The speeches that will be made at the February 14 ceremony marking the seventh anniversary of the assassination of former Premier Rafik Hariri will primarily focus on local developments and then Syrian crisis, reported the daily An Nahar on Saturday.

It added that it remains to be seen which members of the Syrian National Council will give a speech at the event, which will be held at the Beirut International Exhibition and Leisure Center.

The Victims’ Participation Unit of the U.N.-backed Special Tribunal for Lebanon has submitted to STL Pre-Trial Judge Daniel Fransen “73 applications from individuals who claim to have suffered physical, material or mental harm as a result of the 14 February 2005 (bomb) attack” that killed ex-PM Rafik Hariri and 22 other people, the STL said in a statement on Friday.

“A decision on each application will be made in due course by the Pre-Trial Judge,” it noted.

Shooting broke out on Friday in the northern city of Tripoli as pro- and anti-Syria gunmen deployed heavily in the rival neighborhoods of Bab al-Tabbaneh and Jabal Mohsen, Agence France Presse reported.

"There is a heavy armed presence and shooting in the Sunni Muslim neighborhood of Bab al-Tabbaneh and the Alawite neighborhood of Jabal Mohsen," a security official said, requesting anonymity.

Former prime minister Saad Hariri on Friday called on the Arab countries to recognize the opposition Syrian National Council as the “legitimate representative” of the Syrian people.

Hariri warned about “the dangers of the war waged by the Syrian regime against the growing popular revolution across Syria,” said a statement released by his press office.

President Michel Suleiman on Friday stressed that “Lebanon is in a dire need for dialogue among its components” amid the extraordinary circumstances the Arab region is going through.

Separately, the president called on the state to shoulder its responsibilities in providing employment opportunities for the newly-graduated students and to keep them away from the political distribution of shares.

Prime Minister Najib Miqati on Friday held talks with French President Nicolas Sarkozy at the Elysee Palace in Paris.

During the meeting, Sarkozy stressed the importance of “the historic ties between Lebanon and France,” lauding “the efforts exerted by PM Najib Miqati to preserve stability in Lebanon,” Miqati’s press office said in a statement issued after the talks.

Israel’s Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman has said that his country is ready for any act of provocation by Hizbullah over the deepening crisis in Syria.

During a meeting on Thursday with 15 U.N. envoys in New York, He expressed concern that Hizbullah will use a provocation against Israel as a means of distracting the world from violence in Syria.

Columns of Lebanese army tanks and personnel carriers deployed in the towns of Hnaider and Knaisseh on the northern and northeastern border with Syria in an effort to curb arms smuggling, eyewitnesses said.

TV footage showed the residents of the Wadi Khaled area welcoming the army’s deployment.

The Audit Bureau’s acting general prosecutor, Judge Bassam Wehbe, said Friday that the names of persons involved in the red diesel scandal will be announced within two days.

Wehbe said the final report on the probe carried out by the Bureau will be issued within two days and it will include the names of the people who took part in the sale of millions of liters of red diesel to distribution companies the last hours before the end of a one-month government subsidy.

Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi backed on Friday the unification of Cyprus and said his visit to the island state was aimed at consolidating ties with its Maronite citizens.

During a meeting with the Cypriot president, Demetris Christofias, on a several day visit, al-Rahi said he discussed with U.N. chief Ban Ki-moon in October about the unification of Cyprus.