Lebanon's Aoun Returns.

Retired General Michel Aoun, Lebanon's most prominent anti-Syria politician, returned to his country as a liberator on May 7 after 14 years of exile in France. He was welcomed at Beirut airport by huge crowds, with other huge crowds greeting him at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier and in Martyrs Square. At the square he prayed at the tomb of slain former PM Hariri.

Opposition demonstrators on May 4 demanded freedom for another opposition figure, the jailed former Christian warlord Dr. Samir Geagea. Geagea's imprisonment and the exile of Aoun have been open wounds for Lebanon's Christians since the end of the 1975-90 civil war.

Gathering at Riad Al-Solh Square, near parliament in Beirut, tens of thousands of flag-waving protesters urged the legislature to act on an amnesty bill to end Geagea's life term in prison. Geagea has been in solitary confinement, spending most of the past 11 years in an underground cell at the Defence Ministry.

Fayez Karam, an aide of Aoun, was on May 3 detained at the Beirut airport on returning from Paris. Karam, a former army lieutenant colonel, appeared before a military court, which had sentenced him in absentia in 1992 to 10 years in prison for forming a "group to overthrow the government". He was retried and acquitted within hours.

Later, Karam told reporters the charges were politically motivated and that he had come to show he was not above the law.

An investigating judge on May 4 found Aoun was covered by an amnesty and cleared him of charges prior to 1991 when he was sent into exile. The charges largely include alleged embezzlement of government funds. Aoun has rejected the charges and has challenged authorities to pay him back his dues as a member of the military.

Prince Alwaleed In Damascus: President Assad on April 30 held a meeting in Damascus with Saudi Prince Alwaleed Ibn Talal Ibn Abdel Aziz, the billionaire chairman of Kingdom Holding Co. The Prince is a grandson of Lebanon's independence Prime Minister, the late Riad Al-Solh, from his mother's side.

There have been speculations since the late 1990s that Prince Alwaleed may have obtained Lebanese nationality more than ten years earlier and may want to become a prime minister of Lebanon.

Lebanese observers of Syria's influences in Lebanon have speculated since April 30 that Prince Alwaleed's visit to Damascus may have been partly motivated by a wish for him to obtain Assad's support for his candidacy to premiership in Lebanon. But Prince Alwaleed has not declared such a candidacy, although he has frequently made indirect hints to that effect.

However, Prince Alwaleed was on a short visit to Syria pursuant to an official invitation by the Syrian president. He was received at Damascus International Airport by Syrian officials. President Assad held a private luncheon for Prince Alwaleed.

During the meeting, the Syrian president thanked Prince Alwaleed for his generous contribution to the reconstruction of Zayzoun village. During his visit, Prince Alwaleed inaugurated Zayzoun village in Hama which he had pledged to reconstruct in 2002.

The reconstruction was to house 504 families and rebuild all damaged utility services such as electricity, telephone, and water.

Prince Alwaleed donated $7m to rebuild the village. The project included the building of streets; an elementary, intermediate, and secondary schools in addition to a polyclinic, a hospital and a number of mosques.

The two also discussed Prince Alwaleed's investment in the Four Seasons Damascus Hotel. Prince Alwaleed had, in 1998, signed a contract in Damascus for the development and construction of the hotel.

Prince Alwaleed and the Syrian president acknowledged the warm friendship between their respective countries. Also on the agenda of discussions were social and economic bilateral relations and tourism in the region.