The eight lawyers assigned by the Defense Office of the Special Tribunal for Lebanon to the accused in the Ayyash et al. case have been sworn in, the U.N.-backed court said Wednesday in a statement.

The Defense Office appointed the lawyers on February 2 to represent four Hizbullah members -- Salim Ayyash, Mustafa Badreddine, Hussein Anaissi and Assad Sabra -- due to be tried in absentia for the 2005 murder of ex-premier Rafik Hariri.

Hizbullah deputy chief Sheikh Naim Qassem on Wednesday called on the March 14 forces to “stop betting on regional developments to alter the balance of power in Lebanon,” stressing that Lebanon will remain “the Lebanon of resistance for tens of years.”

Qassem’s remarks come a day after the March 14 forces held a rally at the BIEL hall in Beirut to commemorate the seventh anniversary of ex-PM Rafik Hariri’s assassination.

President Michel Suleiman on Wednesday said that Lebanon “took notice” about U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon’s letter regarding the Special Tribunal for Lebanon cooperation protocol.

He briefed ministers of foreign affairs and justice, Adnan Mansour and Shakib Qortbawi, on the content of the letter he received from Ban through the foreign ministry.

A light and sound performance presented by Vladimir Kurumilian and Alaa Minawi will be held on March 10 at Monot Theater.

“A Piano in My Pillow”, is a performance based on the concept of dreams and their influence in portraying human reality.

A new application was launched on Tuesday which displays the power outage times in Lebanon.

Samer Hamandi, the application’s creator announced the release of a new version of his free android mobile application “Beirut Electricity Cut Off" that now supports all areas in Lebanon.

Free Patriotic Movement leader MP Michel Aoun on Tuesday hit back at Lebanese Forces chief Samir Geagea and Phalange Party leader Amin Gemayel, who both earlier in the day called on the government to step down.

“As long as they have called on the government (to step down), its term will be extended,” Aoun said, in response to a question from a reporter after the weekly meeting of the Change and Reform parliamentary bloc in Rabiyeh.

As the web and mobile industry in the Middle East undergoes a period of unprecedented growth and expansion, so do the opportunities available to entrepreneurs and digital professionals in the Arab region, according to ArabNet.

With the annual ArabNet Digital Summit drawing closer, the team is calling upon aspiring entrepreneurs and digital professionals in the region to showcase their talent, connect with their peers, and bring their visions to life through a series of competitions and activities designed to bring talent and funding together.

Former premier Saad Hariri on Monday stressed that he would only accept to return to the national dialogue table if the sole topic was Hizbullah’s arms and announced that he would “definitely” return to Lebanon.

“Those trying to oust me from Lebanon have been paying the price so far and those who tried to erase Rafik Hariri’s project are ousting themselves from Syria,” Hariri said in an interview with Future News television in Paris on the eve of the seventh assassination anniversary of his father, ex-PM Rafik Hariri.

The Phalange Party on Monday noted that the recent violence in Tripoli had exposed the extent of the security chaos in the country and the “frightening” proliferation of weapons in the northern city.

In a statement issued after its weekly meeting, the party’s political bureau warned that such incidents would import the Syrian crisis into Lebanon.

A fugitive was killed and another wounded on Monday when security forces opened fire on a car that tried to escape a checkpoint in the Beirut eastern suburb of Nabaa, state-run National News Agency reported.

NNA identified the slain man as Munir Munir Zoaiter and the wounded accomplice as Ali Hatem Zoaiter, saying they were wanted on several arrest warrants for involvement in murder and theft.