A decision by General Prosecutor Judge Hatem Madi to reopen the fraud case at al-Madina Bank raised question marks on his intentions, only days after he requested lifting the parliamentary immunity off MP Butros Harb for allegedly offending the president and the judiciary.

Madi tasked on Thursday an experts committee to reveal the names of persons who had received funds from al-Madina and its twin the United Credit Bank.

Speaker Nabih Berri expressed optimism on the electoral subcommittee meetings, pointing out that if the members failed to reach common ground then the matter will be referred to the joint parliamentary committees.

The speaker told An Nahar newspaper on Friday that the subcommittee's chairman, MP Robert Ghanem, briefed him on the appearance of new “positive” signs during the meetings.

LBCI television reported on Thursday two different versions of Friday's incident in the Bekaa town of Arsal that resulted in the death of Major Pierre Bashaalani and Adjutant Ibrahim Zahraman, revealing that both stories are “under investigation by concerned authorities”.

According to the town's residents, three civil vehicles fired shotguns at Khaled Hmayyed, a suspect wanted on terrorism charges, near his house in Arsal while he was on his way to perform Friday's prayers.

The suspected Hizbullah bomber who killed five Israelis in Bulgaria last July did not intend to die in the attack, but wanted to return to Lebanon with his two accomplices, the government said Thursday.

The man "was not a kamikaze but only meant to put the ... explosive device in the baggage compartment of the bus and detonate it later from afar," Interior Minister Tsvetan Tsvetanov said.

Special Tribunal for Lebanon Prosecutor Norman Farrell filed on Wednesday a “confidential motion seeking amendments to the present indictment in the Ayyash et al. Case”, announced the STL on Thursday.

The proposed amendments set out certain clarifications.

More than half of the estimated 300,000 Syrian refugees who have fled to Lebanon are not receiving the medical treatment they need because of high costs, Doctors Without Borders (MSF) said Thursday.

In a report entitled "Misery beyond the war zone," MSF gave the results of a survey carried out in the southern city of Sidon, the eastern Bekaa Valley and the northern city of Tripoli, where its teams are providing free medical care.

President Michel Suleiman said Thursday there are instructions not to deport any Syrian to his home country in accordance with the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

“The instructions are not to deport any Syrian to Syria in conformity with the Universal Declaration of Human Rights,” said Suleiman on twitter.

Following the footsteps of the United Arab Emirates, Libya kicked off an "undeclared" campaign to expel Lebanese citizens under the pretext of having ties with Hizbullah, al-Akhbar daily said Thursday.

Under claims of “relations with Hizbullah,” Lebanese are being expelled from Gulf countries mainly the United Arab Emirates, from the U.S., African and European countries and now Libya.

Interior Minister Marwan Charbel reassured the Lebanese on Thursday that accusations by Bulgaria of Hizbullah's involvement in a deadly attack on Israeli tourists last year will not have repercussions on the country.

In remarks to the Kuwaiti al-Seyassah daily, Charbel said the claim that Hizbullah was involved in the bomb attack on a bus in Burgas airport in July 2012 “will not have repercussions on the government and the local scene.”

Energy Minister Jebran Bassil revealed on Thursday that the tenders that Lebanon will launch to explore offshore oil and gas will be of high significance.

“The tenders will be more important than those held in Israel and Cyprus as Lebanon will attract superior oil exploration companies,” Bassil said in comments published in As Safir newspaper.