised to speak to the press.

Ghanem was the eighth anti-Syrian figure and fourth lawmaker from the majority assassinated since 2005, reducing the ruling coalition's margin in

Parliament.

The Voice of Lebanon radio station, which is owned by the Phalange party, also confirmed Ghanem's death. The identities of the others killed were not immediately known.

The attack occurred six days before Parliament was scheduled to meet to elect a new president in a deeply divisive vote.

Security officials said 67 people were wounded in Wednesday's blast, half of which have left the hospital.

The explosion occurred at rush hour on a busy street in the Sin el-Fil district, severely damaging nearby buildings, setting several cars on fire and leaving the street littered with blood and debris.

Explosive experts were seen sifting through the engine of Ghanem's car, which was blown at least 50 metres (165 feet) away by the force of the explosion.

Bystanders, looking shocked, watched as ambulances and civil defence workers searched for more victims.

Former Lebanese President Amin Gemayel, who heads the Phalange Party, said Lebanon's democracy was at stake.

The former president's son, Cabinet minister and lawmaker Pierre Gemayel, was assassinated in November.

Syria condemned the attack, which it said was meant to sabotage efforts by the Lebanese people to reach agreement.

The assassination of anti-Syrian figures began with former prime minister Rafik Hariri, who was killed in a massive car bombing that year.

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

Hariri's death sparked massive protests that helped bring an end to Syria's nearly 30-year domination of Lebanon. Damascus was forced to withdraw its troops from Lebanon in 2005, and a government led by anti-Syrian politicians was elected.

Since then, the government of US-backed Prime Minister Fuad Saniora has been locked in a power struggle with the opposition, led by Syria's ally Hezbollah.

Government supporters have accused Syria of seeking to end Saniora's slim majority in parliament by killing off lawmakers in his coalition.

"Once more the Syrian regime is using its terrorist skills to assassinate one after the other, the MPs belonging to the Lebanese independence movement majority," Lebanese telecommunications minister Marwan Hamadeh told AP Television.

"We have been since the assassination of Prime minister Hariri being targeted one after the other, in order to deplete the majority of its numbers and to impose a come back of Syria over Lebanon. We will not surrender to (Syrian President) Bashar Assad's terrorist threats to Lebanon," he added.

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

In apparent reference to the power struggle for Lebanon by rivalling factions, he continued:

"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."

After the assassination of Lebanese Parliament member Walid Eido in June, many majority legislators had to leave the country to spend the summer abroad for security reasons.

Others who stayed in Lebanon took extra security.

Ghanem was travelling on Wednesday in a car with regular license plates, his blue plate hidden in the trunk, apparently as a security measure.

Cabinet Minister Ahmed Fatfat told The Associated Press that Ghanem returned two days ago from abroad where he had been taking refuge for the past two months.

According to local papers, a landmark hotel near the Parliament building in downtown Beirut has been rented for majority members to protect them during the 60-day presidential election process, which begins on Tuesday.

Wednesday's bombing heightens tensions before the presidential vote that already threatens to throw the country into deeper turmoil.

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

Pro-Syrian Emile Lahoud 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.

Hezbollah and its allies have vowed to block any candidate they don't approve of, and they can do so by boycotting the vote, preventing the necessary two-thirds quota.

If no candidate is agreed on by the time Lahoud steps down, 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.

With Ghanem's death, Saniora supporters hold 68 of parliament's 128 seats, compared to the opposition's 59.

The trial into the assassination of the former Lebanese Prime Minister, Rafik Hariri, began in the Hague on Thursday, nearly nine years after his death.

Hariri and 22 others were killed in a massive truck bomb explosion in Beirut on February 14, 2005.

The four main Hezbollah suspects behind the bombing are being tried in absentia at the Special Tribunal for Lebanon (STL), because they are yet to be arrested.

During opening comments, Presiding Judge, David Re, said the defendants are being tried on several charges including "conspiracy to commit a terrorist act" and "premeditated intentional homicide by using explosive materials."

He added that the trial would proceed as if the defendants were present.

The four Hezbollah suspects include Mustafa Badreddine, believed to have been the group's deputy military commander, Salim Ayyash - also known as Abu Salim, Assad Sabra, and Hassan Oneissi, who changed his name to Hassan Issa.

The fifth man to be indicted was Hassan Habib Merhi, who was charged later than the other four suspects and is not officially a suspect in the trial.

"Mustafa Badreddine, Salim Ayyash, Hassan Oneissi and Assad Sabra, as the evidence will show, conspired together with others to commit this terrorist act aimed at assassinating the former Prime Minister of Lebanon, Mr Rafik Hariri," prosecutor Norman Farrell told the court.

Prosecutors will call upon hundreds of witnesses during the course of the proceedings, which is likely to take months.

Hezbollah has condemned the tribunal as a conspiracy by its archenemies the US and Israel.

It has also denied any involvement in Hariri's assassination.

AP TELEVISION

Leidschendam, The Netherlands - January 16, 2014

++16:9++

1. Cars entering the compound for start of the Special Tribunal for Lebanon (STL)

2. Exterior of building where tribunal is being held

3. Close of flag of STL tribunal

STL (SPECIAL TRIBUNAL FOR LEBANON) POOL

++4:3++

Leidschendam, The Netherlands - January 16, 2014

4. Various of courtroom as judges enter for start of tribunal

5. SOUNDBITE (English) David Re, Presiding Judge at Special Tribunal for Lebanon:

"The charges all arise out of the explosion in Beirut on the 14th of February 2005 that killed the former Lebanese Prime Minister Mr. Rafik Hariri and 21 others (excluding the suicide bomber) and injured over 200 people. The charges are of conspiracy to commit a terrorist act, committing a terrorist act by using explosive materials, premeditated intentional homicide by using explosive materials and attempted premeditated intentional homicide by using explosive materials."

6. Wide of Peter Haynes, Lead Legal Representative for the Victims, speaking

7. SOUNDBITE (English) Norman Farrell, STL Prosecutor:

"Mustafa Badreddine, Salim Ayyash, Hassan Oneissi and Assad Sabra, as the evidence will show, conspired together with others to commit this terrorist act aimed at assassinating the former Prime Minister of Lebanon Mr Rafik Hariri. The accused, Badreddine and Ayyash with others, prepared and carried out the attack on the 14th of February. The accused, Oneissi and Sabra, assisted them as accomplices."

8. Mid of photo shown in court of February 14 blast

9. Mid of model of Beirut seafront on courtroom floor with defence counsel team sat behind

10. Close of evidence photo showing damaged cars

11. Mid of courtroom

AP TELEVISION

FILE: Beirut - 14 February, 2005

++4:3++

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

AP TELEVISION

Leidschendam, The Netherlands - January 16, 2014

++16:9++

13. Mid exterior of sign for Special Tribunal for Lebanon

14. Wide of media

15. Mid of attendees arriving at the tribunal

16. Mid of a woman holding a banner of former Lebanese Prime Minister, Rafik Hariri

SHOTLIST

NEW TV SAT - NO ACCESS LEBANON

FILE: Beirut - 14 February, 2005

1. Various of immediate bombing aftermath

2. Man thought to be former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri carried away on stretcher

AL-MANAR ++PLEASE NOTE: AL MANAR IS HEZBOLLAH'S TV CHANNEL++

Beirut - 28 October, 2010

3. SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Sheik Hassan Nasrallah, leader of Hezbollah:

"All the information and data are reaching Western security agencies and Israel, and copies of all that the international investigators are gathering are being sent to Israel."

NEW TV SAT - NO ACCESS LEBANON

FILE: Beirut - 14 February, 2005

4. Mid of car on fire in aftermath of bombing

AP TELEVISION

FILE: Beirut - 14 February, 2005

5. Wide of aftermath of bombing, firefighters

6. Firefighters putting out flames of car

AL-MANAR ++PLEASE NOTE: AL MANAR IS HEZBOLLAH'S TV CHANNEL++

Beirut - 28 October, 2010

7. SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Sheik Hassan Nasrallah, leader of Hezbollah:

"We call on all officials and citizens in Lebanon to boycott the investigators and not to deal with them. The violations that have already taken place are enough and also because all that is being offered to them (investigators) is reaching the Israelis. All information, evidence, data and addresses are reaching Israel. Enough violations."

AP TELEVISION

FILE: Beirut - 14 February, 2005

8. Wide of aftermath of bombing, firefighters, emergency workers

9. Various of cars on fire

10. Wide of crater

STORYLINE

The leader of Hezbollah called on Thursday on all Lebanese to boycott the United Nations (UN) tribunal investigating the 2005 assassination of a former prime minister, claiming all information gathered by the team was being sent to Israel.

Sheik Hassan Nasrallah spoke on Thursday, a day after a crowd of women attacked two UN investigators and a Lebanese interpreter as they gathered evidence at a private gynaecology clinic in Beirut.

The women scuffled with investigators and stole several items from them.

The attack underscored the charged emotions behind the tribunal, which Hezbollah says is biased.

Nasrallah did not address the violence at the clinic or whether Hezbollah had asked the crowd to gather, but he confirmed that the wives and relatives of Hezbollah commanders and officials were among the clinic's patients.

Nasrallah said all sorts of violations and infringements against Lebanese sovereignty were taking place under the cover of the international investigation.

"We call on all officials and citizens in Lebanon to boycott the investigators and not to deal with them," he said through the group's Al-Manar TV.

"The violations that have already taken place are enough and also because all that is being offered to them (investigators) is reaching the Israelis," he added.

In a reaction late on Thursday, the tribunal criticised Nasrallah's boycott appeal and vowed to continue its investigation.

"Any call to boycott the tribunal is a deliberate attempt to obstruct justice," the court said in a statement.

"The Special Tribunal for Lebanon will continue to rely on full cooperation by the Lebanese government and the support of the international community in fulfilling its mandate, in accordance with its statute."

The tribunal has not yet indicted any suspects in the assassination of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri, but speculation that the court could name members of Hezbollah has raised fears of violence between the heavily armed Shiite guerrilla force and Hariri's mainly Sunni allies.

The tribunal's president and the State Department on Wednesday said the investigation will not be deterred by the attack, which happened in Beirut's southern suburb of Ouzai, a Hezbollah stronghold.

The Hague-based court said the visit to the clinic had been arranged in advance in accordance with legal safeguards.

The massive truck bombing that killed Hariri and 22 other people along Beirut's Mediterranean waterfront on February 14, 2005 was one of the most dramatic political assassinations the Mideast has seen.

A billionaire businessman, Hariri was Lebanon's most prominent politician after the 15-year civil war ended in 1990.

Suspicion fell on neighbouring Syria, since Hariri had been seeking to weaken its domination of the country.

Syria has denied having any role in the murder, but the killing galvanised opposition to Damascus and led to huge street demonstrations that helped end Syria's 29-year military presence.

Since then, speculation has grown that Hezbollah, which is backed by Syria, will be indicted.

Nasrallah has announced that he expects members of his group to be indicted.

He vows not to hand them over to be prosecuted.

SHOTLIST:

1. Wide of skyline

2. Traffic on street

3. Wide of newspaper stand

4. Newspaper headline reading in English: "UN signs deal on Hariri court, raising pressure for ratification"

5. Tilt down on newspapers

6. People reading newspapers

7. SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Farouk Fehmi, Vox pop:

"I support the international tribunal if it reveals those who killed Prime Minister (Rafik) Hariri, but if it is going to be politically biased I am against it."

8. Policeman directing traffic

9. Set up shot of Lebanese Telecommunications Minister Marwan Hamadeh

10. SOUNDBITE (English) Marwan Hamadeh, Minister of Telecommunications:

"I think it is a very important victory for Lebanon, for its legitimate government and especially for international justice and I think it paves the way for the ratification of the convention and the establishment of the international tribunal."

11. Cutaway of hands

12. SOUNDBITE (English) Marwan Hamadeh, Minister of Telecommunications:

"If, by force or by any other means, the opposition prevents it we will go back to the UN (United Nations) Security Council to have it adopted under Chapter Seven."

13. Wide pan of protesters' tents in downtown Beirut

14. Various exteriors of Lebanese prime minister's office, surrounded by barbed wire

STORYLINE:

Some Lebanese residents on Wednesday welcomed the signing of an agreement by the United Nations to set up an international tribunal to prosecute the suspected killers of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri.

Last week, Saniora sent a signed copy of the agreement for creating the court to the United Nations. U.N. Undersecretary-General for Legal Affairs Nicolas Michel signed the agreement in New York on Tuesday and returned it to Lebanon for ratification.

"UN signs deal on Hariri court, raising pressure for ratification," hailed the headline in the Lebanese newspaper "The Daily Star".

The tribunal aims to try suspects in the February 14, 2005, assassination of Hariri, who was killed along with 22 other people in a massive truck bomb in downtown Beirut.

Many in Lebanon suspect Syria was behind the killings. Syria has denied involvement.

The tribunal has become a major point of contention in Lebanon's power struggle between the anti-Syrian government of Prime Minister Fuad Saniora, which supports the creation of the UN-backed court, and pro-Syrian factions, including the Shiite Hezbollah movement.

One resident, Farouk Fehmi, was apprehensive about giving the tribunal his full support.

"I support the international tribunal if it reveals those who killed Prime Minister Hariri, but if it is going to be politically biased I am against it," he said.

Lebanese Minister of Telecommunications Marwan Hamadeh said that the agreement was "a very important victory for Lebanon, for its legitimate government and specially for international justice".

"If, by force or by any means, the opposition prevents it (the formation of the international tribunal) we will go back to the UN Security Council to have it adopted under Chapter Seven," Hamadeh added.

Under Chapter Seven the UN Security Council has broader power to decide what measures are to be taken in situations involving "threats to the peace, breaches of the peace, or acts of aggression".

In such situations, the Council is not limited to recommendations but may take action, including the use of armed force "to maintain or restore international peace and security".

In November, Hezbollah and its allies quit the Cabinet as it was moving to approve the tribunal after Saniora rejected their demand for a new national unity government which would give their camp veto power over major government decisions.

The Hezbollah-led opposition has staged a campaign of protests for the past two months aiming to bring down Saniora's government and replace it with one in which they would hold one-third plus one of the seats, allowing them to veto major decisions.

Hezbollah, which is worried the tribunal will be politicised and used against it, says the government should not consider the tribunal until such a government is formed.

The protests turned violent in January when eight people were killed in clashes between opposition and government supporters, raising fears that the political crisis could once again push Lebanon into civil war.

The fate of the tribunal now rests with the Lebanese, with ratification requiring a vote in Parliament.

Ratification requires a vote from Parliament, but Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri - a Hezbollah ally - has refused to convene the legislature, where it would be brought to a vote.

SHOTLIST

Tripoli

1. Tanks and soldiers in the streets of residential area

2. Soldiers firing from armoured vehicles at building occupied by militants

3. Various of soldiers in gun battle

4. Wounded soldier being lifted onto stretcher

5. Ambulance driving past

6. Zoom in on journalist wounded with leg injury and medic dressing the wound

++AUDIO IS MUTE++

7. Wounded Lebanese soldier being carried away

Tripoli

8. Armed Islamic militants firing from roof of building

9. Militants on roof of building

10. Lebanese army troops running across street and firing at building

11. Soldier firing at building

Tripoli

12. Front of building damaged by fire and bullet holes

13. Bodies of dead militants on ground +++GRAPHIC+++

14. Fire still smouldering in building used by militants

15. Tilt down of badly damaged building

16. Militants' weapons on ground

17. Various of dead militants +++GRAPHIC+++

18. Burnt out cars

Nahr el-Bared Palestinian refugee camp

19. Paramedics gathered round back of ambulance, wounded soldier on stretcher

Nahr el-Bared Palestinian refugee camp

20. Convoy of tanks travelling on Tripoli to Beirut highway

21. Lebanese soldiers at highway roadblock

22. Tank firing missile on target inside refugee camp

Nahr el-Bared Palestinian refugee camp

23. Lebanese soldiers spreading out along concrete barrier on road leading to camp

24. Wide shot road leading to camp, military vehicles, AUDIO: gunfire

25. Zoom into smoke rising from camp, pull out to wide

26. Tank on the move, group of soldiers

27. Closer shot group of soldiers, including one carrying hand held rocket launcher

Beirut

28. Wide of news conference

29. SOUNDBITE: (Arabic) Saad Hariri, parliament majority leader:

"Today what happened was an attempt to kill our soldiers and policemen. This is a blow to Lebanese security. The International Tribunal is coming. Nobody will stop it. There is a conspiracy that they are making right and left."

30. Reporters

31. SOUNDBITE: (Arabic) Saad Hariri, parliament majority leader:

"I don't think that there is any support for Fatah Al-Islam from any Lebanese political party and whoever supports them, let him announce it."

32. Hariri leaving news conference

++NIGHT SHOTS ++

Nahr el-Bared Palestinian refugee camp

33. Convoy of military vehicles driving along road

34. Armoured cars driving past

STORYLINE:

A fierce gunbattle in Lebanon fought on the streets of the predominantly Sunni city of Tripoli and in a Palestinian refugee camp close by left at least 22 soldiers and 17 Islamic militants dead on Sunday.

Dozens more were wounded.

It was the worst violence Lebanon's second largest city had witnessed in two decades.

The clashes between troops surrounding the Nahr el-Bared camp and fighters from the militant Fatah Islam began early in the morning shortly after police raided a militant-occupied apartment and a gunbattle erupted, witnesses said.

Ten militants were killed in the building in Tripoli and seven in the refugee camp, security officials said.

Abu Salim, a spokesman for Fatah Islam, only confirmed two militants died and five were wounded inside the camp as a result of the shelling.

Several bodies could be seen lying among the debris of rubble, broken glass and burned out cars as Lebanese forces overpowered the occupants.

A senior security official later said a high-ranking member of Fatah Islam, known as Abu Yazan, was among those killed.

The group is considered by some Lebanese officials to be a radical Sunni Muslim group with ties to al-Qaida, or at least al-Qaida style militancy and doctrine.

Some anti-Syrian government officials claim the group is a front for Syrian military intelligence aimed at destabilising Lebanon although both Syria and the group deny any links to each other.

Several observers on Sunday were openly hostile, with many heard to applaud as the army began pounding shells at the Nahr el-Bared Palestinian refugee camp where the militant group has headquarters.

The camp is also home to tens of thousands of Palestinians who took refuge there to escape the fighting in Israel.

Residents in the camp reported at least 12 civilians killed or wounded.

The figure could not be confirmed: Lebanese authorities have no presence there.

The fighting threatens to further destabilise a conflict-ridden Lebanon that is facing its worst political fall out between the Western-backed government and pro-Syrian opposition since the end of the 1975-90 civil war.

Tripoli has not seen violence on this scale since 1986, when Syrian troops, who were then in control, fought a rebellion in the city.

Prime Minister Fuad Saniora said the fighting was a dangerous attempt at hitting Lebanese security and called on the Lebanese to rally behind the government.

Saad Hariri, head of Lebanon's largest Sunni political faction and leader of the country's parliamentary majority, urged supporters to cooperate with authorities.

Hariri, who met for talks with Prime Minister Fouad Saniora in Beirut, told reporters afterwards that the violence may have been linked to efforts to set up an international tribunal that would try the killers of his father, former Premier Rafik Hariri.

Hariri was assassinated in February 2005.

"This is a blow to Lebanese security. The International Tribunal is coming. Nobody will stop it," Hariri said.

Military presence remained strong in and around Tripoli after nightfall on Sunday.

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 Saad Hariri, Lebanese caretaker Prime Minister entering news conference UPSOUND: Applause

2. Cutaway of media

3. SOUNDBITE: (Arabic) Saad Hariri, Lebanese caretaker Prime Minister:

++CAMERA PULLS OUT AND ZOOMS IN DURING BITE++

"We will go to the consultations and we will give our opinion while committed to my nomination for the prime minister's post, which is supported by the Future movement bloc and other allies."

4. Photographer

5. SOUNDBITE: (Arabic) Saad Hariri, Lebanese caretaker Prime Minister:

"Sedition will not be the required price for truth and justice."

6. Hariri at end of news conference, audience applauding

7. Various of Lebanese army convoy patrolling streets ++NIGHT SHOT++

8. Wide of office of Prime Minister++NIGHT SHOT++

STORYLINE:

Lebanon's caretaker prime minister said on Thursday that he will seek the post again, one week after the militant group Hezbollah toppled his government and sparked fears that the country's political crisis could descend into street battles.

Saad Hariri's Western-backed government fell last week over a dispute linked to a United Nations tribunal investigating the assassination of his father, former prime minister Rafik Hariri.

Many fear that Hezbollah - widely expected to be indicted by the court - will react violently if accused.

In a televised address, Hariri said he would continue efforts to solve the crisis diplomatically.

"We will go to the consultations and we will give our opinion while committed to my nomination for the prime minister's post, which is supported by the Future movement bloc and other allies", the 40-year-old said, speaking in front of a poster of his father, who was killed in a massive truck bombing along Beirut's waterfront in 2005.

The most recent talks, involving Qatar and Turkey, failed to reach a compromise.

Lebanese special police forces meanwhile tightened security around the government palace and other official buildings on Thursday amid growing fears that the country was headed toward violence.

A senior security official confirmed that the security measures in and around Beirut stem from "concerns of movements on the ground by some parties."

The official spoke on condition of anonymity in line with regulations.

Special police forces were seen placing cement barriers around the government house in Beirut and putting up reinforcements around government buildings and banks.

Armoured personnel carriers were deployed to many areas of the city.

The new measures follow the departure from Beirut of Qatari and Turkish mediators after two days of talks that apparently failed to resolve the differences between Lebanon's main rival factions and bring them back together in a coalition government.

Hezbollah denies any role in Rafik Hariri's killing and forced the collapse of the government last week when Saad Hariri refused to renounce the tribunal and pull Lebanon's funding for the court.

The militant group says the tribunal is a conspiracy by Israel and the United States.

There are concerns that supporters of the group may take to the streets, setting the stage for sectarian fighting similar to Shiite-Sunni street clashes that killed 81 people in 2008.

Hariri was Lebanon's most prominent Sunni leader.

SHOTLIST:

1. Wide exterior of Prime Ministers' office

2. Close-up of Lebanese flag

3. Wide of Lebanese prime minister Najib Mikati before news conference

4. SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Najib Mikati, Lebanese Prime Minister:

"After years of waiting, the International General Prosecutor issued an indictment and showed information that was gathered by the international investigations and accused members of being involved in the crime."

5. Cutaway Lebanese flag

6. SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Najib Mikati, Lebanese Prime Minister:

"We are today in front of a new reality that requests a wise approach and putting the supreme interest of the country, civil peace, our national unity and knowing the truth above all concerns. So we will deal with responsibility and reality with this incident, starting from that the accusations whatever its sources are not verdicts and the accusations need real and undoubted proves and any accused person is innocent until its accusation is proved."

7. Wide of news conference

STORYLINE:

Lebanon's prime minister Najib Mikati said national unity, peace and truth should trump all other concerns, after a United Nations-backed court investigating the 2005 assassination of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri delivered an indictment and four arrest warrants on Thursday.

The UN tribunal's decision marks the latest turn in a case that has transformed this Arab nation and brought down the government earlier this year.

At a news conference in Beirut, Mikati said it demanded "a wise approach and putting the supreme interest of the country, civil peace, our national unity and knowing the truth above all concerns."

The names of the accused were not released, but a Lebanese official said at least one member of the Iran-backed militant group Hezbollah is among those indicted.

The official saw the arrest warrants that were issued on Thursday and gave the names to The Associated Press. He spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the matter.

One of the people named is Mustafa Badr-Eddine, believed to have been Hezbollah's deputy military commander.

He is the brother-in-law of the late Hezbollah military commander Imad Mughniyeh.

Many fear the indictment of Hezbollah members could lead to street protests and plunge the violence-wracked country back into a new crisis.

The long-awaited indictment was confirmed by the office of Hariri's son, Saad.

According to tribunal rules, Lebanese authorities now have 30 days to serve the indictments on suspects or execute arrest warrants.

If they fail, the court can then order the indictment published and advertised in local media.

Saad Hariri also served as Lebanon's prime minister, but he was forced from office in January, when Hezbollah and its allies toppled his government in a conflict over the tribunal.

The group, which is also backed by Syria, fiercely denies any role in the killing and says the tribunal is a conspiracy by Israel and the United States.

The dispute over the investigation encapsulates Lebanon's most explosive conflicts: the role of Hezbollah, the country's most powerful political and military force; the country's dark history of sectarian divisions and violence; and Lebanon's fraught relationship with neighbouring Syria.

Rafik Hariri was killed along with 22 other people in a massive truck bombing along Beirut's waterfront on February 14, 2005.

The indictment raises concerns of a possible resurgence of violence that has blighted this tiny Arab country of four million people for years, including a devastating 1975-1990 civil war and sectarian battles between Sunnis and Shiites in 2008.

SHOTLIST:

1. Exterior of prime ministers office

2. Lebanese and German flags

3. Various of honour guard

4. German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Lebanese Prime Minister Fuad Saniora standing for honour guard

5. Merkel and Saniora inspecting honour guard

6. Mid of honour guard

7. Wide of bilateral meeting

8. Mid of Merkel

9. Mid of meeting

10. Merkel with Lebanese Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri

11. Merkel and Berri inside meeting room

12. Close up of Berri

13. Close up of Merkel to pull of Merkel and German officials

14. Exterior of Qureitem palace

15. Saad Hariri, head of anti-Syrian parliamentary majority in Lebanon and son of slain former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri with US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi shaking hands

16. Cutaway cameramen

17. Various of meeting Pelosi and Hariri during the meeting

18. Close of Pelosi

19. Mid of Hariri with a poster for his father

20. Wide of US senators

21. SOUNDBITE (English), Nancy Pelosi, U.S. House Speaker:

"The purpose of the trip is part of our responsibility for the national security of the United States. We are here to see how we can make the world safer and to fight terrorism. Important to that is to establish the facts and be current on them."

22. Cutaway of cameraman

23. SOUNDBITE (English), Nancy Pelosi, U.S. House Speaker:

"We (will) go there (Syria) and will be talking about the overarching issue, the fight against terrorism and the role that Syria can play to help or to hinder that goal. So we will be talking also of course then about the tribunal, which is very important to establish the truth so we can go forward. That is one of the issues that we are going to bring up with them and of course the role of Syria in Iraq, the role of Syria supporting Hamas and Hezbollah, the role of Syria in so many respects that we think it could be a vast improvement."

24. Pelosi handling the Quran and leaving the palace

25. Exterior of Prime ministers' office building

26. Pelosi and Saniora greeted by the honour guards

27. Various of meeting with Pelosi and Saniora

STORYLINE:

German Chancellor Angela Merkel arrived in Beirut on Monday for talks with Lebanese leaders and to inspect a German naval task force serving with a U.N. peacekeeping force in Lebanon.

Merkel, whose country currently holds the rotating presidency of the European Union, was met by Prime Minister Fuad Saniora at Beirut airport.

She held talks with the Western-backed Saniora, and the Parliament Speaker and Amal leader Nabih Berri, who is a leading member of the Hezbollah-led opposition which is seeking to remove Saniora from office.

Merkel also planned to visit a German navy ship in Beirut's harbour during her one-day trip to Lebanon.

The Germans lead a naval task force of about 1,700 men and women who are patrolling the Lebanese coastline to prevent weapons from being smuggled to Hezbollah in accordance with a U.N. resolution that ended the summer war Lebanon and Israel.

The naval task force is attached to the U.N. Interim Force in Lebanon. (UNIFIL), numbering a total of about 13-thousand, and is deployed along the border with Israel.

Merkel has made the Middle East a top priority of her six-month EU presidency and is currently on a tour of the region. The Chancellor met Israeli and Palestinian leaders at the weekend.

The US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi was also in Beirut for talks with Lebanese officials as part of a fact-finding trip to the Middle East that has drawn criticism from the White House because it includes a visit to Syria.

"We are here to see how we can make the world safer and to fight terrorism," she added.

Pelosi's visit to Lebanon comes amid sharp political divisions in the country between the government and the opposition.

The U.S.-backed Saniora faces an opposition campaign to unseat him, with protesters camped out in downtown Beirut demanding his resignation.

Pelosi also met with Saad Hariri, who has been pushing for international support for the creation of an international tribunal to try suspects in his father's February 2005 assassination, which he blames on Syria.

"We will be talking also of course then about the tribunal, which is very important to establish the truth so we can go forward," she said.

The Syrians have denied involvement, but their opponents in Lebanon say they are working hard to undermine the court through their allies in this country.

Pelosi's trip has drawn criticism from the White House because of a planned stop in Syria on Wednesday.

The US House Speaker said the trip to Syria was aimed at seeing what Damascus could do to help the fight against terrorism.

The White House called her Syria visit last week a "bad decision" because the administration considers the country a supporter of terrorism.

Her trip comes as the Democratic majority in Congress is locked in a battle with President George W. Bush over strategy in Iraq.

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