Sawaneh, Lebanon - In 2006, shortly after Israel ended its 33-day war against Lebanon, 9-year-old Hussein Sultan and his best friend Hassan stepped on a cluster bomb while playing in the backyard of his home in the southern Lebanese village of Sawaneh.

Hassan died immediately, while Hussein, now 11, sustained serious injuries to the hands and chest.

"I still suffer from breathing problems at night because shrapnel hit one of my lungs," Hussein told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa.

Hussein recalls the incident and describes it as "a nightmare that still haunts him."

Beirut - Lebanese President Michel Suleiman is to visit Berlin on December 3 on a two-day official visit, a source at the Presidential Palace said Saturday.

Suleiman is expected to discuss with his German counterpart Horst Koehler and Chancellor Angela Merkel political and security issues, as well as Lebanon's financial debt, the source said.

Beirut  - The head of Lebanon's ruling, anti-Syrian majority, parliamentarian Saad Hariri, late Thursday condemned the Mumbai terrorist attacks and said that such crimes are rejected by all the wor

Cairo  - Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak and Lebanese Mustaqbal Movement leader Saad al-Hariri, who met in Cairo on Thursday, called for holding Lebanese parliamentary elections in the spring of 2009 as scheduled.

"We back up holding elections in time regardless of what happens and even if I was the victim of an attack aimed at blocking the balloting," Hariri told reporters.

Hariri, who heads the western-backed ruling coalition, has accused Syria of trying to block the parliamentary elections because they fear the anti-Syria ruling majority will win.

"There could be intimidation by some of Syria's allies in Lebanon. They are capable of forming armed factions to carry out what they pledge," Hariri added.

Beirut  - Lebansese President Michel Suleiman has asked Iran for medium-sized weapons for the army, in a move aimed at shifting Iran's assistance from the country's militant Hezbollah movement to the state, a Lebanese government official said Wednesday.

The official, who requested anonymity, said Suleiman had made clear during a two-day visit to Tehran earlier this week that he was not seeking to obtain long-range missiles or jet fighters, but rather modern medium arms that would help the Lebanese army combat terrorism and maintain national security.

Beirut - Lebanon's pro-Iranian Hezbollah movement dismissed the possibility of any Israeli military incursions into Lebanon or the wider region, but added that the movement is more prepared than before to confront any possible attack.

"The Israelis, unlike what is being said, are not ready for any field battle," Hezbollah's international relations official Nawaf Moussawi was quoted as saying by Hezbollah's al Nour radio station on Tuesday.

"The resistance in Lebanon is more ready than the Israeli army to engage in a military battle," Moussawi added.