Beirut - The head of the Lebanese Shiite movement Hezbollah's international relations department Saturday accused Terje Roed- Larsen, UN Special Representative for the implementation of Security Council Resolution 1559, of siding with Israel against Lebanon.

Nawaf Mousawi charged that Roed-Larsen's "background and goals are well known, that he works to please the Israeli side by carrying their demands and presenting them as though they were requests urged by the international community

Beirut - Lebanese Energy and Water Minister Alan Tabourian said natural gas shipments to be used for electricity production, will begin to arrive from Egypt to Lebanon at the beginning of 2009, local Lebanese media reported Saturday.

"Egypt assured us that Lebanon will receive natural gas at the beginning of 2009 and would supply it until 2013," the Voice of Lebanon Radio station quoted the minister as saying.

The Lebanese government hopes to reduce the national energy bill by 30 percent by switching from oil to natural gas.

Riga - The foreign and domestic policies of the Russian government continued to receive a mauling in the Latvian capital, Riga, Saturday with a trio of presidents joining other political figures in criticism of the Kremlin at a NATO-sponsored conference.

President Mikheil Saakashvili of Georgia claimed former Russian President Vladimir Putin had told him "he would make us Northern Cyprus" long before territorial disputes in South Ossetia turned into armed conflict in August.

Beirut - Two people suspected of spying for Israel have been arrested in Lebanon, the Lebanese army said Saturday.

"The (Army) Directorate of Intelligence, after a series of investigations in the Bekaa region (eastern Lebanon) detained two people belonging to a network of espionage and terrorism linked to the Israeli enemy," an army statement said.

"They admitted gathering information on political party offices and monitoring the movements of party figures for this enemy," it added.

Paris - James Blake said that injures which forced Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer to quit the Paris Masters "couldn't be a clearer signal that the year is too long."

The American, who lost 6-4, 6-3 in Saturday's Bercy semi-final against Jo-Wilfriend Tsonga, will miss a trip to the season-ending masters Cup in Shanghai for the second straight year after playing the 2006 final against Federer.

Federer withdrew prior to a Friday quarter-final with back pain while Nadal quit with knee problems after losing the first set against Nikolay Davydenko the same day.

Moscow - The presidents of France and Russia telephoned Saturday in preparation for the resumption of talks about closer ties between Russia and the European Union, the Interfax news agency reported Saturday.

The EU suspended those talks on a Partnership and Cooperation Agreement after Russia's war with Georgia this summer.

But officials from France, which currently holds the rotating EU presidency, have given signs that the talks are set to resume and that a timetable for further talks could be laid out at a November 14 meeting in Nice.