World Notes LEBANON

He was an avid collector of rare birds, but he himself was perhaps the rarest bird of all: a seasoned, moderate Lebanese politician of nearly 40 years' experience who was trusted by most of his country's warring factions. By the time he was assassinated last week, in the explosion of a bomb aboard his military helicopter, Rashid Karami, 65, had served ten times as Lebanon's Prime Minister. The country's Maronite Christian President Amin Gemayel -- whose brother Bashir had been killed by a bomb in 1982 -- quickly named another Sunni Muslim, Selim Hoss, as acting Prime Minister. Suspects in the murder ranged from Christian Phalangists to Shi'ite radicals. At week's end Parliament Speaker Hussein Husseini, the government's ranking Shi'ite Muslim, resigned to protest the killing.