Lebanon, the Arab member of the U.N. Security Council, on Friday blocked a statement which would have called deadly attacks in southern Israel terrorism, diplomats said.

The move brought criticism from the United States which said the terrorism label is a "standard" Security Council description after such an attack.

Ninety percent of participants in a Christian meeting held Friday at the summer seat of the Maronite patriarchate in Diman favor the implementation of a proportional representation law in the 2013 parliamentary elections.

According to information obtained by Naharnet, the participants in the first meeting for the so-called preparatory committee for studying the electoral law “reached a 90% agreement on adopting the proportional representation law and there is an intention to hold another meeting, away from the media spotlight, to discuss the electoral law and prepare for a broad meeting aimed at reaching consensus over the text of a draft law.”

Syrian banking deposits are being withdrawn from the Arab country, with some of them being placed in Lebanese banks, reported Robert Fisk in The Independent on Friday.

He said: “The real fear for Syrian President Bashar Assad is not oil sanctions, but banks.”

United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon spokesman Neeraj Singh denied on Friday that the international forces had received any information on a letter French President Nicolas Sarkozy had sent to President Michel Suleiman hinting that France is reconsidering its participation in the international force.

He told Akhbar al-Yawm news agency that the international force was not informed of any possible French withdrawal.

Residents in the town of Lassa prevented on Friday security forces from removing a construction violation belonging to Mohammed Daher al-Moqdad reported the National News Agency.

Residents blocked road, preventing the security forces from reaching the property, and they then fired gun shots in the air to thwart them from entering the town.

The Special Tribunal for Lebanon has established jurisdiction over three attacks relating to former ministers Marwan Hamadeh and Elias al-Murr and former head of the Lebanese Communist Party George Hawi, said the STL in a press release.

Pre-Trial Judge Daniel Fransen has also ordered that the Lebanese authorities provide the relevant files to the Prosecutor, it added.

Energy Minister Jebran Bassil said on Friday that the electricity draft law that he proposed before cabinet will save the citizens $730 to $1300 million.

“The result is due to the cheapness of the factories (that are intended to be built),”Bassil stated during a press conference.

A controversial electricity draft law will be on the cabinet’s agenda next week after the government once again failed to agree on how the allocation of $1.2 billion to raise electricity production by 700 megawatts would be made.

The dispute over the draft law has led to divisions in the ranks of the government, after ministers representing Free Patriotic Movement leader Michel Aoun threatened to resign if the cabinet failed to approve the proposal.

President Michel Suleiman said on Friday stability in Lebanon is guaranteed, noting that the Special Tribunal for Lebanon indictment might create some tension on the ground.

“The stability in the country is guaranteed, we have foreign assurances regarding this matter,” Suleiman’s visitors told al-Joumhouria.

Speaker Nabih Berri has appeased fears over the dangers that the political tension poses on the country’s security situation, saying no one has an interest in reaching a state of chaos.

“The political tension that the country is witnessing doesn’t necessarily pose a danger on the security situation because no one has an interest in any security deterioration which leads to chaos,” Berri told his visitors according to pan-Arab daily al-Hayat published Friday.