The cafeteria at the Lebanese University's Hadath branch was closed on Friday due to the various violations being committed there, reported the National News Agency.

The violations included the selling of waterpipes in violation of the non-smoking law imposed in the country.

The spokesman of the military wing of the Meqdad clan has been released on bail, reported MTV on Friday.

It said that the General Prosecution agreed to released Maher al-Meqdad on a bail of L.L.15 million.

A Progressive Socialist Party delegation held talks on Thursday with former Prime Minister Omar Karami on party leader MP Walid Jumblat's initiative to persuade rival factions to return to the national dialogue.

Transportation and Public Works Minister Ghazi al-Aridi said after the meeting: “Our consultations with various factions is based on the initiative, which highlights the authority of the state in resolving disputes.”

A parliamentary subcommittee completed discussions on electoral draft-laws, including the number of MPs, and will hold a meeting next week to announce the minutes of the deliberations, its chairman MP Robert Ghanem announced Friday.

“The minutes of the previous meetings will be announced during a session on Monday afternoon aimed at finding common ground on an electoral draft-law,” Ghanem told reporters in parliament.

Defense counsel for the four accused Hizbullah members filed their Pre-Trial Briefs this week, challenging the Prosecutor’s allegations about the assassination of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri, announced the Special Tribunal for Lebanon on Friday.

The Defense disputes the Prosecution’s account of the attack and the alleged involvement of the four accused, it said in a statement.

Lebanon will ask for 180 million dollars from Arab countries to assist refugees from Syria who have fled the turmoil in their country, An Nahar daily reported on Friday.

Foreign Minister Adnan Mansour, who travels to Cairo on Sunday to chair the meeting of the Arab League Ministerial Council, has sent the organization's secretary-general Nabil al-Arabi a letter and a memo detailing the Lebanese request, a diplomatic source in the Egyptian capital said.

Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi and Greek Orthodox Archbishop of Beirut Elias Audeh have expressed support to a parliamentary draft-law that preserves coexistence.

“Bkirki is neither with an Orthodox proposal nor with a Maronite proposal,” al-Liwaa daily quoted al-Rahi as saying on Friday.

President Michel Suleiman has reportedly expressed frustration at the failure of the political parties from across the political spectrum to take his opinion on the so-called Orthodox Gathering proposal and the cabinet's draft-law referred to parliament.

An Nahar daily quoted Suleiman's visitors as saying that the president reproached the rival Christian parties – the Free Patriotic Movement, the Lebanese Forces, the Phalange and the Marada - that backed the Orthodox proposal during a meeting they held under Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi last Sunday.

Speaker Nabih Berri visited Baabda palace on Thursday and discussed with President Michel Suleiman the latest developments on the Lebanese scene, the National News Agency reported.

"The talks focused on the proposed electoral draft laws,” the NNA detailed.

MP Michel Murr announced on Thursday his rejection of the Orthodox Gathering' proposed electoral draft law, fearing it might have “negative consequences on the future of Christians' rights in Lebanon”.

"I will not agree on something that might jeopardize Christians' acquired rights and take the country to the unknown,” Murr said after meeting with President Michel Suleiman in Baabda.