Marada leader Suleiman Franjieh is mediating between Speaker Nabih Berri and Free Patriotic Movement leader Michel Aoun to bridge their differences, As Safir daily reported on Friday.

The newspaper said that Franjieh visited Berri in Ain el-Tineh on Thursday following talks he held with Aoun in Rabieh.

Special Tribunal for Lebanon spokesman Marten Youssef hailed on Friday a decision by an STL judge to set March 25 as the tentative date to start the trial in absentia of four suspects and stressed new evidence should be provided to ask for a change in that date.

In remarks to al-Joumhouria daily, Youssef said Pre-Trial Judge Daniel Fransen’s decision “is a unique opportunity for the international tribunal and the Lebanese people and is an important step on the road to trials.”

Up to 30,000 Syrians have fled into Lebanon over the past 48 hours, the U.N. refugee agency said on Friday.

"Thousands of Syrians crossed into Lebanon yesterday. Reports vary between 8,500 and 30,000 people having crossed in the past 48 hours," UNHCR spokeswoman Melissa Fleming told reporters in Geneva.

Progressive Socialist Party leader Walid Jumblat supported the demand of the March 14 coalition for the government to provide the so-called telecom data to security agencies to prevent future plots against Lebanese politicians.

In remarks to As Safir daily published Friday, Jumblat justified the opposition’s demand to hand over all telecom data including the International Mobile Subscriber Identity (IMSI) to security bodies by saying “they have witnessed assassination attempts and the involved (telecom) minister (Nicolas Sehnaoui) is obstructing the data.”

Dar al-Fatwa, the highest religious Sunni Muslim authority in Lebanon, on Thursday announced that Friday will be the first day of the holy month of Ramadan, as the Higher Islamic Shiite Council declared that Ramadan will start on Saturday.

The holy month will begin on Friday in most Arab countries, religious authorities announced, but in Oman and Syria as well as for Iraq's Sunni Muslims and in non-Arab Iran it will start on Saturday.

The March 14 forces on Thursday announced their boycott of the upcoming national dialogue session over “the refusal of Hizbullah’s leadership to discuss the issue of arms.”

“The conferees discussed the latest stances voiced by Hizbullah’s leadership, which rejected to discuss the issue of the party’s arms and blocked the possibility to seriously address the issue of illegal weapons,” the March 14 forces said after a broad meeting at the Center House in downtown Beirut.

Army Commander General Jean Qahwaji stressed on Thursday that the criticism and praise issued against the army by various political sides will not affect the unity of the institution or the morale of its troops.

He said before the Army Command and top officers: “We will no longer remain silent over any verbal, media, or moral attack.”

Special Tribunal for Lebanon Pre-Trial Judge Daniel Fransen issued on Thursday an order setting March 25, 2013 as a tentative date for trial to start in the Ayyash et al case, announced the tribunal in a statement.

“The order provides the parties and the victims' legal representatives with a concrete starting date allowing them to continue preparing for trial,” explained the statement.

The flow of Syrians flocking to Lebanon to escape their country’s unrest increased in light of Wednesday’s Damascus bombing that claimed the lives of three top security officials, reported the Central News Agency on Thursday.

Security sources told the news agency that the new wave of refugees includes several Lebanese students who were studying at the University of Damascus.

Beirut Examining Magistrate Ghassan Owaidat recommended on Thursday the death penalty for 88 individuals who were involved in the 2007 Nahr al-Bared clashes with the Lebanese army.

The suspects were accused in the 447-page indictment of murder and attempted killing and of targeting state security by funding and carrying out terrorist acts.