Beirut  - Lebanon welcomed late Tuesday the appointment of a new Syrian ambassador to Lebanon.

Foreign Minister Fawzi Salloukh said the ambassador, Ali Abdel Karim Ali, would arrive in Beirut after leaving his current post in Kuwait.

"Lebanon welcomes the new Syrian ambassador Ali Abdel Karim Ali anytime in Beirut to assume his duties," Salloukh said in an interview with the Lebanese Markaziya news agency. He did not disclose when the appointment was made, but said Lebanon's approval had been sent to Damascus.

The Hague  - Italian judge Antonio Cassese has appointed president of the Special Tribunal for Lebanon (STL), the tribunal that will probe the 2005 assassination of former Lebanese premier Rafik Hariri said in a statement Tuesday.

The United Nations tribunal, which based in the Dutch city of The Hague, also said the other judges had been sworn in but did not release their names because "not all security measures are in place yet."

Beirut  - Lebanese President Michel Suleiman said Monday that Arabs should "unite in the face of terrorism" and proposed an Arab observatory to combat terrorism through constant monitoring of suspicious activities and financial transactions.

He said that the conference of Arab interior ministers Sunday in Beirut "was an indication of Arab trust in Lebanon."

Beirut - A Palestine Liberation Organisation official and four of his bodyguards were killed Monday when a roadside bomb targeted their convoy near a Palestinian refugee camp in southern Lebanon, Lebanese army and Palestinian sources said.

Kamal Medhat, assistant to PLO representative in Lebanon Abbas Zaki, was killed in the blast near the Miyeh Miyeh camp on the outskirts of the port city of Sidon.

Beirut  - Lebanese farmers on Tuesday accused Israel of deliberately flooding their land with excess rainwater from an Israeli orchard across the border, according to media reports.

Voice of Lebanon radio reported that the water flooded fields near the southern town of Mais al-Jabal on Tuesday, ruining crops and properties.

Lebanese farmers who called on the Lebanese army and United Nations peacekeeping forces in southern Lebanon (UNIFIL) to launch an investigation, according to the report.