Polls open in Lebanon for general elections

Lebanese people will go to the polls to vote in an election which will pit Hezbollah against the current US-backed majority in Lebanon's parliament.

Tight security precautions have been taken to prevent tensions in the small Mediterranean country, as polls will be open from 7:00 am to 7:00 pm (0400 GMT to 1600 GMT).

50,000 soldiers and police have been deployed across the country to secure the environment for 3.2 million people eligible to vote in the country.

daily news More than 200 international observers from the EU and other institutions and countries will observe the election.

A tight race is predicted between the US-backed 14 March alliance, which has a small majority in parliament, and its main rival, Hezbollah-led bloc.

According to Lebanon's complex power-sharing system, the 128 seats in the parliament should be equally divided between Christians and Muslims.

The country's parliament speaker should also be a Shia Muslim, as the president must be a Maronite Christian and the prime minister a Sunni Muslim

Lebanon dismantles 25 Israeli spy cells

Amid an ongoing crackdown on active espionage networks in Lebanon, Israeli cells are being dismantled one after the other throughout the country.

Citing senior army sources, Lebanese daily An-Nahar reported Friday that 25 Israeli spy cells have been uncovered this year.

Ten more people were charged with espionage activities on Friday, four of which are already in custody while the other six remain at large.

The sources said the army also arrested a three-member spy network last week in the country. According to the sources the network might have been "the most dangerous" spy cell with "highly developed techniques techniques".

Two others were also arrested on suspicion of spying in the southern town of Ain Qana earlier this week.

So far, Lebanon has charged at least 55 people for spying and has arrested almost 100 others on suspicion of espionage since it launched a major crackdown on spy networks almost two months ago.

Sadr: Obama has subtle plans to control world

Iraq's senior cleric Moqtada al-Sadr says Barack Obama's speech indicates that the US wants to take a different avenue to bring the world under its control.

"The honeyed political speech expressed only one aim -- America wants to take a different avenue to bring the world under its control" compared to the former US president George W. Bush's strategies, Sadr said in a statement released to journalists in the holy city of Najaf on Thursday.

"Obama cannot change the American policies... which were and are still hostile to Islam, and that will continue," he added.

The Iraqi cleric further pointed out that he would trust the US president "only after their (the US) withdrawal from our beloved Iraq and Muslim Afghanistan and their withdrawal of support for the Israeli enemy, and I hope for this from him."

"Let him know that the resistance and the opposition will continue. We don't believe his words," he noted.

The US president pledged to forge a "new beginning" for Islam and America in his speech in Cairo, vowing to purge years of "suspicion and discord."

The American leader vowed to end mistrust, forge a state for Palestinians and defuse a nuclear showdown with the Islamic Republic.

Meanwhile, Lebanon's Hezbollah said on Thursday that US President Barack Obama's Cairo speech had signaled no real shift in US policy in the Arab world.