Which way will Lebanon turn as the country heads into critical elections this weekend? Deeply divided along familial and sectarian lines, political allegiances change frequently in Lebanon leaving this election much too close to call. However, many analysts believe that Hezbollah’s opposition March 8 Alliance may be poised to take a slight majority in the parliament – a result that would almost certainly mean an end to U.S. military support and other forms of Western aid to Lebanon. To counter this any sort of international backlash Hezbollah has floated the idea of a unity government – including the leader of the Western leaning March 14 coalition, Saad Hariri, as Prime Minister. But Mr. Hariri flatly rejects the notion of a unity government saying that he won’t be a front for a Hezbollah-led government.


On Tuesday’s “Riz Khan” we speak to Ibrahim Moussawi, Hezbollah’s media relations officer and Richard Koyomjian, spokesperson for the Lebanese Forces electoral campaign – a part of the March 14 alliance and ask, how will Lebanon hold together after the election?

Join the conversation on Livestation/Al Jazeera English at 2030GMT.

I am very pleased to announce that Press TV has joined Livestation as of yesterday 2 June 2009.

Press TV offers a very distinctive view of international news and it broadcasts from Tehran in English 24/7.

Tonight we have the exclusive opportunity to bring you the first ever Iranian presidential debate live between Mahmoud Ahmadinejad (profile here) and his challenger in the forthcoming election Mir-Hossein Mousavi (profile here).

You can read more on the elections on the Press TV site here

The debate will be translated live and the chat room on the Press TV channel on the Livestation player will be available for viewers who want to share their views. We are hoping to have someone from Press TV in the room as well.

Press TV’s producer, Alireza Hajhosseini, will be on location getting firsthand reactions from Iranian Candidates’ advisors and forwarding them to Press TV’s Election Blogger, Farhod Family, during the exclusive live chat at Press TV on Livestation.com.

Join the conversation tonight at 1800GMT (2130 Tehran time) on the Livestation player on Press TV or watch on the website.

Journalists wanting to monitor and cover the three remaining live Iranian presidential debates can now do so from their desktop and watch a global audience chat about what is being said in real time.

You can capture quotes from the candidates, comments from the audience and take screen grabs of the action and of any live, real-time audience polls.

Earlier this week, the latest live Iranian presidential debate broadcast by Press TV from Tehran was streamed live on Livestation.

Hundreds watched the debate live from all corners of the world and chatted in real time with Press TV producers in Tehran exchanging views and expressing their preferences via the live polls Press TV pushed to their desktop.

This enabled Press TV to guage the mood of those watching the debate and to assess how each candidate had performed.

It gave a fascinating insight, not only into the thinking of those standing for the role of president of Iran, but of the global audience.

It might be useful for your news teams covering that area to monitor the next debates from your desktops or laptops. All you need to do is download the Livesation player, which is totally free and safe, install it on your computer and tune in.

You can minimise the screen and keep it running in the corner of your screen as you write your report. You can even take screen grabs to illustrate your report. If you want to use any of the chatroom comments, you can right click in the chat room pane, ‘select all’ and then edit it for your report. If the producers use the Livestation’s Live Panel and you can take a grab of that, too.

All these newsgathering and newsproduction tools are absolutely free. All you need is a fast broadband connection.

If you want to try it out, here is the remaining schedule:

6 June: Ahmadinejad-Karoubi
7 June: Karoubi-Mousavi
8 June: Ahmadinejad-Rezai

You don’t have to mention that you watched it on Livestation, but a mention and link would be nice.

Tonight we have the second of our exclusive online broadcasts of the Iranian presidential debates. This time featuring President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and one of his challengers in the forthcoming election, Mehdi Karroubi.

You can read more on the elections on the Press TV site here

The debate will be translated live and the chat room on the Press TV channel on the Livestation player will be available for viewers who want to share their views. We are hoping to have someone from Press TV in the room as well.

Join the conversation tonight, Saturday 6 June, at 1800GMT (2130 Tehran time) on the Livestation player on Press TV or watch on the website.

On Friday, Iran’s 46 million voters go to the polls to choose their next president. Will the incumbent, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, remain in office or be pushed out by one of three other contenders? Former Prime Minister Mirhossein Mousavi is running a close race and has surged in popularity during the two-week official campaign period – but will it be enough for him to win?

What are the issues facing the country? And what is at stake for the rest of the world?

On Thursday 11 June 2009, Riz discusses the potential scenarios with Hooman Majd, President Ahmadinejad’s former translator and author of the book, “The Ayatollah Begs To Differ.”

You can join the conversation on Livestation. Watch the show live at 2030gmt, with repeats the next day at 0030gmt, 0530gmt and 1130gmt.

Those currently watching the Iranian election through the eyes of Western media now have an alternative perspective that offers a unique insight into the significance of the historic event.

Press TV, broadcast live from Tehran, is now streamed 24 hours a day and seven days a week on Livestation, the destination for live TV over broadband.

With a couple of clicks you can download the Livestation player, absolutely free of charge and totally safe, and be watching the election from an Iranian point of view.

Not only that, but the Livestation player comes packed with a host of interactive features which enables any viewer to engage in real-time live chat about the TV output and take part in instant polls.

Livestation has already streamed the key Iranian presidential debates when hundreds packed the chat room and were polled on who they thought had fared the best.

The Livestation player can be minimised in widget form to sit neatly in the corner of your computer screen set to always on top to enable you to get on with other stuff while you keep an eye on the news.

And you can flick through the current Livestation channel list of official partner channels, such as BBC World, Al Jazeera, Bloomberg, France 24, Russia Today, and of course, Press TV, or one of the hundreds of user-added channels that pop up in the player. And yes, you can add any of your favourite legal web streams for your own personal use.

So download now and watch this internationally-significant election from a wide range of perspectives.

You can put your questions on the Afghanistan election to Al Jazeera’s Hamish Macdonald in Kabul via Livestation.

Just log on at 1500 GMT on Thursday, August 20 and submit your question via the Al Jazeera channel chat function.