UNITED NATIONS (AP) -– The UN Security Council voted unanimously Wednesday to extend the investigation into the 2005 assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri.

The vote came after the chief investigator, Daniel Bellemare of Canada, asked that his commission's mandate be pushed ahead to Feb. 28, from year's end.
Discussing a report released early this month on the status of the investigation, Bellemare told the Security Council that his team has uncovered fresh information that may link additional individuals to the network responsible for the February 2005 truck bombing that killed Hariri.
He also said additional links have been found between the assassination and some of the 20 other attacks in which his investigators are providing technical assistance to Lebanon's government.
Nobody has been charged in the suicide bombing that killed Hariri and 22 others, although four pro-Syria Lebanese generals have been under arrest for more than three years for alleged involvement.
Bellemare, whose latest report said Syria ""has provided generally satisfactory cooperation,"" said he would not provide any details from the investigation because ""lives are at risk.""
Bellemare said he could not predict when the investigation will be completed, but said it will continue once he becomes prosecutor of the international tribunal set up to try suspects in Hariri's assassination.
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said he expects the tribunal to begin operating March 1 in The Hague, Netherlands.