Former premier Saad Hariri on Wednesday said the six-nation Gulf Cooperation Council must endorse a Qatari proposal to dispatch Arab troops to revolt-hit Syria, where the regime's crackdown on protests has cost more than 5,400 lives since March, according to U.N. estimates.

Answering a question on the social networking website Twitter, Hariri also said his opposition March 14 camp was being “attacked” because it is at the “core” of the Arab Spring sweeping across the region.

The Special Tribunal for Lebanon announced via Twitter on Wednesday that United Nations chief Ban Ki-moon will decide on how long its mandate will be extended after consulting with the Lebanese government and Security Council.

It said: “The agreement between the U.N. and Lebanon states that our mandate will be renewed if our work is not finished. Our work is not finished yet.”

Speaker Nabih Berri noted on Wednesday that Lebanon may act as a center for dialogue in the region.

He stressed before a consular delegation: “It is in the country’s best interest to keep a distance from external affairs.”

British Prime Minister David Cameron on Wednesday accused Hizbullah and its main regional ally Iran of supporting the Syrian regime's violent crackdown on the country's uprising.

Cameron told lawmakers in the House of Commons that both were offering backing to Syrian President Bashar Assad.

Hizbullah denied on Wednesday accusations that it had shelled the Syrian area of al-Zabadani with Katyusha rockets, deeming such claims as “silly and laughable.”

It said in a statement: “These accusations are part of a campaign to incite the public against the party.”

The March 14 General-Secretariat condoled on Wednesday the families of the victims of the Ashrafiyeh building collapse, urging the government to provide them with proper compensation.

It voiced in a statement after its weekly meeting its support for the Beirut MPs’ demand that the government “hold those responsible for the accident accountable for it.”

Shops in Ashrafiyeh shut down until 3:00 pm Wednesday as the funeral processions for several people killed in the building collapse in the Fassouh neighborhood went underway.

The funeral procession for 15-year-old Anne Marie Abdul Karim took place at Saint Mary’s church in Ashrafiyeh.

U.N. Special Coordinator for Lebanon ad interim Robert Watkins

expressed on Wednesday the world body’s readiness to share with the Lebanese government its expertise in disaster management policies.

President Michel Suleiman called on Wednesday for the amendment of the constitution, saying the appointment of top civil servants should be through the majority vote of cabinet ministers rather than the two thirds.

In remarks to As Safir newspaper, Suleiman said: “I have said on many occasions that the cabinet has a limited productivity and this is obvious in the administrative appointments.”

The government could order on Wednesday the immediate removal of the Jal el-Dib bridge that links Beirut to the north over worries that it could collapse, a day after Interior Minister Marwan Charbel called for taking the necessary precautions around the bridge.

An Nahar daily said that the cabinet decision could come during a session that is scheduled to be held at the Grand Serail. But ministerial sources told the newspaper that a decision to remove the bridge had been taken several weeks ago.