State of emergency declared in Lebanon

Lebanon is bracing itself for violence after the pro-Syrian president declared a state of emergency to stop power passing to rivals loyal to the prime minister.

Just hours before his presidential term expired at midnight, President Emile Lahoud said he was handing power to the army to "preserve security all over the Lebanese territory".

Politicians in Beirut had earlier failed to elect a new president, leaving the small but volatile Middle Eastern nation without a head of state for the first time in more than a decade.

The anti-Syrian prime minister, Fouad Siniora, immediately rejected the move, raising the prospect of a power struggle similar to that which plunged Lebanon into 15 brutal years of civil war in 1975. London Telegraph