The U.N.-backed Special Tribunal for Lebanon announced Monday that it has appointed Lebanese national Wajed Ramadan as its new spokesperson, succeeding the Egyptian Canadian Marten Youssef.

“Ramadan joined the tribunal in September 2009 and established the STL’s Outreach Office in Lebanon,” the court said in statement.

The Trial Chamber of the Special Tribunal for Lebanon has given the Lebanese government a deadline to meet the demands of the defense team, al-Akhbar newspaper reported on Tuesday.

If the Lebanese authorities do not cooperate with the defense during the coming 21 days, then the Trial Chamber could refer the issue to the STL President, Judge Ivana Hrdličková, said the daily.

British Ambassador Tom Fletcher announced on Monday that the UK would be contributing an additional £1 million, around $1.5 million, to the Special Tribunal for Lebanon that is trying the suspects in ex-PM Rafik Hariri's assassination.

Fletcher made the announcement during a phone call with Prime Minister Tammam Salam, the British embassy said in a statement.

The Special Tribunal for Lebanon's Defense team continued on Thursday its cross-examination of head of the Mustaqbal bloc MP Fouad Saniora, with questions focusing on United Nations Security Council resolution 1559 and former Premier Rafik Hariri's ties with ex-President Emile Lahoud.

Saniora said: “Hariri fought hard to ensure that the term of later President Elias Hrawi was extended in 1995 in order to avoid the election of Emile Lahoud as president.”

The dialogue between the Mustaqbal Movement and Hizbullah is expected to continue despite the testimony of Mustaqbal bloc chief MP Fouad Saniora before the Special Tribunal for Lebanon that revealed that slain former Premier Rafik Hariri was aware of Hizbullah assassination attempts against him, reported the daily An Nahar on Thursday.

Observers told the daily: “The dialogue will continue because the factors that preceded Saniora's testimony and those that followed it have not altered the course of the talks even if some March 8 coalition members sought to tarnish it through media campaigns.”

Head of the Mustaqbal bloc MP Fouad Saniora resumed on Wednesday his testimony at the Special Tribunal for Lebanon by being cross-examined by the Defense that focused on the Syrian and Lebanese security systems in Lebanon during the 1990s and up until the assassination of former Premier Rafik Hariri in 2005, as well as Hizbullah's role in Lebanon.

He said: “I am not in a position to say that Hizbullah assassinated Hariri”

Al-Mustaqbal parliamentary bloc on Tuesday accused the March 8 forces of waging a “political media campaign” against its chief, MP Fouad Saniora, over his testimony at the Special Tribunal for Lebanon in The Hague.

In a statement issued after its weekly meeting, the bloc said Saniora has so far demonstrated “all the circumstances that Lebanon was going through prior to the assassination” of former premier Rafik Hariri, and the impact of “the oppressive interferences that were practiced by the Lebanese-Syrian security apparatus and its tools in Lebanon and Syria.”

Al-Mustaqbal bloc leader MP Fouad Saniora said on Tuesday that his longtime friend, slain former Premier Rafik Hariri, confided to him that he had discovered several assassination attempts by Hizbullah against him.

“Hariri was driving his car and I was sitting next to him when he suddenly turned towards me and said: 'You know Fouad, by now we have discovered several assassination attempts by Hizbullah against me',” Saniora told the Special Tribunal for Lebanon.

Head of the Mustaqbal bloc MP Fouad Saniora started on Monday giving his testimony at the Special Tribunal for Lebanon, focusing on the ties between former Premier Rafik Hariri and the Syrian regime during the 1990s and early 2000s, as well as the influence the Syrian security apparatus wielded on Lebanon.

He said before the trial chamber at The Hague: “The Syrian regime sought to extend the term of then President Emile Lahoud, promising us that a 'new Lahoud' would emerge in the aftermath of the constitutional amendment.”

Head of the Mustaqbal parliamentary bloc MP Fouad Saniora is scheduled to present his testimony before the Special Tribunal for Lebanon on Monday, reported al-Joumhouria newspaper on Saturday.

Widely-informed sources told the daily that the testimony “introduces a new phase of the trial.”