A French journalist was killed on Wednesday in the flashpoint central Syrian city of Homs, the first Western journalist to be killed since protests erupted in March.

The public France 2 channel identified the slain journalist as Gilles Jacquier, one of its reporters. The 43-year-old joined public television in 1991 and was an award-winning veteran who had covered conflicts in Iraq, Afghanistan, Kosovo and Israel.

Speaker Nabih Berri hoped on Wednesday that efforts will be speeded up in petroleum excavation in order for Lebanon to move on to the drilling phase.

He said during his weekly meeting with MPs at Ain al-Tineh: “The sooner we begin the excavation, the sooner we begin to seriously tackling the country’s economic and financial problems.”

The March 14 General Secretariat condemned on Wednesday Syrian President Bashar Assad’s speech on Tuesday, urging the international and Arab communities to take action to halt the regime’s ongoing crimes.

It said in a statement after its weekly meeting: “The Lebanese government should distance the country from the Syrian crisis after Assad’s speech hinted at more violence on the internal scene.”

The Lebanese army intelligence has arrested a group of Syrian and Lebanese men at a checkpoint that lies between Akkar and Hermel, MP Moeen al-Merehbi told Naharnet on Wednesday.

The Akkar lawmaker said the arrest was made at al-Rouwayma checkpoint on Tuesday as the men were heading to Syria through the eastern border town of Arsal following their hospitalization in northern Lebanon.

Change and Reform bloc MP Ibrahim Kanaan said on Tuesday that the bloc’s primary goal is to rectify the functioning of the country’s state institutions according to legal means and not by forcing the people to succumb to its political interests.

He stated after the bloc’s weekly meeting: “Completing the state budget is the government’s most important task.”

The Syrian National Council (SNC) branded Tuesday's speech by President Bashar al-Assad an "incitement to violence," indicating "more criminal behavior" by the regime.

"There is incitement to violence, incitement to civil strife, some talks about sectarian divisions which the regime itself has fomented and encouraged," Basma Qadmani, a member of the SNC, the largest opposition umbrella group, said at a press conference in Istanbul.

Syrian President Bashar Assad on Tuesday accused foreign parties of seeking to destabilize Syria but stressed that he would not step down over increased demonstrations against him.

"We will declare victory soon," he said in a speech at Damascus University broadcast live on state television.

Syrian security forces on Monday killed 21 people across the country, 13 of them in the flashpoint central province of Homs, activists said.

The Local Coordination Committees, the main activist group spurring protests on the ground, said regime troops killed eighteen civilians and three army defectors, “nine of them under torture.”

Progressive Socialist Party leader MP Walid Jumblat accused on Monday officials in Lebanon of resorting to claiming that the al-Qaida terrorist group had infiltrated in order to serve their interests.

He said in his weekly editorial in the PSP-affiliated al-Anbaa magazine: “The stupidity of those individuals did not take into account the sensitivity of the situation in the region when they said that al-Qaida had entered the town of Arsal.”

Phalange Party MP Sami Gemayel criticized on Monday the Syrian army’s infiltration of Lebanese territories, calling on the Defense Ministry and Lebanese army to fulfill their duties in confronting the violations.

He said: “The army should perform its constitutional and legal responsibilities towards the Lebanese people and immediately open fire at any foreign soldier who crosses into the country.”