(14 Dec 2007) SHOTLIST
1. Exterior of the military hospital in Beirut
2. Wide of Lebanese army troops
3. Mid of Lebanese army troops
4. Bodyguard Khairallah Hidwan's family carrying his poster
5. Arrival of Francois Hajj's family to the hospital
6. Lebanese military police troops carrying wreaths
7. Various of coffins being carried on shoulders
8. Lebanese troops saluting the coffins
9. Coffin being carried to ambulance
Baabda neighbourhood
10. Wide of Lebanese army troops
11. Mid of coffin being carried on shoulders
12. Wide of funeral
13. Man holding Francois Hajj's poster
14. Women throwing rice on the coffin
15. Coffin on shoulder
16. Women crying
17. Coffin on shoulder
18. Women crying
19. Convoy of ambulances
20. Helicopters in the sky
STORYLINE
Schools and businesses closed on Friday in Lebanon as people and the military prepared for a momentous farewell to Major General Francois Hajj who was killed in a car bombing two days ago.
Under heavy rain, Hajj's body was taken from the military hospital to his house in suburban Baabda, a few minutes away from where a car bomb blew up his vehicle on Thursday.
There a military honour guard played sombre music before the casket was driven to a Maronite Catholic basilica in the mountains of the Christian heartland north of Beirut for an official funeral.
The body will be driven later halfway across the country for burial in his southern hometown of Rmeish, near the border with Israel.
Thousands attended the funeral and line the roads, some routes were closed and decorated with the Lebanese flag.
The government has ordered all schools and universities closed.
Business associations called for closures during the day, or at least while the funeral was under way.
An investigation into the bombing continued.
On Thursday, army investigators looked into the possible involvement of al-Qaida-inspired extremists in the slaying of the general who had led a major offensive against Islamic militants.
Hajj, held the rank of brigadier general as head of military operations but he was promoted to a major general rank after his death.
Hajj led a three-month military campaign that crushed an al-Qaida-inspired militant group known as Fatah Islam in
Nahr el-Bared, a Palestinian refugee camp in northern Lebanon.
That raised suspicion the assassination may have been an act of revenge.
His slaying came as Lebanon is embroiled in the latest chapter of its yearlong crisis - a dispute over electing a
new president.
The post has been left empty since Emil Lahoud's term ended Nov. 23, with supporters of the Western-backed government and the opposition, led by pro-Syrian Hezbollah, unable to agree on a successor.

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