hand in their resignations on wednesday and one of the new race to states he called on prime minister rafik i appear to want to follow suit. it's the first time the premier has faced such a challenge from within his own ruling party. a corruption probe comes ahead of crucial local elections in march and presidential elections in august. here's more. times are tough for prime minister richard tired at one. three of his cabinet ministers resigned on wednesday denied any wrongdoing. interior minister moi mcqueen of the environment and urban planning minister and the one by an economy minister has offered to lie and stepped down after the songs were taken into custody in a sweeping corruption investigation two of them are accused of bribing politicians in order to smuggle cool and make illicit money transfers to iran the scandal has triggered a power struggle between the government the courts and the police and the one described the probe as a conspiracy. the flight and the turkish people in the turkish republican facing an attack. it's being presented as a corruption probe. everybody is aware

the hezbollah group are expected to be named as implicated in the two thousand five assassination of rafik hariri. that is obviously going to be inoffensive tremendous magnitude. however it goes out with eleven on everyone's gonna be watching it and which ever way they come down it's going to set off alarms on one side of the other with the real potential for violence. so this could also be on the excuse that the bad word association shot across the balance and so on today's attack ahead of that tribunal as well. lots of warning signs of people we use to wear for tat all the time of st has allowed one moment the sunnis the next has a lot to me so that we can point blame yet we don't know who's behind this but we do know that it comes amid a very politically charged on and religiously charged back up the sectarian civil war looming ever so large. who hasn't ever known. he tells are still coming and of the thinking very much for that analysis on this ongoing situation now love them on this friday. moving on in efforts to negotiate an end to the violence in south sudan continue to regional le

the alliance meeting was one element, and the upcoming trial in the netherlands about the murder of rafik kariri. there are alignments in lebanon. there is the march for alliance. the march 8th alliance that falls down along the sectarian and regional lines that i mention: there has got to be some way to bridge this gap before lebanon ascend into the sectarian killing that we've seen in iraq. >> there has been finger pointing where al hariri has been mentioned. saudi arabia has been mentioned. what are your thoughts? >> in things like this you never know whether the perpetrator is the obvious one. in this case the obvious one is hezbollah, or whether these things are done i in a provocatn by the side who was a victim of it to provoke outrage. there was bombing outside of the iranian embays is which would clearly point to sunni groups, but accusations was that the iranians and hezbollah staged this themselves to blame the opponents. one never knows understoo undere circumstances. >> what does this say about the security situation in lebanon and the power of beirut and whether it's politica

elves a high profile figure in the future movement party and a close ally of former prime ministers rafik. he was an outspokenen critic of hezbollah. he was hardly the most partisan orbiter member of that party. there's been speculation that perhaps he was chosen as a widely popular person to target in order to send a message that maybe no politician in lebanon is saying. as for who did it, at this stage, it's purely speculation but people do think that it's obviously tied to the ongoing civil war in syria which we've seen spilling over here, fredricka. >> what's your understanding how this blast was carried out? >> well, it's clearly set up as an ambush. there was a meeting of the future movement party in a nearby home owned actually by the hariri family, and there's a number of check -- sort of choke points where if you were to leave that house, you'd have to pass through some of these areas. this was one of those choke points. if they weren't absolutely targeting mohammed shata himself, they were targeting somebody from that meeting and they would have i don't know had a handful of way

on the trial of some hezbollah militants that are accused of being in the hague, accused of killing rafikiriri. this fuels this speculation. >> what kind of impact will this murder have? >> well, the lebanese are really polarized. you have shiite forces fighting on behalf of assad, then you have a lot of sunnis that are supporting the protesters on the street. there has always been this concern that lebanon was really going to pay a major price for the conflict in syria. now you see some of that spill over. this kind of thing is likely to continue and it's really a sad situation. it's only likely to get worse. there's a big fear that lebanon will be plunged back into civil war along with the syrian people. >> thanks so much for that. >>> coming up next, over a million americans will stop getting a paycheck tomorrow. why some lawmakers are saying that could be a good thing. >>> plus our panel's picks for political winners and losers this year. they're watching 2014. stay with us. ♪ [ male announcer ] what kind of energy is so abundant, it can help provide the power for all this? natural ga

the former prime minister, rafik hariri was assassinated in 2005. so of course hezbollah has -- they are the leading to believe, to behind this attack, gregg. gregg: well, conor, we know the ambassador was a very outspoken critic of hezbollah of the that is a pretty dangerous thing to be doing when you're in lebanon. is that likely what cost him his life? >> reporter: so this is pleased to be a very professional attack. the type that has hezbollah carried out in the past and has the ability to carry out but beirut's been rocked by a lot of violence in recent weeks and month, particularly an attack on the iranian embassy in beirut. there are plenty of groups in lebanon that can carry out these types of attacks. shatah has been outspoken critic of hezbollah, al qaeda and syria's assad. he was on his way to an anti-syrian meeting. he has made a lot of enemies in lebanon and across the wider middle east. hezbollah may be the easiest group, gregg, to point the finger at but there are a lot of people hot could have carried this out. its still too early to

>>> this is not the only official opposed to bashar al assad who's been killed -- just a year ago, rafiklled in a targeted assassination. many people are worried these types of killings will only continue. the residents i'm talking to very concerned this will continue, and many of the residents i spoke with earlier today in beirut said they could feel that blast from miles away in different parts of the city. >> catch up us on what's going on in turkey right now. >> brianna, this was another day the fierce clashes and lots of protexts in several cities. that was the epicenter of the huge antigovernment demonstrations that happened this pass summer, but today ed more protesters appears in and around this area protesting the government, calling on the prime minister to resign because of the this corruption scandal, and the prime ministerered owand here in turkey now. we were out in the crowd. in fact me and our cameraman, we got hit by rubber pellets containing this powder that made us cough. a lot of tear gas was deployed. water cannon trucks were all over the place, but as a backdrop, yo

the former prime minister, rafik hariri was assassinated in 2005.mes as week before trial of five hezbollah fighters accused of killing hariri in 2005. he told fox news investigative tribunal was needed to rein in militant groups in lebanon. >> we believe the tribunal is necessary to put an end to the series of political assassinations which have not only killed leaders of this country but basically sent a bad message to the lebanese that you better shut up and not exercise your democracy. >> reporter: now as you can see political assassinations continue in lebanon. today's attack appears to have been a very professional attack the type of hezbollah is accused of carrying out in the past. chatah has been outspoken critic of hezbollah and also syria's bashir assad and al qaeda. in fact he was on his way to an anti-syria meeting when he was assassinated today. and it is easy, harris, to point the finger at hezbollah but given all the recent violence in lebanon in recent weeks and months it is difficult to say for certain they were behind this attack b