The head of the Special Tribunal for Lebanon Defense Office Francois Roux assigned a primary duty counsel and a co-counsel to each of the accused, pursuant to the Trial Chamber’s scheduling order of 20 October 2011, announced the STL in a statement on Wednesday.

“The purpose of these assignments is to ensure that the rights and interests of the accused are individually protected while the Trial Chamber considers whether to initiate in absentia proceedings,” it explained.

Security forces arrested on Wednesday a thief who robbed a grocery store in Maameltein in the Keserouan district two and a half hours after he committed the crime, reported the National News Agency.

It said that at 1:00 am Wednesday, the suspect and an accomplice robbed LL 1.4 million, as well as mobile phone recharge cards, through the use of force and then escaped in a car that was parked by the store.

In the wake of Syrian army cross-border raids into east Lebanon that left three dead, tension has been on the rise in the remote region as anxious residents brace for more incursions.

"The people of Qaa sleep in fear now," said Mansour Saad, mayor of the village which straddles the border with Syria.

A source close to former Premier Saad Hariri slammed Hizbullah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah for saying that the security situation in Lebanon was stable at the time when several kidnappings have taken place.

The al-Mustaqbal movement source told pan-Arab daily al-Hayat that Nasrallah talked in his TV interview on Monday at a time when Syrian opposition activists are being kidnapped, Hizbullah is expanding its telecom network in the town of Tarshish and the Syrian army is infiltrating in Lebanese territories in the Bekaa and North.

Palestinian extremists were caught carrying fliers attacking Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi for the purpose of distributing them in some Lebanese regions, Ad-Diyar daily reported Wednesday.

The newspaper said a moderate Palestinian official caught the Salafists at a Palestinian refugee camp.

The cabinet adjourned Wednesday’s session that was set to be held at the Grand Serail for lack of quorum, An Nahar newspaper reported.

President Suleiman traveled to Riyadh at the head of a high-ranking delegation on Wednesday to offer condolences to Saudi King Abdullah over the death of Crown Prince Sultan bin Abdul Aziz.

Prime Minister Najib Miqati and former Premier Saad Hariri came face to face on Tuesday during their condolences to Saudi King Abdullah bin Abdul Aziz on the death of Crown Prince Sultan.

Media reports said Wednesday that Miqati and Hariri exchanged handshakes and kisses and then the Mustaqbal movement leader invited the PM to sit next to him after he realized that Miqati’s seat was far from where King Abdullah was sitting.

Speaker Nabih Berri stressed on Wednesday the importance of the conference on the Christians in the Middle East that will be held at the Universite Saint-Esprit de Kaslik.

During his weekly meeting with lawmakers in parliament, Berri lauded the historic role of Christians whom he said are an essential component of the region’s people.

Internal Security Forces chief Maj. Gen. Ashraf Rifi has told National Struggle Front MP Akram Shehayyeb that the probe into the disappearance of Syrian opposition activist Shebli al-Aisamy was ongoing, An Nahar daily reported on Wednesday.

Shehayyeb visited Rifi on Tuesday, a day after heated arguments between March 8 and 14 lawmakers during the meeting of the parliamentary human rights committee that discussed the ISF chief’s report on the kidnapping of Syrian opposition members in Lebanon.

A visiting U.S. State Department official on Tuesday underscored “the need for Lebanon to meet all of its international obligations,” the U.S. embassy in Lebanon said.

“Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs, Jake Walles, visited Lebanon and met with senior officials to discuss the political, security, and economic situation in Lebanon, as well as the current situation in Syria,” the embassy said in a statement.