Head of the Special Tribunal for Lebanon's defense office Francois Roux said that his current visit to Lebanon is a routine visit as he is keen to maintain the ties with authorities and the Beirut and Tripoli Bar Associations to remind all sides of the right of the defendants to have a fair trial, noting that the date of trials on March 25 could be changed.

He described the visit in comments published in An Nahar as “good and useful.”

President Michel Suleiman on Thursday noted that Syria was not seeking to stir chaos in Lebanon, stressing that the weapons of non-state actors will be eventually removed, “whether they belong to Hizbullah or the Salafist forces.”

“Syria does not have the objective of stirring chaos in Lebanon as it is barely being able to tackle its own problems at the moment, and we have to prevent a spillover of the Syrian crisis into Lebanon through endorsing the stance of neutrality that was taken by the national dialogue commission,” Suleiman said during a meeting with Argentinean reporters in Buenos Aires.

Hizbullah organized a funeral procession on Thursday for three of its fighters who were killed Wednesday in a blast that hit an ammunition depot in the Bekaa town of Nabi Sheet.

Hizbullah leaders and officials took part in the procession, state-run National News Agency reported.

An Israeli court on Thursday charged an Arab Israeli with gathering information for Hizbullah, including details of security arrangements for President Shimon Peres, the Shin Bet security agency said.

In a statement, Israel's domestic security service said Milad Mohammed Khatib, from the Arab village of Majdal Krum in northern Israel, was charged with "espionage, contact with an enemy agent, aiding the enemy in time of war and conspiracy to aid the enemy."

U.S. Ambassador to Lebanon Maura Connelly expressed on Thursday her country's “grave concern” over Syria continued shelling of and incursions into Lebanon’s border region, said the U.S. Embassy in a statement.

She stressed to Prime Minister Najib Miqati “the United States’ expectation that the Syrian regime respect the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Lebanon.”

Military Tribunal Judge Imad al-Zein issued on Thursday the death penalty against Hani al-Shanti and Azzam al-Hussein over the Caracas shooting that occurred in May.

The two culprits were charged with attempted murder, carrying out terrorist acts, violently responding to security forces and the possession of illegal weapons.

The joint parliamentary committees postponed on Thursday the formation of a subcommittee to study a suitable electoral system and size of districts over sharp differences on who to appoint to the body.

Al-Jadeed reported that Change and Reform bloc MP Ibrahim Kanaan and Phalange MP Sami Gemayel rejected the formation of the subcommittee.

A U.S. judge formally ordered Hizbullah, Iran, al-Qaida and several other defendants Wednesday to pay $6 billion compensation to the victims of September 11, 2001, in a largely symbolic ruling.

Although Iran denies any connection to 9/11, it was included in the list of alleged culprits by the U.S. District Court in New York, along with Hizbullah, Afghanistan's Taliban guerrillas and al-Qaida, which took credit for the massive terror attack.

The Internal Security Forces announced on Thursday that it had confiscated a number of weapons and ammunition in the Koura region.

It said in a statement that its Intelligence Bureau had raided a plot of land in Btaaboura in al-Koura after obtaining information that arms were being stashed there.

Interior Minister Marwan Charbel criticized on Thursday the adoption of the French model to decided whether or not the security agencies would be allowed to obtain the telecom data as the security situation in Lebanon is different.

“We can't dispense the telecom data in the meantime... The security agencies should be able to obtain it without violating the privacy of citizens,” Charbel said in comments published in As Safir newspaper.