Nearly 4,000 people, who fled to Lebanon between March and September as Syrian troops crack down on anti-regime demonstrations, have registered with the United Nations, a report said.

The report by the UN Development Program released late on Friday said that more than 3,580 Syrians registered with the U.N. in north Lebanon by September 7, more than 600 of them between September 1 and 7.

Internal Security Forces chief Maj. Gen. Ashraf Rifi confirmed that the armed ambush of two ISF officers in the Bekaa Valley on Friday was made by collaborators of a member of the group that kidnapped the seven Estonian tourists in March.

In remarks to al-Joumhouria daily published Saturday, Rifi said Friday’s confrontation between the ISF Intelligence Branch patrol and the members of the kidnapping gang at a bridge that connects Shtaura to Jlala was the second in less than a week.

Eight people, including several girls, were arrested on Friday on suspicion of blasphemy and drug possession in Mount Lebanon.

The National News Agency said the suspects are devil worshippers and are self-harming.

National Struggle Front parliamentary bloc leader MP Walid Jumblat is reportedly seeking to normalize ties with the Democratic Gathering bloc to confront the new electoral law that is based on proportional representation.

Al-Liwaa daily said Saturday that Social Affairs Ministers Wael Abou Faour, who is loyal to Jumblat, made a speech on Friday during an event organized by the lawmakers of the Progressive Socialist Party.

Special Tribunal for Lebanon Persecutor Daniel Bellemare might issue an indictment against parties throwing accusations at the STL, the court’s spokesman Marten Youssef said.

Youssef told al-Mustaqbal daily published Saturday that judicial authorities at the tribunal are hearing the accusations made against the court but this does not affect the work procedure of any of the involved judges.

Amal movement minister Ali Hassan Khalil has unveiled that the funding of the Special Tribunal for Lebanon remains a point of contention with Progressive Socialist Party leader Walid Jumblat.

He confirmed reports that Amal and Hizbullah haven’t been able to reach an understanding with Jumblat on the funding of the court.

A Lebanese and two Syrians have admitted to trying to smuggle arms to Syria to support anti-regime protestors in the neighboring country, a judicial source told As Safir daily published Saturday.

The newspaper said that the army intelligence thwarted the plot earlier in the week after it raided a neighborhood of the Beirut district of Tariq al-Jdideh and arrested Lebanese Ibrahim M. and Syrians Assef F. and Bassel Q.

Premier Najib Miqati has promised U.N. chief Ban Ki-moon to pay Lebanon’s full share of funds to the Special Tribunal for Lebanon, a high-ranking diplomat said.

The diplomat told An Nahar daily published Saturday that Miqati’s pledge came during an unannounced meeting he held with Ban on the sidelines of the Friends of Libya conference in Paris earlier in the month.

During his meeting with Prime Minister Najib Miqati on Friday, Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi told the premier that he had asked French President Nicolas Sarkozy to convince ex-PM Saad Hariri to return to Beirut and reconcile with Miqati, MTV and LBC television networks reported.

“I am ready for any positive step,” MTV quoted Miqati as telling al-Rahi.

Two Internal Security Forces Information Branch officers were injured at dawn Friday when armed men opened fire on their patrol at the Jlala bridge-Chtaura in the Western Bekaa, the National News Agency reported.

NNA said the two-vehicle patrol came under fire from three gunmen riding a Mercedes that turned out to be stolen. One of the patrol’s vehicles, a Nissan, was riddled with bullets.