Hezbollah protests against govt policies

By SAM F. GHATTAS

Beirut, May 7: Supporters of Lebanon’s Hezbollah-led Opposition blocked roads with burning tyres and paralysed the airport in the capital Beirut on Wednesday to enforce a strike against the Western-backed government.

One flashpoint was a main thoroughfare in the Muslim sector of Beirut where a stun grenade thrown into a crowd lightly injured three protesters and two soldiers, the state-run National News Agency reported. It was not immediately clear who threw the stun grenade.

But the trouble there and elsewhere as well as road closures led labour unions to cancel the main demonstration planned to coincide with the strike to protest government economic policies and demand pay raises.

In the same area, pro, and anti-government supporters exchanged insults but were kept apart after the army intervened, witnesses said. The strike was called by labour unions after they rejected a last-minute pay raise offer by the government as insufficient. But it turned into a showdown between the militant Shia Hezbollah which leads the Opposition. (AP)

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Commons moves court over expenses

By OUR LONDON

CORRESPONDENT

London, May 7: The bid by the House of Commons to stop the disclosure of expenses incurred by members of the Lower House of Parliament was taken up at an one-day hearing at the Royal Courts of Justice on Wednesday.

The House of Commons officials moved the high court in March against demand for release of detailed claims of expenses by MPs, arguing that revealing details like addresses would breach privacy of the MPs and be a security risk. However, no judgement on the case is expected immediately, is expected at a later date.

Last month, in a first for Britain, details of the expenses of 12 senior members of Parliament, including Prime Minister Gordon Brown, Tory leader David Cameron, former Lib Dem leader Sir Menzies Campbell, and former Prime Minister Tony Blair, were released under the Freedom of Information Act. Speaker Michael Martin had released the details after the House decided not to appeal against the information commissioner’s ruling asking the Lower House to provide details under the act.