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[Marwan Hamade] said that the Cabinet delayed until Thursday a decision on appointments of new civil servants from outside the current government force. But he said there was a ceiling of only three such appointments, even though ministers have suggested seven or eight names. Thursday, he said, was the deadline for completing the package and putting an end to a struggle that has raged for years to vitalize and modernize the country's bureaucracy. Hamade said that although Tuesday's extraordinary meeting was dedicated to the administrative reshuffle, [Rafik Hariri] seized the opportunity to notify Cabinet that a snag that had developed in negotiations to conclude the Euro-Med Partnership Agreement was ironed out. \"The prime minister relayed the good news that the partnership agreement will be signed on Dec. 20,\" Hamade said, without offering details on how the problem was overcome.

Amin Mansur, a Tira resident, applied to the Dynamometer licensing and testing institute in Ra'anana, where, to his surprise, four of the office's clerks were repeating \"Death to the Arabs\" calls while dancing to songs played on the radio. Football tournaments held regularly for Gulf Cooperation Council clubs are set to get a big boost when these clubs are allowed to field professionals from outside GCC countries from 2002 on. This was one of the major decisions approved at the 16th GCC Youth and Sports Ministers and GCC National Olympic Committees Chairmen meeting held at the Le Meridien Hotel yesterday.

Beirut - A new parliamentary body has been created to protect students from security detentions and arrests. Opposition MPs from the so-called Qornet Shehwan Gathering and Cabinet Ministers Bahij Tabbara and Marwan Hamade, make up the committee, which was unveiled at a news conference at Saint Joseph University in Beirut.

The government's laxity on security matters, [Maqari] went on to say, \"was a very bad example and assured criminals and those behind them that they can assassinate their opponents without being held accountable.\"\"How can the prime minister accept that the Lebanese foreign minister becomes the Syrian regime's defence attorney ... dragging Lebanon into taking position that contradicts those of the majority of Arab and world states?\" asked Maqari Maqari slammed the cabinet for \"disassociating itself\" from the defence of Lebanon's borders against Syrian incursions. Several Lebanese have been killed by gunfire coming across the border from Syria, including cameraman Ali Sha'ban, who was killed last week in the northern border area of Wadi Khalid. \"Following the civil war, the Syrian army disarmed Lebanese militias and provided their arms to the Lebanese Army,\" said Qansu. \"This means that we should maintain good ties with Syria based on mutual respect.\"

Is anyone fooled? When the Lebanese MP Antoine Ghanem was assassinated last week, the cops couldn't - or wouldn't - secure the crime scene. Why not? And so last Wednesday, the fog came creeping through the iron gateway of Druze leader Walid Jumblatt's townhouse in Beirut where he and a few brave MPs had gathered for dinner before parliament's useless vote on the presidential elections - now delayed until October 23. There was much talk of majorities and quorums; 50 plus one appears to be the constitutional rule, although supporters of Syria would dispute that. I still meet Lebanese MPs who don't understand their parliamentary system; I suspect it needs several PhDs to do so. The food, as always, was impeccable. And why should those who face death by explosives or gunfire every day not eat well? Not for nothing has Nora Jumblatt been called the world's best hostess. I sat close to the Jumblatts while their guests - Ghazi Aridi, the minister of information; Marwan Hamade, minister of communications; as well as Tripoli MP Mosbah Al-Ahdab and a Beirut judge - joked and showed insouciance for the fog of danger surrounding them. In 2004, \"they\" almost got Hamade at his home near my apartment. Altogether, 46 of Lebanon's MPs are now hiding in the Phoenicia Hotel, three to a suite. Jumblatt had heard rumours of another murder the day before Ghanem was blown apart. Who is next?

NAHREL-BARED, Lebanon - The Lebanese army was fighting street to street with militants inspired by al-Qaeda after launching an all- out assault on their stronghold last night. \"The army is determined this time to go ahead,\" said Marwan Hamade, a Lebanese cabinet minister, as troops pushed into the Nahr el-Bared refugee camp north of Beirut.

The court order indicates that [Daniel Bellemare] and [Daniel Fransen] believe that \"the criminal intent [motive], purpose behind the attacks, the nature of the victims targeted, the pattern of the attacks [modus operandi] and the perpetrators,\" bore resemblance to the bomb that killed [Rafiq Hariri]. STL spokesperson Marten Youssef said that Fransen's ruling over connected cases was \"a little different\" to his decision to accept Bellemare's original indictment, which accused four Hezbollah members of assassinating Hariri. \"We were informed last week by a Special Tribunal delegation that much of the evidence corroborated the link between Hariri's case and our cases,\" [Marwan Hamade] told The Daily Star.

No parking. Is anyone fooled? When the Lebanese MP Antoine Ghanem was assassinated last week, the cops couldn't - or wouldn't - secure the crime scene. Why not? And so last Wednesday, the fog came creeping through the iron gateway of Druze leader Walid Jumblatt's town house in Beirut where he and a few brave MPs had gathered for dinner before parliament's useless vote on the presidential elections - now delayed until 23 October. There was much talk of majorities and quorums; 50 plus one appears to be the constitutional rule here, although the supporters of Syria would dispute that. I have to admit I still meet Lebanese MPs who don't understand their own parliamentary system; I suspect it needs several PhDs to get it right. In 2004, \"they\" almost got [Marwan Hamade] at his home near my apartment. Altogether, 46 of Lebanon's MPs are now hiding in the Phoenicia Hotel, three to a suite. Jumblatt had heard rumours of another murder the day before Ghanem was blown apart. Who is next? That is the question we all ask. \"They\" - the Syrians or their agents or gunmen working for mysterious governments - are out there, planning the next murder to cut Fouad Siniora's tiny majority down. \"There will be another two dead in the next three weeks,\" Jumblatt said. And the dinner guests all looked at each other. \"We have all made our wills,\" Nora said quietly. Even you, Nora? She didn't think she was a target. \"But I may be with Walid.\" And I looked at these educated, brave men - their policies not always wise, perhaps, but their courage unmistakable - and pondered how little we Westerners now care for the life of Lebanon.

Hours before the Syrian and Lebanese presidents announced their plan yesterday for a partial withdrawal to the Bekaa Valley, [Marwan Hamade] outlined the opposition's objectives. \"We want them to withdraw to the Bekaa by the end of March, and to Syria by the end of April, so we can have free elections with no foreign presence, in May.\" He is wary of Syrian \"trickiness\" and particularly fears that Syrian loyalists will demand that the pullout stop in the Bekaa, or that \"negotiations\" between the Lebanese and Syrian governments drag on for years. In targeting Hamade, the bombers attacked the link between the Druze leader Walid Jumblatt and the billionaire former prime minister, who represented the Sunni community. Jumblatt and [Rafik Hariri] were very different, but Hamade combined Hariri's easygoing charm with Jumblatt's intellectual intensity. \"I was their messenger. The Syrians especially loathed this Druze-Sunni understanding,\" he explains. \"The attempt on my life was a warning to them both\" when the anti-Syrian opposition was gaining momentum.