Syrian authorities have seized at the Jdeidet Yabous crossing weapons and ammunition being smuggled from Lebanon, the state run Syrian Arab News Agency (SANA), reported late Thursday.

The truck smuggling the arms had an Iraqi license plate, it said. Authorities found 125 machine pump-action shotguns and more than 30,000 bullets for pistols secretly hidden in the truck, SANA added.

Premier Najib Miqati has rejected reports about the isolation of Lebanon following his meetings with U.S. officials in New York and alleged warnings that the international community would adopt certain measures against the country if it didn’t back U.N. Security Council sanctions on Syria.

In remarks to satellite TV network al-Arabiya on Thursday, Miqati said: “Lebanon is not in isolation and no one can isolate it.”

Progressive Socialist Party leader Walid Jumblat, who is expected to arrive in Paris on Saturday, might hold talks with former Premier Saad Hariri, media reports said.

A March 14 leader told al-Joumhouria newspaper that a series of meetings could be held among opposition members on the sidelines of the wedding of former Culture Minister Ghassan Salameh’s daughter to discuss the local developments and the funding of the Special Tribunal for Lebanon.

The March 14-led opposition will re-launch its periodic meetings in order to announce its political stances that all the members agree on, al-Liwaa newspaper reported on Friday.

Sources told the daily that the opposition leadership is rearranging its way of tackling the issues to stimulate their opposing movement and obstruct any attempts to block Lebanon’s commitment to the Special Tribunal for Lebanon.

A 16-year-old girl secretly took legal action against her parents in Australia to escape an arranged marriage in Lebanon in what a magistrate has called an ''act of great bravery,” Australian newspapers reported on Friday.

The dailies quoted Federal magistrate Joe Harman as saying that he was satisfied there was a psychological risk to the girl unless the court intervened.

The March 8 forces will begin tackling the funding of the Special Tribunal for Lebanon probing the assassination of ex-Prime Minister Rafik Hariri by the beginning of October, An Nahar newspaper reported on Friday.

A ministerial source told the daily that any breakthrough in the issue of the STL would have to be through the cabinet.

The roads near the U.N. building in downtown Beirut, ESCWA, were closed and traffic was directed to nearby streets on Friday after reports that the premises could be targeted in an attack similar to the bombings on UNIFIL patrols in the South.

Al-Liwaa daily reported that the road east of the building and another known as the ESCWA tunnel was closed upon a decision by the Internal Security Forces’ head of the Beirut traffic department Brig. Gen. Mohammed al-Ayyoubi.

Premier Najib Miqati has hinted that he would visit Damascus soon, his first trip to the Syrian capital since the formation of his government in June, An Nahar daily said Friday.

If the visit takes place, it would be part of other trips made by Lebanese officials, including former Prime Minister Salim Hoss and ex-PM Omar Karami and his son Minister of Youth and Sports Faisal Karami.

Progressive Socialist Party leader Walid Jumblat reiterated on Friday that he has advised the Syrian leadership to quickly implement reforms rather than cracking down on protestors.

In remarks to As Safir daily, he said: “The Syrian regime should adopt qualitative and urgent reform steps.”

Phalange Party leader Amin Gemayel stated on Thursday that the Maronite patriarch has adopted a different approach than his predecessors.

He told Akhbar al-Yawm news agency: “Wednesday’s Maronite bishops proclamation cannot be compared with those of the past.”