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Mirza Says No Need to Speed up Arrest of Suspects Named in Indictment

Prosecutor General Saeed Mirza said that there is time to find and arrest the four people named in the warrants issued by the Special Tribunal for Lebanon probing ex-Premier Rafik Hariri’s assassination.

“We have 30 days to deal with the issue,” Mirza told An Nahar newspaper on Wednesday.

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Majority Source to Hariri: U.S., Israel are Capable of Changing Indictment

A high-ranking source in the March 8 forces said that the majority agrees with former Premier Saad Hariri that it won’t be able to change anything in the indictment issued by the international tribunal.

But the source told As Safir daily on Wednesday that experience in the past six years showed that the U.S. and Israel are capable of changing the Special Tribunal for Lebanon’s accusations.

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Cassese Says Indictment Decisive Moment for Lebanon

President of the Special Tribunal for Lebanon Antonio Cassese said that the release of the indictment along with the arrest warrants in ex-Premier Rafik Hariri’s assassination case is a critical moment for Lebanon and the region.

“This is a decisive moment for the Lebanese, their state and for international justice. It is also a decisive moment for the region,” Cassese said in an opinion article published Wednesday in The New York Times.

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Hariri: Nothing Will Be Changed in Indictment Even If Nasrallah Holds 300 News Conferences

Former premier Saad Hariri stressed Tuesday that “nothing will be changed in the indictment” issued last month by the Special Tribunal for Lebanon along with arrest warrants for four Hizbullah members in the assassination of ex-PM Rafik Hariri, “even if (Hizbullah chief) Sayyed (Hassan) Nasrallah holds 300 press conferences.”

“I will return to Beirut as soon as possible,” Hariri, who is currently in Paris, announced in an interview on MTV, when asked whether his next interview will be broadcast from the Lebanese capital.

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Aoun: Wissam al-Hasan’s Position at Head of Intelligence Bureau Violates ISF Law

Free Patriotic Movement leader MP Michel Aoun stated on Tuesday that Wissam al-Hasan’s position at the head of the Internal Security Forces Intelligence Bureau is a violation of the ISF laws seeing as there is no such thing as the Intelligence Bureau.

He said after the Change and Reform bloc’s weekly meeting: “It is a branch that does not exist on the legal level and its violations were covered up by the then prime minister.”

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Quiet Holds 5 Years after Israel-Hizbullah War

The fifth anniversary of Israel's war in Lebanon passed largely unmarked in the Jewish state on Tuesday, with no official events planned and the border between the neighbors mostly quiet.

The conflict that began on July 12, 2006, ending 34 days later with the deaths of 1,200 people in Lebanon, mainly civilians, and 160 Israelis, mostly soldiers, has faded into the background in Israeli public life.

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STL Announces Applications for Victims Affected by Hariri Assassination

The Victims’ Participation Unit of the Special Tribunal for Lebanon has opened on Tuesday applications for victims to participate in the proceedings before the Tribunal, announced the STL press office in a statement.

This follows the confirmation of an indictment by the Pre-Trial Judge on June 28, 2011.

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Lebanon in Political, Diplomatic Campaign Against Israel's Proposed Maritime Line

Foreign Minister Adnan Mansour has vowed to resort to the United Nations to resolve the conflict on Lebanon’s maritime border with Israel after the Jewish state’s proposal deepened the feud over offshore gas fields between the two states.

"Israel's measures have created a new point of tension in the region and threaten peace and security across this region," Mansour told reporters in Beirut on Monday.

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WikiLeaks: Murr Said Hizbullah Part of Syrian Plot to Kill him

Former Defense Minister Elias Murr accused Hizbullah of being part of a Syrian plot to murder him, revealed a leaked U.S. Embassy cable dated November 14, 2005.

The WikiLeaks cable spoke of the then defense minister’s fear that the Hizbullah would adopt a more aggressive position after the release of Detlev Mehlis’ report on the assassination of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri on December 15, 2005.

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Aoun and Jumblat Ministers in Cabinet Confrontation over Corruption File, Wissam al-Hassan

Ministers representing the Change and Reform bloc in the cabinet are gearing up to discuss several controversial issues at government meetings, the first of which will be held on Thursday.

Free Patriotic Movement sources told al-Liwaa daily published Tuesday the ministers believe that they have the upper hand in deciding the major path the cabinet sessions would take including the appointments that it would make to top posts in state institutions.

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