Anti-Syria Demonstrations in Lebanon

From the AP and Las Vegas Sun, the Lebanese are ticked at Syria.

Tens of thousands of Lebanese - men and women, Christians and Muslims - shouted insults at Syria on Wednesday in an outpouring of anger as yet another assassinated anti-Syrian campaigner was buried.

Lebanon was brought to a halt by a general strike called in mourning for editor and lawmaker Gibran Tueni, but neighboring Syria largely ignored the events. Syrian officials have denied involvement in the slaying.

Doctors, nurses, bankers and businessmen joined political activists and students to bid farewell to Tueni, the outspoken 48-year-old general manager of the country's leading An-Nahar newspaper, who was killed Monday in a car bombing along with two bodyguards.

"We want to say the truth; Syria killed him!" shouted many among the flag-waving crowd outside An-Nahar's building in Beirut. "Gibran lives on!" shouted others.

"Enough blood and killings. They (Syrians) are taking away our best men in Lebanon," said an enraged Mazen Abdel-Samad, a 25-year-old university student wearing the red and white scarf that came to symbolize Lebanon's uprising against Syrian control.

When you are used to ruling through intimidation and killing, habits die hard. In this one small corner of the world, however, people are beginning to fight back.