Counsel assigned as duty counsel by the Head of Defense Office Francois Roux met over three days at the headquarters of the Special Tribunal for Lebanon for intensive working sessions, announced the STL in a statement.

They were able to familiarize themselves with the various administrative aspects of the tribunal and to discuss, together with the Defense Office, the different legal questions certain to be asked of the tribunal in the form, in particular, of preliminary motions, it explained.

Efforts to put back a draft law on exceptional allocations for the budget worth LL8.9 trillion on the agenda of parliament will resume after Eid al-Adha holidays, ministerial and parliamentary sources said.

The sources told An Nahar daily on Friday that the draft law is necessary to pay the salaries and end-of-service payments of civil servants in several ministries and state institutions.

United Nations General Secretary Ban Ki-moon has not yet decided on the diplomat who will succeed U.N. Special Coordinator for Lebanon Michael Williams, As Safir newspaper reported on Friday.

The daily said that Ban has ruled out appointing any of the three persons whom media outlets had named as the main candidates to succeed Williams.

The acting spokesman of Special Tribunal for Lebanon Prosecutor Daniel Bellemare confirmed to Naharnet that the judge is currently away from the STL seat but stressed that he is following up the work of his office.

“As a matter of policy we do not discuss details of the health of staff,” Gregory Townsend, the senior legal officer and acting spokesperson of Bellemare’s office, told Naharnet.

Labor Minister Charbel Nahhas confirmed on Friday that he received the answers of the Economic Committees and the Syndicate Coordination Committee on his recommendations on the wage boost.

He told LBCI TV station that the Syndicate Coordination Committee was more cooperative.

Speaker Nabih Berri reiterated on Friday the call for dialogue between the Lebanese foes during the “critical” stage that the country and the region are passing through.

“The developments in Lebanon and the region require all the parties to join the national dialogue and this is what I informed (al-Mustaqbal bloc leader MP Fouad) Saniora,” Berri told An Nahar newspaper.

Free Patriotic Movement leader MP Michel Aoun on Thursday warned his supporters that the opposition March 14 camp and its regional and international backers “might spend $3 billion” in the 2013 parliamentary elections to “isolate us.”

“Our enemies had more money than us but they failed to isolate us, then they spent a billion dollars to no avail, and nothing prevents them from spending three billions in 2013 to isolate us,” Aoun said at a ceremony to launch the O Card, which allows supporters to contribute financially to the FPM’s mouthpiece OTV.

A wounded Syrian has transported to Lebanon through al-Qaa border crossing in the Bekaa region, reported the National News Agency on Thursday.

The Syrian national has been transferred to al-Salam Hospital in al-Qobeiyyat for treatment.

Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi is scheduled to visit the northern city of Tripoli on November 12 as part of his ongoing tour of various Lebanese regions, reported the Central News Agency on Thursday.

It said that he is set to hold talks with a number of the city’s official, sectarian, and political figures.

Prime Minister Najib Miqati stated on Thursday that Hizbullah chief Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah had committed “in principle” to the funding of the Special Tribunal for Lebanon.

He told BBC television in an interview set to be broadcast later on Thursday: “Nasrallah never said ‘no’ to the tribunal. Of course the party has its reservations on the STL, but he left it up to the constitutional institutions to assume their duties in this matter.”