  We describe a new relation between the topology of hyperplane arrangements,
Milnor fibers and global polar curves, via the affine Lefschetz theory
developped by A. N\'emethi. In particular, we improve some results due to Orlik
and Terao (see Math. Ann. 301(1995)) and complete/clarify a proof by Randell
concerning the minimality of hyperplane arrangements (see math.AT/0011101).
