The President of the Special Tribunal for Lebanon Sir Judge David Baragwanath held talks on Wednesday with General Prosecutor Saeed Mirza at the Justice Palace, reported the National News Agency.

Baragwanath thanked the Lebanese government and judiciary for their cooperation with the tribunal, starting with the initial investigation into the 2005 assassination of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri.

Unknown assailants opened fire at the Maarab residence of Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea on Wednesday, announced the LF media department in a statement.

The security personnel at the residence immediately headed to the scene where they found empty bullet shells belonging to a 12.7 sniper rifle, it said.

The family of Syrian dissident Shebli al-Aisamy denied on Wednesday allegations of his death.

It said in a statement: “We have confirmed reports that he was seen about a month ago in al-Mazzeh in Damascus.”

The Maronite bishops council condemned on Wednesday the escalatory tone that has been adopted by political officials in Lebanon.

It urged in a statement after its monthly meeting officials “to set as a priority the people’s concerns over their own.”

A Saudi national has filed a complaint of kidnapping and assault against four armed men, the National News Agency reported Wednesday.

It said Ahmed Mohammed Ali Hassan al-Shakhsi filed the complaint at the police station of al-Saadiyat town in Iqlim al-Kharroub, claiming that the gunmen kidnapped him on Monday from outside his house and returned him at dawn the next day.

Interior Minister Marwan Charbel and State Minister Nicolas Fattoush argued on Tuesday over donations to pay the fines of inmates whose sentenced have ended.

During a cabinet session held at the Grand Serail, Fattoush criticized Charbel for launching the campaign of the donations last month without the government’s approval.

Progressive Socialist Party leader MP Walid Jumlat slammed on Wednesday Speaker Nabih Berri’s decision to hold a general discussion parliament to assess the government’s performance.

“It’s an incomplete step,” Jumblat described it.

Progressive Socialist Party leader MP Walid Jumblat warned Prime Minister Najib Miqati that if the cabinet adopted an electoral law based on proportionality then this would lead to the collapse of the government, al-Liwaa newspaper reported on Wednesday

Al-Liwaa said Jumblat refuses the proposed electoral law, threatening to withdraw his National Struggle Front ministers from the cabinet, if the parliament approved the draft law and the government adopted it.

The cabinet failed on Tuesday to approve a request from the social affairs ministry to allocate LL100 million to provide more humanitarian assistance to the Syrian refugees who have fled the deadly crackdown by the regime on protestors.

“The fund that we had asked for is not for refugees but for the centers of the social affairs ministry in the area of Akkar that is exerting the essential effort in the issue of the displaced,” Social Affairs Minister Wael Abou Faour told An Nahar daily published Wednesday.

European Parliament members visiting Lebanon on Tuesday lauded “the efforts undertaken by the Lebanese authorities, their partners, the NGOs and the local population to provide assistance” to Syrians fleeing the violence in their country to Lebanon.

The parliamentary delegation comprises Veronique de Keyser, Member of the European Parliament and Vice President for Foreign Affairs of the Group of the Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats (S & D), and Ana Gomes, Member of the European Parliament and the foreign affairs coordinator of the S & D Group.