Introduction to the evening news for 07-04-2012

Three days ahead of April 10, when UN-Arab envoy Kofi Annan’s plan is due to go into effect, violence has reached unprecedented levels since the start of the uprising 13 months ago. International news agencies quoted the Syrian observatory for Human Rights as saying that the death toll today exceeded 100 including more than 70 civilians, 17 pro-regime forces and 20 defectors.    

The death toll is not the only increasing number. In fact, the number of Syrian refugees fleeing to Turkey has hit a record given that more than 700 refugees have crossed into Turkey raising the total number to 25,000 refugees.   
On the domestic scene, the country will be on holiday until April 17 when the parliament is expected to kick off legislative sessions. However, the sole activity carried out today was manifested in the judiciary meeting held in the Baabda palace where President Michel Sleiman was briefed by the minister of Justice and Prosecutor General Judge Said Mirza on the course of the investigation into the case of the attempted assassination of Samir Geagea.     
Before going into details, let’s first dwell on an issue that we thought it concerns us only but turned out that it drew the attention of all the Lebanese.   

The name of the PAC Company was repeated dozens of times in the last few weeks : We have read articles and analysis and watched reports and scenarios about the end of partnership between PAC and LBCI. What is the real nature of the relationship between LBCI, owned by Lebanese shareholders topped by Sheikh Pierre Daher, and PAC, owned by Prince Walid Bin Talal?   

Here is the full story