Beirut - Lebanon's Internal Security Forces (ISF) Director General Ashraf Rifi said Saturday all active units were on highest alert as the Special Tribunal for Lebanon was scheduled to open Sunday The Hague.

Rifi said it was necessary to "tighten the grip on security measures and to set up checkpoints to preserve law and order." The ISF and the armed forces would coordinate efforts countrywide.

Soldiers were seen taking up positions at strategic points in Beirut.

The special tribunal will try suspects in the 2005 assassination of former Lebanese premier Rafik Hariri.

Beirut  - A Lebanese investigating judge rejected Friday a release request by the defence of four high-ranking Lebanese generals, detained since 2005 for suspected involvement in the murder that year of ex-premier Rafik Hariri, a judicial source said Friday.

"Judge Sakr Sakr has denied all requests for the release of the four detained Lebanese generals," a Ministry of Justice source told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa on condition of anonymity.

The judge took his decision following deliberations with the public prosecution, the source said.

Beirut - The Head of the UN International Independent Investigation Commission and the Prosecutor Designate of the Special Tribunal for Lebanon, Danielle Bellemare, vowed Friday to see justice is done in the case of murdered former Lebanese premier Rafik Hariri, as the UN's investigative work in Lebanon comes to an end.

"I want to reassure everybody that my team and I will do everything that is humanly and legally possible to ensure that the truth emerges and that those responsible for the crimes that fall within our jurisdiction are eventually brought to justice," Bellemare said in an open letter distributed in Beirut.

Beirut - Four high-ranking Lebanese generals who have been detained since 2005 for suspected involvement in the murder that year of ex-Premier Rafik Hariri submitted a request to the Lebanese investigating judge for their immediate release, a judicial source said Friday.

The source said Judge Sakr Sakr will be looking at the request Friday following deliberations with the public prosecution.

Beirut  - The UN court trying the suspects in the 2005 assassination of former Lebanese Premier Rafik al-Hariri will be a turning point for Lebanon to end political killings, Lebanese Prime Minister Fouad Seniora told Deutsche Presse-Agentur, dpa.

Speaking in an exclusive interview with dpa, Seniora said the tribunal "will also ensure impunity will cease in Lebanon."

Beirut - More than four years after the February 2005 assassination of former prime minister Rafik Hariri, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon announced that the Special Tribunal for Lebanon would begin functioning on March 1, 2009 in The Hague.

Following is a list of political events in Lebanon shortly before Hariri was assassinated and after.