Rafik Hariri

      UN Security Council reiterated its strong support for Lebanon's democratically elected government and condemned any attempts to destabilize the country. Belgian prosecutor Serge Brammertz said his investigation has reached "a critical stage." Investigators are looking at numerous motives including assassination by an extremist group because of Hariri's links to other states in the region and in the West, before his possible success in May 2005 elections, because of his likely expose of a bank fraud, and as "a convenient cover" to cast suspicion on others. He also revealed that the commission's work on 14 other cases of murder and attempted murder since October 2004 "continues to elicit significant links between each case, and to indicate links to the Rafik Hariri case."(10,13)