7:00pm A car accident in Maqni village on the international highway between Baalbeck and Hermel led to the wounding of 7 people, among them Higher Islamic Shiite Council secretary Abdullah Moussa and his wife who were taken to Dar al-Amal Hospital.
6:28pm US: Turkish-Armenian signing to normalize ties delayed after “last minute hitch”
5:40pm Armenians of Lebanon are holding a protest rally against the Armenian-Turkish protocol signing at the Orthodox Armenian Patriarchy in Antelias.
4:50pm Iran will enrich uranium if third-party deal fails. Iranian ISNA news agency quoted Spokesman of Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI) Ali Shirzadian as saying on Saturday that his country will enrich uranium to the 20 % purity required for its research reactor in Tehran if third-party deals fail. "We will write a letter and announce to the [International Atomic Energy] agency that Iran will act directly to supply the fuel for the Tehran reactor,” he said. Officials from Iran, the United States, Russia, France and the IAEA are to meet in Vienna on October 19 to work out the modalities for deals under which Tehran has said it is ready to buy 20 percent pure uranium from abroad.
"Iran fully owns the enrichment technology, and therefore it will sit at the negotiating table with leverage," Shirzadian said, adding that Tehran prefers to "buy the fuel for the Tehran reactor in bulk as it is more economical." He said the reactor needs around 200 kilograms of the 20 % pure uranium to operate, but he did not say how long that would last.
4:47pm Turkey and Armenia are set to take a historic step towards reconciliation on Saturday with the backing of major powers, by signing pacts to normalize ties after nearly a century of bitterness over their blood-soaked past. Armenian Foreign Minister Edouard Nalbandian and Turkish counterpart Ahmet Davutoglu will sign the two protocols in a ceremony at the University of Zurich at 5 p.m. (1500 GMT), the Swiss Foreign Ministry confirmed. The bridge-building by the two governments after more than a year of discrete Swiss-mediated talks is still hampered by fierce opposition at home, as well as within the influential Armenian community abroad. But the countries' powerful allies, the United States, France and Russia, as well as the European Union, put on a public display of support by deciding to attend the ceremony.
3:41pm Three people sentenced to death for role in post-election incidents in Iran. Iranian ISNA news agency quoted Media Officer at the Justice Ministry Zahed Bashiri Rad on Saturday as saying that three people arrested after Iran's disputed presidential election have been condemned to death for their role in the post-election incidents. Bashiri Rad, giving only the initials of the convicts said that "MZ and AP were convicted for ties with the Kingdom Assembly of Iran and NA for ties with the Monafeghin [exiled opposition group commonly known as the People's Mujahedeen],” adding that the death sentences were "not final, and they can still be appealed to the Supreme Court." Bashiri Rad also said other defendants received their sentences and have appealed, but did not give the details of the verdicts. Tehran prosecutors denied a report that 20 people, among them prominent reformists, including Iranian-American scholar Kian Tajbakhsh and reformist politicians Mohammed Ali Abtahi, Mohammad Atrianfar, Shahab Tabatabaei, Saeed Shariati and Abdollah Momeni will soon be freed on bail.
2:09pm Speaker Nabih Berri traveled to Qatar aboard a private jet.
1:15pm Security source to Free Lebanon radio: Army intelligence arrested two more suspects after Ain al-Remmaneh incident, now ten people detained
12:33pm President Michel Suleiman stressed the importance of the culture of dialogue to face waves of extremism.
11:56am Hizbullah welcomed the Saudi-Syrian summit and its results in terms of pushing for Arab rapprochement and its positive effects on Lebanon.
11:15am The Hezbollah media relations department issued a statement on Saturday in which it announced that Hezbollah Secretary General Hassan Nasrallah met with Progressive Socialist Party leader MP Walid Jumblatt, his son, Taymur, and MP Akram Chehayeb on Friday. The statement said that they discussed regional and local developments, in particular “the Israeli threats against Lebanon and the region, and joint US-Israeli exercises.” It also stressed the danger of Israeli actions related to Jerusalem’s sacred al-Aqsa mosque in light of “international nonchalance.”
The statement added that the parties agreed on the “positive” nature of the Saudi-Syrian summit and on the importance of Arab “openness.”
“Any initiative to form a new cabinet is welcome,” added the statement, while highlighting the Syrian-Saudi call to resolve the impasse by forming national-unity cabinet. They agreed to overcome the obstacles impeding the cabinet formation as soon as possible. The statement added that the parties followed up on the work of the progress of their joint committee, stressing the need to continue the reconciliation between Hezbollah and the PSP.
10:20pm MP Anwar al-Khalil: Until when Lebanon will stay without a government and is it capable of remaining without a cabinet?
9:30am Ambassador Johnny Abdo: Hizbullah is the only side thwarting cabinet formation.
Tags: Breaking News, Lebanon
