A spokesman of the Special Tribunal for Lebanon probing the assassination of ex-Prime Minister Rafik Hariri told An Nahar newspaper on Friday that the opening of the trials is a decision taken by the trial chamber only.

The spokesman said that the trial date depends on a number of factors, including the time needed by the defense office to examine the evidence presented by Prosecutor Daniel Bellemare.

Saad Hariri’s al-Mustaqbal movement is admonishing Grand Mufti Sheikh Mohammed Rashid Qabbani for meeting with a delegation from Hizbullah and the Syrian ambassador on the day the international tribunal issued the indictment in ex-Premier Rafik Hariri’s assassination case, a source said.

The Mustaqbal source told al-Liwaa daily on Friday that the movement’s lawmakers decided to boycott prayers led by Qabbani at al-Amin mosque on the occasion of Eid al-Fitr “to admonish the Mufti for some of his stances.”

Interior Minister Marwan Charbel said on Friday his meeting with Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea was to stress the importance of calming down the situation in the town of Lassa in the Jbeil district.

Charbel told As Safir newspaper that he has asked Geagea to stop interfering in the issue of construction on church property in the predominately Shiite town after the state took charge of it.

Less than a week before a Sept. 7 cabinet session, reports do not indicate that officials have reached consensus on the controversial electricity project that calls for allocating $1.2 billion to the energy minister to generate 700 Megawatts of electricity.

Al-Liwaa daily said that Free Patriotic Movement leader Michel Aoun, who has proposed the electricity draft law, told mediators that any mechanism in the implementation of the electricity plan should not limit Energy Minister Jebran Bassil’s decisive powers.

Prime Minister Najib Miqati stressed on Friday the importance of separating the Lebanese situation from the developments in Syria.

“We shouldn’t interfere in anyone’s (internal) affairs so that no one meddles in ours,” Miqati told the pan-Arab daily al-Hayat.

A Lebanese man who blamed a fraud scheme on his addiction to day trading in stocks has been sentenced to four years in prison in the United States.

Hussein Ali Mehdi asked a judge to spare him from prison, the Eugene Register-Guard of the State of Oregon (http://bit.ly/q5PvvC) reported.

Lebanon took over the rotating presidency of the U.N. Security Council for this month, the second time since its council membership in January 2010.

Ambassador Nawwaf Salam told An Nahar daily published Friday that he was seeking to introduce “preventive diplomacy” to the agenda of the council. “This concept includes means and diplomatic measures taken in advance to prevent the eruption of conflicts or stop them from spreading.”

A disfigured Ethiopian nanny on Thursday recounted being beaten and severely burnt while working for Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi's son Hannibal and his wife.

Lying prone in her bed at Tripoli's only burns unit, Shweyga Mullah, 30, said wife Aline Skaff, a Lebanese lingerie model previously accused of abuse, twice poured scalding water on her, causing third degree burns which doctors said would take years to treat.

A dispute between Mohammad Hassan Zoaiter and others from Al- Zoaiter in Zoaitriyeh neighborhood North Metn caused by generator subscriptions in the area erupted into gunfire on Thursday evening, National News Agency reported.

Seven people were wounded by the dispute, five of whom are seriously injured, the agency stated.

MP Sami Gemayel hinted on Thursday that Hizbullah is aware of the whereabouts of the four suspects in ex-Premier Rafik Hariri’s assassination case but is not helping Lebanese authorities in finding them.

In a press conference he held at the Phalange party headquarters in Saifi, Gemayel said: “Hizbullah said that the TIME magazine interview didn’t take place meaning it called the suspects and asked if they gave the interview.”