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.

Beirut  - Four years after the February 2005 assassination of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri rocked Lebanon, a UN tribunal is finally gearing up to start trying suspects - in a case that may prompt division and instability in the country once again.

On March 1st, the UN Special Tribunal for Lebanon - mandated to investigate and prosecute those behind Hariri's murder - will be officially inaugurated in The Hague.

But with Lebanese society still polarized into pro- and anti- Syrian camps, and having just emerged from an 18-month political stalemate, the Hariri tribunal is likely to aggravate wounds that have hardly healed. As a result, political observers fear that the trial will derail upcoming parliamentary elections on June 7.

Damascus  - In its own cautious way, the Syrian government in Damascus has, of late, been coming out of its shell.

The country, once an implacable enemy of Israel, occupier of neighbouring Lebanon for three decades, and international pariah, has been the centre of some diplomatic flurry in recent months.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy has visited. So has a delegation of European Union officials and foreign ministers. Arab League chief Amr Mussa, from Egypt, a country with often fraught relations with Syria, now seeks Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's counsel.

New York  - The UN Security Council decided unanimously on Thursday to keep its peacekeeping mission in East Timor for another 12 months, noting that the political and security situation there remains fragile.

Timorese President Jose Ramos-Horta appeared before the council last week to urge continued UN assistance to the tiny southeast Asian island nation.

New York  - The global fight against malaria was threatened by the emergence of drug-resistant strains on the Thai-Cambodia border, the World Health Organization said Wednesday.

WHO said artemisinin-resistant parasites could infect workers clearing forests along that border and create a form of drug- resistant malaria. Such a development could set back recent successes in controlling the disease.

Artemisinin is an extract of a Chinese herb that is used in the treatment of several diseases, including malaria.