A Trans Mediterranean Airlines plane carrying 35 tons of food and medical aid headed to the Somali capital of Mogadishu to help the country’s famine victims, the National News Agency reported Friday.

NNA said the TMA flight took off from Rafik Hariri international airport at 7:00 am. The plane is carrying 33 tons of food and 2 tons of medicine and medical equipment.

Special Tribunal for Lebanon Registrar Herman von Hebel stressed on Friday that the trials in the case of the assassination of ex-Premier Rafik Hariri will begin in mid-2012 whether they were in the presence of the suspects or in absentia, As Safir newspaper reported.

“The final decision in setting the timing goes back to the judges,” Von Hebel said.

The regime of Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi killed Shiite cleric Moussa al-Sadr 33 years ago and threw his body into the sea, Iranian security sources said.

The sources, who had collaborated with the Shah’s regime, told an Iranian website that al-Sadr and his two companions Sheikh Mohammed Yacoub and journalist Abbas Badreddine were killed upon their abduction by the Gadhafi regime and their bodies were thrown into the sea after being attached to cement blocks.

The Lebanese judiciary will summon reporters working for TIME magazine after its correspondent Nicholas Blanford provided General Prosecutor Saeed Mirza with their names, informed sources said.

The sources told pan-Arab daily al-Hayat published Friday that during his meeting with Mirza on Tuesday, Blanford told the general prosecutor about the names of all reporters working for the magazine after claiming that he did not know who carried out an interview with one of the four suspects indicted in ex-Premier Rafik Hariri’s assassination case.

The March 14-led opposition rejected turning the parliament and constitutional institutions into platforms from which Hizbullah launches campaigns against the international tribunal, the coalition’s sources said.

The sources told An Nahar daily published Friday that Hizbullah was using the state institutions to defend the four suspects that the Special Tribunal for Lebanon indicted in ex-Premier Rafik Hariri’s Feb. 2005 assassination.

Energy and Water Minister Jebran Bassil on Thursday warned that the country will suffer “governmental and parliamentary paralysis if the dispute over the electricity plan is not solved,” noting that “the issue can be resolved in cabinet.”

“We will topple any government that does not want to implement the plan,” Bassil vowed.

The head of the Mustaqbal bloc MP Fouad Saniora held talks on Thursday with Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan in Ankara during which the Turkish official informed him of his positions on the developments in the Arab world.

The talks also discussed the latest developments in the region.

Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea criticized on Thursday President Michel Suleiman, Prime Minister Najib Miqati, Defense Minister Fayez Ghosn, Interior Minister Marwan Charbel, the army, and security forces for their shortcomings in dealing with the developments in the town of Lassa, holding them “responsible before history” for the ongoing incidents taking place in the area.

He said after holding talks with a delegation from the town and other Jbeil District areas: “You will be held accountable because you are allowing the people to resolve their disputes in their own hands, is this acceptable?”

President Michel Suleiman stressed on Thursday the importance of holding dialogue between all the political factions.

He noted: “Dialogue has become a necessity for all countries and not just Lebanon.”

The American Embassy in Lebanon announced Thursday a change in its policy regarding visas for American citizens.

Citizens are asked to make online appointments before coming to the Embassy in order to provide efficient effective service.