Syrian security forces on Monday killed 30 people across the country, activists said, following unprecedented pre-dawn deadly clashes in the heart of the capital Damascus.

Nine people were killed in Deir al-Zour, six in Daraa, three in Hama, three in Idlib, three in Aleppo, three in the Damascus suburbs of Qatana and Douma, two in al-Qameshli and one in Homs, the Local Coordination Committees, the main activist group spurring protests on the ground, said.

Judge Sir David Baragwanath, President of the Special Tribunal for Lebanon, has decided to temporarily suspend proceedings to define the crime of “criminal association”, following Pre-Trial Judge Daniel Fransen’s rejection of the Prosecutor’s request to amend the indictment, the STL said on Friday.

“The Prosecution had filed a confidential request to amend the indictment on 8 February and sought to add a count of ‘criminal association’ to the indictment. The Pre-Trial Judge then asked the Appeals Chamber to define ‘criminal association’, which is an offence under the Lebanese Criminal Code (article 335),” the tribunal announced in a statement.

Progressive Socialist Party leader MP Walid Jumblat on Friday saluted “the martyrs of the Arab Syrian revolution which will remain stronger than the tyrants,” on the 35th anniversary of the assassination of his father, Kamal Jumblat.

During a ceremony to commemorate his slain father in Baaqlin, Jumblat stressed the need for “democratic dialogue, no matter how sharp the political debate is in Lebanon,” noting that political quarreling “will get sharper.”

Speaker Nabih Berri adjourned a legislative parliamentary session held on Thursday to March 21 after quorum was lost.

The loss of quorum prevented a vote on a draft law on reducing the prison year to nine months. The legal quorum requires the presence of at least 65 MPs, while only 64 lawmakers were present out of the 128 members of parliament.

Hizbullah Secretary General Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah called on Thursday the March 14 camp to resolve issues that it and the March 8 forces “agree need to be resolved”, such as the electoral law, spoiled food scandal, and spread of drugs at schools.

He said during a student graduation ceremony: “Extending the hand to the other does not mean eliminating them, but rather delaying in addressing controversial issues.”

Free Patriotic Movement leader MP Michel Aoun on Wednesday warned that the violence in Syria would spill over to Lebanon if the embattled Syrian regime was ousted, rejecting the presence of what he called “Takfiris on our border.”

“Those who backed Israel’s war on Lebanon in 2006 are the same ones who are backing the inner war against Syria, that’s why we should think of good neighborliness and the neighborhood’s security, as we cannot live with Takfiri groups on our border that are interacting with the Lebanese domestic scene,” Aoun said on the 23rd anniversary of the so-called Liberation War he waged in 1989 against Syrian forces stationed in Lebanon.

The March 14 forces on Wednesday called on “all the Lebanese, without exception, to take part in preparing for an ‘uprising for peace’ that would pull us out of the tragedies of the past and lay the foundations for a better future,” during a rally at the BIEL auditorium in Beirut marking the seventh anniversary of the March 14, 2005 “Cedar Revolution.”

“Great dangers are looming today and efforts must be focused on rebuilding the foundations of a unified and unifying state that would protect all the Lebanese, through acknowledging the need to put all capabilities at its disposal,” said a document issued by the March 14 forces and recited at the rally by MP Boutros Harb.

Al-Mustaqbal parliamentary bloc noted Tuesday that “the seventh anniversary of the Cedar Revolution is taking place amid circumstances that reflect the struggle of the March 14 supporters, which was baptized in blood with the fall of a group of martyrs for the sake of freedom, sovereignty and independence.”

In a statement issued after its weekly meeting, the bloc vowed to “stay the course towards completing the transition to statehood,” saying the state “must extend its exclusive authority over the entire Lebanese territory.”

Progressive Socialist Party leader MP Walid Jumblat on Tuesday called on the Palestinian people to “hold on to their rights and to continue the struggle,” condemning the policies of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and describing him as “an expert in bloodletting.”

“Netanyahu – who is an expert in bloodletting – is pouring out all his wrath on besieged Gaza after he failed to market his idea about a military strike against Iran,” Jumblat said in a communiqué issued by the PSP.

Free Patriotic Movement leader MP Michel Aoun on Tuesday snapped back at Lebanese Forces chief Samir Geagea who has criticized the stances of Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi on the Syrian crisis.

“I’m not surprised by the campaign against the patriarch, but even at the peak of our dispute with the Maronite patriarchate, we did not launch such remarks against this spiritual post,” Aoun said after the weekly meeting of the Change and Reform parliamentary bloc in Rabiyeh.