Al Akhbar English

Chief Prosecutor for the Special Tribunal for Lebanon (STL) Daniel Bellemare has requested that tribunal judges summon the “Lebanese authorities” to question them on steps taken to arrest those accused of assassinating former prime minister Rafiq Hariri.

Among the evidence Bellemare is using to support his request is an alleged Time magazine interview with one of the suspects indicted in the assassination.

In his op-ed titled “Insane Bloodshed, Not Revolutionary Movement,” the friend Ibrahim al-Amin says that his article is not intended to “bestow legitimacy – either moral or political – on the crimes committed by the regime’s forces against its opponents.” Al-Amin resorts to generalizing the sectarian strife that took place in Homs in order to suggest that worse events will occur “if the situation is not contained.” He warns that Syria is approaching a state of “bloody chaos” and that

Recommendations by Lebanon’s media council to register websites has raised concerns of mounting censorship less than two months after measures to speed up internet access were hailed as ushering in a new era of surfing in the country.

Ousted Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak fell after 18 days of incessant protest. “We are not leaving — he should leave first,” was one of several light-hearted chants revealing the determination and stubbornness of protesters. This new spirit came to surprise all, even the regime itself, whose response to it throughout the 18 days was a spectacular failure.

The current political crisis in Lebanon makes one think that the situation is going from bad to worse, similar in many ways to the period before the Israeli invasion in 1982.