Gunmen shot dead Pakistan's minority affairs minister in Islamabad Wednesday, police and a hospital doctor said, after the Christian politician had complained of death threats.

Shahbaz Bhatti, a Catholic, had been a vocal opponent of Pakistan's controversial blasphemy law. His death comes two months after the governor of Punjab province, who also campaigned against the law, was assassinated.

The crumbling of Moammar Gadhafi's regime could shed light on one of the most enduring mysteries in Lebanon: the fate of Moussa al-Sadr, a popular Shiite cleric who vanished 33 years ago during a trip to Libya.

Since the uprising began, members of Libya's opposition have broken a three-decade silence on the issue, with some saying the 82-year-old cleric is languishing in a Libyan prison.

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said Tuesday that Syria’s relations with Iran and Hizbullah are not in the interest of Damascus in the long-run.

That’s why Washington sent a new ambassador to Damascus, Clinton said during a testimony before the House Committee on Foreign Affairs.

A cabinet formula was proposed by Premier-designate Najib Miqati during a meeting between Caretaker Energy Minister Jebran Bassil and the advisors of Speaker Nabih Berri and Hizbullah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, An Nahar daily said Wednesday.

The newspaper said the proposed 30 seats in the new cabinet are divided as follows:

Frederick Hof, the assistant of U.S. Special Envoy for the Middle East George Mitchell, visited Damascus lately and discussed with Syrian officials the Syrian-Israeli peace track, An-Nahar reported Wednesday.

Israel's defense minister said Monday that his country would be ready to talk peace with Syria if Damascus was serious about doing so — a sharp departure from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's go-slow approach to peacemaking while the Middle East is in turmoil.

The Lebanese-Canadian Bank will be sold soon following U.S. accusations that LCB was laundering hundreds of millions of dollars in drug profits for a cocaine smuggling organization with ties to Hizbullah, An Nahar daily reported Wednesday.

The newspaper said that the Central Bank’s assurance of finding a solution to the crisis will be interpreted in the sale of the bank for 500-600 million dollars.

U.S. defense leaders played down the likelihood of imposing a no-fly zone on Libya, urging a cautious approach to any military action against Moammer Gadhafi's forces.

The U.S. military's top officer, Admiral Mike Mullen, said on Tuesday a no-fly zone would be "extraordinarily complex" to carry out while a top general warned there should be "no illusions" about what it would take to shut down the Libyan leader's air force.

House Speaker Nabih Berri stated on Wednesday that there are no problems in the government formation process.

He said after his weekly meeting with President Michel Suleiman: “The problem lies in the media, but this does not mean that there are no obstacles and I believe that Prime Minister-designate still has time to tackle these hardships.”

Tanks dispersed demonstrators blocking the port in the industrial city of Sohar and the coast road to Muscat on Tuesday as protests were also reported elsewhere in Oman, Agence France Presse journalists and witnesses said.

The operation went peacefully and Omani forces drove away protesters who had been keeping vigil at the Earth Roundabout, a landmark intersection where at least one protester was killed in clashes on Sunday.

The Mustaqbal parliamentary bloc on Tuesday stressed that Hizbullah’s arsenal of weapons “has proved, on more than one occasion, to be illegitimate and pointed at the chests of the Lebanese.”

In a statement issued after its weekly meeting in Qureitem under ex-PM Fouad Saniora, the bloc added that the Shiite party’s arms have become a means to “influence citizens’ political opinions.”