Beirut - A hand grenade went off Thursday morning in Beirut's Sunni district of Nuwairi, causing panic but no casualties, police said.

Police said the blast took place in an abandoned two-story building in the neighborhood where the majority are followers of the late former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri, who was assassinated on February 14, 2005.

Lebanese army troops and police swiftly cordoned off the area and opened an investigation into the incident.

According to Lebanese security sources the grenade was believed to have been meant to scare people away from participating in the planned mass demonstration in Beirut's downtown district to marke the the fourth anniversary of Hariri's killing in a bomb attack.

Beirut  - Defying new assassination threats, Lebanese parliamentarian Marwan Hamadeh did something he hasn't done in years: He took a walk in Beirut's streets without a single bodyguard.

It would be an unremarkable event had this not been Lebanon, and had Hamadeh been any other MP.

But Hamadeh is a rarity in Lebanon's troubled recent past: an anti-Syrian legislator and former telecommunications minister who narrowly escaped an assassination attempt in October 2004.

Beirut - Most Lebanese and Palestinian officials who followed the outcome of the Israeli elections believe that, whichever party eventually forms a government, the prospects for peace in the region remain dim.

The head of Lebanon's ruling majority, Saad Hariri, said "the victory of the right-wing parties show that Israel does not want peace and is making up obstacles not to enter a peace process."

He was referring to the strong showing of Israel's right-wing bloc, which held 65 seats after Tuesday's ballot. The bloc's major party is Likud, led by Benjamin Netanyahu, which garnered 27 seats.

Shatila, Lebanon - In the narrow alleys of the Shatila refugee camp, a group of young Palestinians sit around a TV watching a pirated copy of the recently-released hit animation film by Israeli director Ari Folman, Waltz with Bashir.

The audience are paying rapt attention to the spectacle of a film made by an Israeli which deals with one of the most painful episodes in Palestinians' living memory - the Sabra and Shatila massacres of September 1982.

Beirut  - The Lebanon representative of the radical Palestinian movement Hamas said Tuesday the outcome of the Israeli parliamentary elections would decide whether a truce between Gaza and Israel is possible.

"It all depends on the outcome of the Israeli elections. If the right-wing Likud party wins, I don't think that the current government will be able to reach an agreement regarding a long-term truce in Gaza, If the current government wins, they could reach an agreement," Ousama Hamdan told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa.

Beirut - Lawmaker and Syria-critic Mustafa Alloush confirmed Monday reports of possible assassination attempts against some Lebanese parliamentarians, but added that precautionary measures have been taken.

"We have been directly informed by the army's command that some Fatah al-Islam members might be preparing for an assassination operation during this period," against some deputies, Alloush told Voice of Lebanon Radio.

He added that a number of MPs have been advised to take security measures for their own safety.