Officials who have met with U.N. diplomats told An Nahar daily in remarks published Saturday that the Security Council is not mulling any action against Lebanon under Chapter 7 of the U.N. Charter.

Two senior March 14 coalition officials also said there was no need to resort to Chapter 7 because the provisions of the Special Tribunal for Lebanon would eventually be implemented without the use of force.

At least 17 people were killed Friday when a huge explosion ripped through a military weapons depot outside Benghazi, the main city held by Libyan rebels fighting Moammar Gadhafi.

Dr. Habib al-Obeidi in Benghazi's al-Jalaa hospital said the blast also hit a residential area. Witnesses on the scene, about 32 kilometers from downtown, said ambulances were rushing to the area and secondary explosions caused two fire trucks to blow up.

Egypt's new Prime Minister Essam Sharaf vowed on Friday to respond to demands for democratic change as he addressed thousands of protesters in Cairo's Tahrir Square a day after his appointment.

"I am here because I draw my legitimacy from you ... I will exert all my effort to respond to your demands," Sharaf told flag-waving supporters in the square, the center of protests that toppled president Hosni Mubarak last month.

Libyan police fired tear gas at protestors demonstrating against Moammar Gadhafi's regime in Tripoli Friday as rebel fighters in eastern Libya tried to push the front line nearer to the capital.

Some 100 anti-Gadhafi demonstrators clashed with police in the Tajoura neighborhood in eastern Tripoli after Friday prayers, a witness said, while another said opponents and supporters of the regime traded blows near the capital's Green Square.

Forces loyal to Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi were battling rebels on Friday for control of the town of Zawiyah, near Tripoli, in heavy fighting that has left "many dead," witnesses said.

State television said Gadhafi's forces had wrested control from the rebels of the middle-class dormitory town 60 kilometers west of Tripoli but a government official said "pockets of resistance" remained.

The President of the Special Tribunal for Lebanon, Judge Antonio Cassese, has published the second STL Annual Report, "which outlines the successes of the past year as well as the challenges that the Tribunal has faced," STL's press office announced Friday.

"This has been a momentous year for the STL", said Cassese. "The submission of the first indictment by the Prosecutor (Daniel Bellemare) to the Pre-Trial Judge (Daniel Fransen) was highly significant and it marked the start of the judicial phase of the STL's life."

Interpol has issued a global alert against Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi and 15 others, including members of his family and close associates, the global police organization said on Friday.

Interpol said it issued the Orange Notice "in a bid to warn member states of the danger posed by the movement of these individuals and their assets," following a U.N. Security Council travel ban and asset freeze.

Thousands of protesters massed in cities and towns across Iraq after streaming in on foot on Friday in defiance of vehicle bans for rallies over corruption, unemployment and poor public services.

The demonstrations were markedly smaller than similar protests which took place in more than a dozen cities a week ago, spurring Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki to give his cabinet 100 days to shape up or face the sack.

U.N. Special Coordinator for Lebanon Michael Williams expressed hope on Friday that the government formation process “would not overshadow the issues that affect the daily lives of Lebanese people, especially in the field of security.”

“I expressed my belief as the U.N. Special Coordinator that any new government should try to meet the aspirations of all the Lebanese people,” Williams said following talks with caretaker Interior Minister Ziad Baroud.

A bomb attack on a mosque in militant-infested northwest Pakistan killed at least nine people and wounded around 30 more as it ripped through Friday prayers, police and medics said.

Hundreds of people were coming out of the mosque when the blast occurred, police said, adding that the bomb had been planted inside the building near the town of Nowshera.