An anti-Syrian politician was killed in Lebanon on Tuesday when a bomb ripped through his car, two days after Parliamentary elections brought victory for an alliance opposed to Damascus’ role in the country.George Hawi, a former leader of the Lebanese Communist Party, died instantly in the blast in the Wata Musaitbi neighbourhood of Beirut, witnesses and security sources said. The 400-gram charge was under the passenger seat of Hawi’s Mercedes and was detonated by remote control, judicial sources said. His driver apparently escaped serious injury.US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice accused Syria of fomenting instability in Lebanon, saying she did not know who detonated the bomb, but, ‘‘There is a context and an atmosphere of instability. Syria’s activities are part of that context and a part of that atmosphere and they need to knock it off.. They have got to stop whatever they are doing there that is causing destabilisation of the environment.’’Meanwhile, UN investigator Detlev Mehlis questioned the head of Lebanon’s Presidential Guard as part of an international probe into Hariri’s killing. Spokeswoman Marie Okabe said UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan urged authorities ‘‘to bring promptly to justice the perpetrators and instigators of today’s callous crime and to put an end to impunity and acts of intimidation,’’ she said.Syrian-backed President Emile Lahoud, under pressure to resign, denounced the murder and promised to investigate, asking the US for help from the FBI. —Reuters
