Lebanese leaders pledged yesterday to press ahead with a divisive election for president, to be held in Parliament in the coming days, after a car bombing assassination of one of its lawmakers. Anti-Syrian lawmakers also pointed fingers at neighboring Damascus and called on the international community for help.
The powerful bomb on Wednesday killed Antoine Ghanem, an anti-Syria lawmaker, and six others in a Christian neighborhood 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. At least 67 were wounded.
Schools, universities and banks across the country as well as many businesses in Christian areas of Beirut and north of the capital were closed yesterday for a day of mourning and to observe a strike called by the Phalange Party.
Ghanem, 64, a member of the 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.
Coalition members blamed Syria for the death. 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 UN secretary-general to add the Ghanem assassination to an international probe into Hariri's slaying and other political crimes in Lebanon.
The powerful bomb on Wednesday killed Antoine Ghanem, an anti-Syria lawmaker, and six others in a Christian neighborhood 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. At least 67 were wounded.
Schools, universities and banks across the country as well as many businesses in Christian areas of Beirut and north of the capital were closed yesterday for a day of mourning and to observe a strike called by the Phalange Party.
Ghanem, 64, a member of the 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.
Coalition members blamed Syria for the death. 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 UN secretary-general to add the Ghanem assassination to an international probe into Hariri's slaying and other political crimes in Lebanon.
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