Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi is scheduled to travel to Rome on Friday to attend the beatification ceremony of Pope John Paul II, which will be held on Sunday at St. Peter’s Basilica in the Vatican.

The patriarch is set to hold talks with a number of Italian officials on his visit including President Giorgio Napolitano and Foreign Minister Franco Frattini.

Italian Foreign Minister Franco Frattini revealed on Thursday that his country agreed with French President Nicolas Sarkozy to propose imposing strict sanctions against Syrian military and intelligence officials responsible for the violence against Syrian protestors.

He said that the proposal will be made before the European Union.

Security forces arrested two people for arguing with police after blocking the Hboush-Nabatiyeh main road with burning tires, the National News Agency reported Thursday.

The two men along with several other protestors were calling for the collapse of the country’s confessional system, NNA said.

Two months after Yaacoub Yaacoub opened his liquor store in Nabatiyeh he shut it down -- not for lack of customers, he says, but due to pressure.

"Members of local political parties came to see me and made it clear that stores that sell alcohol were not welcome in town," said Yaacoub, 50.

Two Lebanese citizens and a Palestinian from Tripoli’s Bab al-Tabbaneh neighborhood have disappeared, al-Akhbar daily reported Thursday.

It said worried parents headed to hospitals and resorted to the security forces to find out the whereabouts of the men.

Hizbullah and Amal movement have given the green light to residents near Beirut airport to carry out illegal construction work, An Nahar newspaper reported on Thursday without naming the two parties.

It said the “de facto powers” have given residents a “tacit time limit” to carry out the wave of building violations on state property mainly in Ouzai and the areas near Rafik Hariri international airport.

President Michel Suleiman informed Premier-designate Najib Miqati that he was ready to give up his demand for the interior ministry portfolio in return for giving the seat to a neutral personality, al-Akhbar daily reported on Thursday.

The newspaper quoted sources following up the cabinet formation process as saying that Suleiman called Miqati on Wednesday to inform him about his stance.

Angry citizens blocked several roads with burning tires on Wednesday night, the same day taxi and bus drivers drove their vehicles in a long queue to protest the rise in gasoline prices.

At midnight, youth blocked a road in Beirut’s Beshara al-Khoury district but then dispersed when security forces arrived at the scene of the incident.

Hundreds of Syrians fled into northern Lebanon on foot on Thursday after they said unrest broke out in the Syrian border town of Tall Kalakh, Agence France Presse reported.

They said Syrian troops encircled Tall Kalakh overnight after a demonstration there and were preventing people from entering the town of 25,000 residents.

A Foreign Ministry source told Akhbar al-Yawm news agency that caretaker Foreign Minister Ali Shami will continue on coordinating his positions with Speaker Nabih Berri, while protocol requires him to consult with the prime minister and president.

This position came in light of Shami’s request on Tuesday from Lebanon’s Ambassador to the U.N. Nawwaf Salam not to approve a Security Council statement condemning the use of violence against protestors in Syria.