The Victims’ Participation Unit of the U.N.-backed Special Tribunal for Lebanon has submitted to STL Pre-Trial Judge Daniel Fransen “73 applications from individuals who claim to have suffered physical, material or mental harm as a result of the 14 February 2005 (bomb) attack” that killed ex-PM Rafik Hariri and 22 other people, the STL said in a statement on Friday.

“A decision on each application will be made in due course by the Pre-Trial Judge,” it noted.

Former prime minister Saad Hariri on Friday called on the Arab countries to recognize the opposition Syrian National Council as the “legitimate representative” of the Syrian people.

Hariri warned about “the dangers of the war waged by the Syrian regime against the growing popular revolution across Syria,” said a statement released by his press office.

President Michel Suleiman on Friday stressed that “Lebanon is in a dire need for dialogue among its components” amid the extraordinary circumstances the Arab region is going through.

Separately, the president called on the state to shoulder its responsibilities in providing employment opportunities for the newly-graduated students and to keep them away from the political distribution of shares.

Forty-two people were killed across Syria on Friday, including security force members, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said, as anti-regime protesters took to the streets under the banner of "Russia is killing our children."

At least 20 died in in the central protest hub of Homs, among them two children killed by shelling in the Baba Amr neighborhood, the Observatory said.

Israel’s Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman has said that his country is ready for any act of provocation by Hizbullah over the deepening crisis in Syria.

During a meeting on Thursday with 15 U.N. envoys in New York, He expressed concern that Hizbullah will use a provocation against Israel as a means of distracting the world from violence in Syria.

Three bombs exploded in Bab al-Tebbaneh region in Tripoli Thursday night marking an increased tension with Jabal Mohsen in the past few days.

“Three bombs exploded in Bab el Tebbaneh” MTV reported.

Two Syrian nationals were badly wounded on Thursday by a landmine at the illegal border-crossing of al-Buni in northern Lebanon, reported the National News Agency.

Ahmed Mustapha Khodr and Ahmad Abdul Karim were injured while attempting to cross the border into Wadi Khaled from the Syrian town of al-Mushayrfeh.

Security forces killed 126 people in Syria on Thursday, 107 of them in Homs in the latest government blitz on the besieged city, said Local Coordination Committees.

Six people were killed in Maarat al-Naaman in Idlib, ten others in Reef Damascus, two in Ain al-Arab Koubani in Aleppo, and one in Latakia.

Head of the Mustaqbal parliamentary bloc, ex-PM Fouad Saniora, on Wednesday stressed that the Mustaqbal Movement supports “the deployment of the Lebanese army on Lebanon’s borders.”

After talks at his office with Army Commander General Jean Qahwaji, Saniora told MTV: “The Mustaqbal Movement’s stance is clear in demanding the deployment of the Lebanese army on Lebanon’s border in order to reassure the residents and protect them from all the attempts we’re witnessing.

South Korean President Lee Myung-Bak arrived on Tuesday in Riyadh at the start of a two-day visit to the OPEC kingpin which comes as Seoul seeks to diversify its oil sources.

"South Korean President Lee Myung-Bak arrived with his delegation in Riyadh today in an official visit to the kingdom," Saudi state news agency SPA reported.