Hundreds of students gathered amid tight security in the northern Lebanese city of Tripoli on Friday to demand that Syrian President Bashar al-Assad step down.

"Take our blood if you want, but go," chanted around 400 students from the state-run Lebanese University -- including 50 Syrians -- who had gathered in the port city of Tripoli.

The German parliament has overwhelmingly extended for another year the mandate of its peacekeeping force operating as part of the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon.

The German embassy said in a statement on Friday that the parliament decided to keep the number of its troops at the current level of 300.

U.S. President Barack Obama has appointed a woman of Lebanese origin to the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF).

Dr. Azizah al-Hibri, who is the founder and chair of KARAMAH: Muslim Women Lawyers for Human Rights, was appointed to the two-year term earlier in the week.

The Syrian leadership stressed to President Michel Suleiman that no side will in no way attempt to weaken his position or his pivotal role in forming a government, reported al-Liwa newspaper on Friday.

This message was delivered by caretaker minister Wael Abu Faour to the president from Progressives Socialist Party leader MP Walid Jumblat who met with Syrian President Bashar Assad on Thursday.

Parties involved in the formation of the new cabinet overcame 95 percent of the obstacles paving way for President Michel Suleiman to name the ministers that are part of his share in the government, high-ranking March 8 sources said.

The sources told An Nahar daily published Friday that consultations are now underway for Suleiman to name the second Maronite minister after agreement has been reached on naming retired Internal Security Forces chief Maj. Gen. Marwan Charbel for the interior ministry post.

Speaker Nabih Berri expressed his optimism about the positive developments concerning the formation of the new cabinet, urging different parties to speed up the process.

The speaker’s visitors quoted him as saying that “if we continue moving in this manner, the government will be formed soon.”

The optimism expressed by the March 8 forces about the possible formation of the new cabinet in next few days is exaggerated and is a tactic aimed at achieving political gains, a centrist politician told al-Liwaa daily.

The source said in remarks published Friday that Free Patriotic Movement leader Michel Aoun and his ally Hizbullah believe that the delay in the formation of the government was weakening them and strengthening Premier-designate Najib Miqati.

Free Patriotic Movement leader Michel Aoun has allegedly accepted to give up his demand to keep Caretaker Telecommunications Minister Charbel Nahhas in his post after being pressured by his allies.

Al-Liwaa daily said that a settlement was reached between Aoun and Premier-designate Najib Miqati who succeeded in “liberating” the telecom ministry from “the grip of troublemaker” Nahhas and allotting the labor portfolio to him instead.

President Michel Suleiman has clearly announced his rejection of Free Patriotic Movement leader Michel Aoun’s attempts to impose on him a candidate for the second Maronite minister that is part of his share in the new cabinet.

Baabda palace sources told al-Liwaa newspaper published Friday that “Suleiman rejects preconditions set by any side on his choice of his representatives in the government.”

Sources close to Premier-designate Najib Miqati snapped back at Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea on Friday saying the new cabinet will be a government for all the Lebanese.

Miqati “waited for the March 14 team around two months to participate in the cabinet and he still calls for the participation of everyone,” the sources told An Nahar daily.