Conflicting reports emerged on Friday over the visit of U.S. Treasury Assistant Secretary for Terrorist Financing Daniel Glaser to Beirut.

An Nahar newspaper reported on Friday that the discussions that took place between Glaser and Lebanese bankers were positive.

Naharnet Exclusive Report – Leidschendam:

A high-ranking official from the office of the Prosecutor of the Special Tribunal for Lebanon said Judge Daniel Bellemare and his team have made up their mind to totally reject any plans to immediately begin in absentia trials of the four Hizbullah suspects in ex-Premier Rafik Hariri’s Feb. 2005 assassination.

Pope Benedict XVI is planning to visit Cuba and Mexico in spring 2012 but there are currently no plans to visit Lebanon, Vatican spokesman Federico Lombardi said on Thursday.

"The nuncios of Mexico and Cuba have been charged in recent days with informing the highest religious and political leaders in the two countries that the pope is examining a concrete project to visit," he said in a statement.

Former premier Saad Hariri said Thursday he would definitely vote for Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea if he runs for president in 2014.

Asked on Twitter whether he would vote for Geagea if the opposition March 14 camp won back the parliamentary majority in the 2013 elections, Hariri said: “I WILL VOTE FOR HIM IN HEART BEAT IN CAPITAL LETTERS.”

Progressive Socialist Party leader MP Walid Jumblat on Thursday advised Hizbullah to allow Premier Najib Miqati’s government to pay Lebanon’s annual 49% share of funds to the U.N.-backed Special Tribunal for Lebanon.

“We’ve heard Hizbullah describing the suspects (in the 2005 assassination of ex-PM Rafik Hariri) as ‘sacred’, but they must understand that those who were martyred, starting from Rafik Hariri all the way to (slain MP) Antoine Ghanem … are also ‘sacred’,” Jumblat said in an interview on Al-Arabiya television.

Over the past 10 days, lawyer Antoine Korkmaz -- who was appointed by Special Tribunal for Lebanon’s Defense Office as lead counsel for Mustafa Badreddine, the prime suspect in ex-PM Rafik Hariri’s murder – could not be reached on the phone.

Naharnet had repeatedly telephoned Korkmaz’s office in Paris over the past week and his secretary would only say that he was unavailable. It later appeared that he had been taking part in the coordination meetings held last week by the defense counsels at the court’s headquarters in Leidschendam.

Naharnet Exclusive Report – Leidschendam:

Special Tribunal for Lebanon Prosecutor Daniel Bellemare has managed to baffle the defense counsels by voicing his opinion that “it is premature to initiate a trial in absentia.”

The military investigative judge on Thursday referred Syrian detainees Ammar al-Adib and Mohammed Bashlah to Tripoli’s Qobbeh prison after issuing arrest warrants against them on charges of arms trade and trafficking weapons from Lebanon into Syria, the General Directorate of General Security said.

“Any action the directorate does on the administrative and security levels stems from its keenness on transparency and commitment to laws and instructions,” it said.

Naharnet Exclusive Report – Leidschendam:

It remains unclear whether Special Tribunal for Lebanon Prosecutor Judge Daniel Bellemare’s health will permit him to attend Friday’s STL hearing aimed at discussing whether circumstances are suitable to try in absentia the four suspects in the assassination of former Premier Rafik Hariri.

Lebanon's premier has come under mounting pressure over the kidnapping of Syrian dissidents in Lebanon, with the opposition accusing his government of kowtowing to the regime in Damascus.

"The government of Najib Miqati is employing all diplomatic, security and political channels to back the Syrian regime," said Fares Soeid, secretary general of the March 14-led opposition.