Sfeir condemns ‘buying and selling of votes’
The Maronite patriarch denounced the “selling and buying of votes” in the underdeveloped world on Sunday, saying that such behavior led to the collapse of countries.
Speaking during Sunday mass, Cardinal Nasrallah Butros Sfeir said: “There is talk in underdeveloped societies, especially during by-elections or general elections, about operations of selling and buying, paying and cashing, which involves votes, consciences and convictions. When consciences start becoming products for selling and buying and an object of bargaining, it is no wonder that the country collapses.”
Sfeir, who was speaking as voting got under way in a parliamentary by-election in Metn, said that countries prosper and collapse through the consciences of their people, before prospering and collapsing through financial markets.

Grenade tossed at Fatah chief’s home
A hand grenade was lobbed at the home of the head of the Palestinian Fatah movement in Ain al-Hilweh on Sunday, according to a source in the refugee camp.
The bomb was hurled at the front of Brigadier Mounir Maqdah’s house Sunday, causing no casualties. However, the grenade damaged a room used by his bodyguards.
Maqdah, who was not home at the time of the attack, told AFP that Israel’s intelligence services could be behind the attack and said an investigation has been opened.
His group counts as the armed local wing of the Fatah movement.
Maqdah has said in the last few months that he has been training his fighters to launch suicide attacks on Israel and recently, the Israeli press has been reproducing his declarations.
The head of Fatah in Lebanon, Sultan Abul-Ainayn, was sentenced to death in absentia in 1999 by a Lebanese court, charged with membership in an armed group looking to cause harm to the country. ­ AFP

Lahoud commemorates death of Omar Karami
President Emile Lahoud telephoned Tripoli MP Omar Karami to mark the 15th year marking the assassination of his brother, then-Prime Minister Omar Karami, in a helicopter explosion.
Lahoud, who contacted the MP and former prime minister Saturday, said
the country had lost a first-rank statesman with the 1987 death of Karami, “who fell as a martyr for his belief in Lebanon’s unity, security, stability and Arabism.”
Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea is serving a life sentence for Karami’s killing, after being convicted of the murder
in 1998.

Refugees demonstrate in support of Arab-Israeli MP
Dozens of Ain al-Hilweh residents staged a demonstration Sunday in support of Arab-Israeli MP Ahmad Tibi, whose parliamentary immunity has been lifted.
The Palestinians marched throughout the camp carrying pictures of Tibi along with slogans in support of his cause.
A similar protest in support of Tibi and another MP, Azmi Beshara, had been staged Saturday at the Shatila refugee camp in Beirut.
The Ain al-Hilweh protest was attended by various representatives of Palestinian factions, together with delegates from Palestinian educational and social institutions.
In an address, a delegate representing the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine, Khaled Abu Nour, slammed the Israeli authorities for taking such severe measures against the two Knesset members.
He also called for “immediate intervention in order to stop the Israeli practices against the Palestinian people and for exposing the racist character of the Israeli occupation.”

Lawmaker decries personal interests in deciding policy
The government’s recent handling of economic issues has given reassurances to no one, according to Tripoli MP Mohammed Safadi.
During an address at a dinner in Tripoli late Friday, Safadi said that
one of the fundamental problems of Lebanon’s political system was that “it allowed some people to exploit their influence and have their way with public rights, undisturbed, confident that the notion of accountability was inoperative, and that no one would ask about what is going on.
“There was a recent commotion about issues like the public debt and privatization ­ but it ended, as usual, through (political) deals that reassure no one ­ the settlement is a painkiller that won’t cure the disease,” Safadi said.
Urging the government
to deal honestly with the public to maintain its credibility, Safadi alleged that laws were being passed but their implementation blocked by “the wall of personal and political interests.”

Groups call on Powell to press UN over Irani murder
Eight Lebanese-American groups have addressed a joint letter to US Secretary of State Colin Powell, demanding the formation of a UN fact-finding committee to investigate recent high-profile killings.
The announcement ­ which came in a statement issued Saturday by the World Maronite Union,
the Lebanese Information Center, the American Maronite Union, the Lebanese American Kataeb (Phalange) Organization, the American Lebanese Assembly, the US chapter of the World Lebanese Organization, the Lebanese Cultural Union of the United States and the American-Lebanese Alliance ­ said that the kidnapping of Lebanese Forces activist Ramzi Irani took place in an area of Beirut controlled by Syria and Hizbullah.
The organizations said that the “1.8 million-strong Lebanese community in America is concerned with human rights abuses in the mother country.”

Judiciary examines extradition request for businessman
The judiciary has begun examining a request submitted by the French government to extradite Lebanese businessman Anthony Tannoury to face trial on charges of misappropriation and fraud.
State Prosecutor Adnan Addoum received the request Friday, which stated that Tannoury was sentenced in absentia to three years imprisonment for misappropriation of two tons of gold owned by a company in Madagascar and was wanted on an arrest warrant issued against him in absentia for fraud in an oil deal.
Judicial sources said Saturday that the French request lacked several documents allowing the Lebanese judiciary to examine the allegations against Tannoury.
They added that the Lebanese judiciary had the right to try any Lebanese national who allegedly committed a crime outside Lebanon and said Tannoury would be prohibited from traveling before his legal status was cleared.

Fruit, vegetable merchants fret status of markets
The Union of Vegetable and Fruit Retail Merchants, the Beirut Municipality and MPs met Sunday to discuss ways to speed up the building of three markets in the capital.
The municipality recently gave the union three lots, in Moseitebeh, Tariq al-Jadideh and Mazraa, for the establishment of vegetable and fruit markets.
Beirut MPs who attended the meeting were Ghinwa Jalloul, Adnan Araqji, Jean Hogasapian and Serge Toursarkissian.
According to union president Hajj Suheil Mohbi, the Mazraa lot has raised a problem because part of it is occupied by the Beirut Consumer Cooperative.
Mohbi called on meeting participants to strive to find a swift solution to the problem, adding that such markets “contribute to reviving the area.”
Beirut Mayor Abdel-Monem Aris said the municipality had taken its decision to establish the market despite objections on the cooperative’s part.

Bekaa families’ reconciliation steps closer to resolution
The second phase of reconciliation among the Sukkar, Shams and Dandash families was sealed Sunday at a ceremony held at Baalbek-Hermel MP Nader Sukkar’s residence in Bsharri.
Reconciliation began one week earlier at the Dandash and the Shams houses in the Bekaa under the wing of the head of Syrian intelligence in Lebanon, Major General Ghazi Kanaan.
Lawyer Butros Sukkar, who attended the ceremony, called for unity between Christianity and Islam and urged followers of both religions to cling to the establishment of peace.
Bekaa Mufti Khalil Shkeir hailed the Syrian leadership, “which patronized reconciliations and which follows in the steps of the late Syrian President Hafez Assad” by defending Arabs’ rights and dignity.
Patriarch Francis Bisri congratulated the Sukkar, Shams and Dandash families for their reconciliation, “which should set an example for all Lebanese.”
The feud started 50 years earlier over a land dispute.

Salameh opens Jounieh summer festival, stresses heritage
The Jounieh Municipal Council and the Old Souq Committee have inaugurated Jounieh’s summer festival under the patronage of Culture Minister Ghassan Salameh.
Jounieh Mayor Adel Bou Karam indicated Saturday that last year’s festival had succeeded in drawing tourists’ attention to the special architectural and commercial riches of Jounieh’s old souq.
He added that in a bid to upgrade the area and boost its economy, a new touristic port in Jounieh would be inaugurated soon.
Asked about the current special interest in restoring national historic sites, Salameh said the reasons were aesthetic, economic and political. He added that national heritage should be the concern of every citizen not only on National Heritage Day, celebrated May 16, but throughout the year.
The minister indicated that Lebanon’s economic situation, regional instability and international changes had contributed to the deterioration of the local situation. However, these elements were a challenge to face and surpass, Salameh added.

Senior Iranian legislator tours former occupation zone
The deputy speaker of the Iranian Parliament toured the former occupied zone over the weekend in the company of Hizbullah’s southern commander, Sheikh Nabil Qaouk, Mohammad-Reza Khatami, brother of President Mohammad Khatami, visited the former Khiam detention camp Saturday, where he met with several former detainees and toured the cells of the prison, which was run by the Israeli-backed South Lebanon Army militia.
Khatami later walked along the barbed wire fence in Ghajar, a village that was divided following liberation in May 2000.
Two-thirds of the village is Lebanese, while the rest remains part of Israeli-occupied Syria.
“We’ve heard about the great achievements of the resistance in Lebanon,” Khatami said, “those that allowed us to see with our very own eyes the extent of greatness and pride and the epic of the resistance.”
“There is still a lot of work for the resistance fighters to do in order to liberate all the sacred territories from the Zionist occupation,” he added.

Mrad confident that exams will be ‘objective, fair’
Education Minister Abdel-Rahim Mrad announced over the weekend that
the official examinations for intermediate certificates would be “objective, fair and free from complications.”
Mrad visited the Omar al-Mukhtar Educational Centers in Rashaya and Western Bekaa on Saturday to view trial examinations held for intermediate students.
Organized by the Arab Cultural Center and the Development Association, the tests aim at familiarizing students with the examinations.
Mrad said that candidates aged 20 years who had left school were granted the opportunity this year to sit for the official secondary examinations according to the old program. Candidates aged 17 years can also sit for intermediate level exams if economic difficulties had prevented them from following their studies.
Asked about the Metn by-elections, Mrad expected that they would be “objective, transparent and accurate,” adding that “whoever wins is welcome in Parliament.”

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