Yemeni soldiers killed four protesters and wounded seven others on Friday when they opened fire on an anti-regime rally in the northern province of Amman, officials and Shiite rebels said.

The shooting, which came a day after the opposition and clerics offered embattled President Ali Abdullah Saleh a smooth exit from power, took place in the village of Semla, 170 kilometers from the capital Sanaa.

Loyalty to the Resistance bloc leader MP Mohammed Raad urged Lebanese leaders on Friday not to cooperate with the Special Tribunal for Lebanon, saying Prosecutor Daniel Bellemare’s requests contradict with the cooperation protocol signed between Lebanon and the tribunal.

During a press conference he held at the parliament building, the Hizbullah lawmaker said Bellemare’s requests from four caretaker ministers for information and documents came seven years after ex-Premier Rafik Hariri’s assassination and amid turmoil in the Arab world.

Libyan forces carried out an air strike on the edge of the rebel-held town of Ajdabiya Friday, as opponents of veteran leader Moammar Gadhafi called for fresh protests in the capital Tripoli.

U.S. President Barack Obama said all options were on the table for driving Gadhafi out of power as the strongman's son said air strikes on rebel-held positions were scare tactics rather than to inflict serious damage.

British Ambassador Frances Guy has said that although the government change was constitutional, it partly came out of fear from the use of Hizbullah’s weapons against its foes.

In an interview with As Safir daily published Friday, Guy confirmed that Britain would deal with the new government and expects it to respect Security Council resolutions on Lebanon mainly 1701 and 1757.

Special Tribunal for Lebanon Prosecutor Daniel Bellemare’s requests from the ministries of interior, public works, telecommunications, and energy have become the center of attention of the concerned sides, as it was revealed that he had also requested official copies of telecommunications data from the Alfa and MTC mobile phone providers, as well as the fingerprints of Lebanese individuals and information on electric meter owners.

Ministerial sources in the caretaker government told the daily An Nahar in remarks published on Friday that these requests are being studied under legal experts, adding that the Ministry of Justice contacted the prosecutor to determine the consequences of the ministries’ refusal to cooperate with him.

The U.N. chief’s spokesman and other diplomats denied that Lebanese officials had discussed with Ban Ki-moon the issue of the non-cooperation of four caretaker ministers with Daniel Bellemare, the prosecutor of the international tribunal.

“I am not aware of any such contacts between Bellemare and the secretary-general either,” Ban’s spokesman, Martin Nesirky, told As Safir daily in remarks published Friday.

The Lebanese Canadian Bank (LCB) accused by the U.S. of money laundering and links to Hizbullah will be merged with Societe Generale, Central Bank Governor Riad Salameh announced.

Four banks had sought to acquire LCB but Societe General (SGBL) made the best offer, Salameh said late Thursday in an interview with LBCI television network.

Progressive Socialist Party leader Walid Jumblat has warned that efforts by some Lebanese parties to resort to Chapter 7 of the U.N. charter would have dangerous consequences on Lebanon.

“This is a destructive calculation,” he said about Premier-designate Najib Miqati’s allegation that some Lebanese were seeking for a U.N. Security Council resolution on Lebanon under Chapter 7.

Caretaker Premier Saad Hariri reiterated that he rejects to become a partner with Hizbullah’s arms that have allegedly turned against the Lebanese.

“Former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri and I preserved the resistance,” Saad Hariri told An Nahar daily in an interview published Friday but said he would no longer defend it “after it put arms in the face of the Lebanese.”

The French and British foreign ministers have stressed that the Special Tribunal for Lebanon should continue to operate despite rejections by the March 8 forces to cooperate with the court.

"France has clearly stated that the STL should continue its work, and Lebanon should keep on cooperating with investigators” in ex-Premier Rafik Hariri’s assassination case, French Foreign Minister Alain Juppe said during a press conference he held with his British counterpart William Hague in Paris on Thursday.