WASHINGTON, Dec 23 (IPS) - Lebanese President Michel Sleiman visited Washington last week, for his first visit with President Barack Obama. The meeting was a quick one, tucked in amongst the myriad of domestic issues that are demanding Obama's attention.

Yet despite its brevity, the meeting touched upon issues that strike at the heart of the U.S.-Lebanon relationship - U.S. military aid to Lebanon, the implementation of U.N. Security Council resolutions, Palestinian refugees, and Hezbollah's arms.

In a press conference following the closed-door meeting, Pres. Obama emphasised the historical relationship between the two countries, but also told the gathered reporters, "President Sleiman and I aren't going to agree on every issue with respect to how Israel, Lebanon, the Palestinians, Syria, are interacting."

He went on to say, "What we do share is a commitment to resolve these issues through dialogue and negotiations, as opposed to through violence."

The U.S. president's comments reflect both the contentiousness of the issues on the table as well as the many factors that tug at the threads of this bilateral relationship.

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Obama reportedly pressed Sleiman about the enforcement of U.N. Security Council Resolution 1701, which ended the 2006 war between Israel and calls for the disarmament of Hezbollah.

Hezbollah's arms also impact another issue that topped the agenda of the meeting: Sleiman's request for additional military aid. While Lebanon has been a top recipient of aid from the United States, falling just behind Israel on a per capita basis, the U.S. has been reluctant to supply the Mediterranean country with more sophisticated weapons given its proximity to Israel and the fear that such equipment could fall into the hands of Hezbollah's militia.

Media reports following the meeting indicated that Pres. Obama supported strengthening the Lebanese Army but also tied any additional military aid to compliance with U.N. Security Council Resolution 1701. He also pressed Sleiman about stopping the flow of smuggled arms that supplies Hezbollah with their increasing arsenal of weapons.

Victims of poisonous gas attacks on the Kurds in northern Iraq have demanded compensation from a Dutch businessman.

A Dutch court began hearing a suit Wednesday filed by 16 Iraqi Kurds seeking compensation from Frans van Anraat. The Dutchman sold chemicals for making poison gas to Saddam Hussein's regime. This gas was unleashed on Iranians and Kurds, including relatives of the plaintiffs, according to the claim.

Frans van Anraat was convicted of war crimes in the Netherlands and sentenced to 16.5 years in prison. The victims' lawyer, Liesbeth Zegveld, said the suit is strong, given that Van Anraat's 2005 conviction has been upheld by the Dutch high court.

The United States-led counternarcotics effort in Afghanistan, which is critical to hopes of cutting off the flow of money to the Taliban and curtailing rampant corruption in the central government, lacks a long-term strategy, clear objectives and a plan for handing over responsibility to Afghans, the State Department inspector general said in a report issued Wednesday.

"The department has not clarified an end state for counternarcotics efforts, engaged in long-term planning, or established performance measures," said the 63-page report, an audit of work done by the State Department's Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs.

Among other things, the report found that the military and civilian lacked clear delineation of roles; that civilian contracts for counternarcotics work were poorly written and supervised from thousands of miles and many time zones away; and that the United States embassies in Afghanistan and Pakistan did not coordinate well on the problem.

The effectiveness of drug-control efforts is critical to President Obama plan for the Afghanistan war, which entails sending additional troops to Afghanistan.

Poverty trumps smoking, obesity and education as a health burden, potentially causing a loss of 8.2 years of perfect health, according to a new study.

Researchers looked at health and life expectancy data from the National Health Interview Surveys and the Medical Expenditure Panel Surveys and came up with various behavioral and social risk factors that affect quality of life, then used a formula to estimate the quality-adjusted years of life that would be lost.

Five people have been taken hostage in a post office in the US by a man in a wheelchair claiming to be carrying explosives, say reports.

Local media reports say grenades have been found in the man's vehicle parked outside the post office in Wytheville.

The town mayor of Wytheville, Trent Crewe, told the Associated Press news agency the man had fired shots from the building but no injuries were reported.

Police are at the scene and people have been told to evacuate the area.

Reporting from Tehran and Beirut - Large-scale protests spread across central Iranian cities Wednesday, offering the starkest evidence yet that the opposition movement that emerged from the disputed June presidential election has expanded beyond its base of mostly young, educated Tehran residents to at least some segments of the country's pious heartland.

Demonstrations took place in cities including provincial capital Esfahan, Iran's cultural center, and nearby Najafabad, the birthplace and hometown of Ayatollah Hossein Ali Montazeri, whose death Saturday triggered the latest round of confrontations between the opposition movement and the government. The central region is considered by some as the conservative power base of the hard-liners long in power. Iranian authorities are clearly alarmed by the spread of the protests. Mojtaba Zolnour, a mid-ranking cleric serving as supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei's representative to the elite and powerful Revolutionary Guard, acknowledged widespread unrest around the country.

"There were many [acts of] sedition after the Islamic Revolution," he said, according to the website of the right-wing newspaper Resala on Wednesday. "But none of them spread the seeds of doubt and hesitation among various social layers as much as the recent one."

A reformist website, Rahesabz, or Green Path, reported that Iran's Ministry of Intelligence and Security issued a statement banning governors from issuing permits for further memorial services for Montezari across the country.

There were also reports Wednesday of protests breaking out on university campuses in Tehran and the eastern city of Mashhad, Iran's second largest, and a violent clash broke out in the southern city of Sirjan over the execution of two men accused of criminal activity. Tehran's postelection mass protests, which were crushed by authorities, drew Iranians from all walks of life.

This morning, after a year-long fight with Republicans, and a weeks-long debate, which ultimately pitted Democrat against Democrat, and liberal against liberal, the Senate passed a historic bill calling for major reforms of the U.S. health care system by a vote of 60-39.