Tens of thousands of supporters of the opposition gathered Sunday in the northern city of Tripoli to denounce the Syrian regime and its Lebanese ally Hizbullah, under the slogan “The Fall of Weapons, The Spring of Independence.”

The rally organized by the Mustaqbal Movement, the main opposition party headed by ex-premier Saad Hariri, came amid mounting tension over the financing of the U.N.-backed Special Tribunal for Lebanon and the revolt in neighboring Syria.

French foreign ministry spokesman Bernard Valero on Thursday denied a media report claiming that French intelligence operatives had arrived to the borders of Lebanon and Turkey to train members of the rebel Free Syrian Army, dismissing the report as “baseless.”

“You know that the (French) magazine Le Canard enchainé, (which published the report Wednesday), is a satirical weekly. This report is inaccurate and baseless,” Valero said in an interview with Lebanon’s OTV.

The U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) on Wednesday held a workshop under the Lebanon Business Linkages Initiative (LBLI) with the Syndicate of Lebanese Food Industries (SLFI) to increase knowledge about accessing international food markets.

Farmers, food industrialists, governmental officials, and academics attended this workshop. The project supports SLFI in developing a strategy to access the U.S. specialty food market.

Egypt's military ruler said on Tuesday that presidential elections will be held by end of June 2012, and that a referendum on the immediate transfer of power would be organized if necessary.

Field Marshal Hussein Tantawi, who took power when Hosni Mubarak was ousted, said in a televised address that he had accepted the cabinet's resignation, a week before crucial legislative polls which he said would be held on schedule.

Lebanon’s midfielder Rida Antar who inspired the country’s historic victory against South Korea during the 2014 FIFA World Cup qualifiers was chosen as Goal.com’s player of the week.

The website recognized the player for his role in the victory, a first by Lebanon against the Asian nation.

President Michel Suleiman on Monday called for “adhering to international legitimacy” and honoring Lebanon’s commitments towards the U.N.-backed Special Tribunal for Lebanon.

In a televised address to the nation on the 68th anniversary of Lebanon’s independence, Suleiman said “there is a duty to adhere to international legitimacy, including to the STL, for the sake of justice rather than out of fear of sanctions.”

Syrian security forces on Friday shot dead 20 civilians, including four children, in the regions of Hama, Daraa, Homs and Reef Damascus, the Local Coordination Committees said, on the eve of an Arab League deadline for Syria to stop its lethal crackdown on protesters and as Turkey warned of the risk of civil war.

The latest bloodletting came as thousands of protesters took to the streets in defiance of massive security deployments to urge nations to expel Syrian ambassadors, activists said.

Free Patriotic Movement leader MP Michel Aoun on Thursday noted that the proportional representation law “will not be adopted” in the current form proposed by Interior Minister Marwan Charbel, warning against creating “annexes” to the law.

In an interview with Hizbullah’s Al-Manar television, Aoun said the law “will not be adopted as proposed by minister Charbel; I’m with this law and there can be many variations to the electoral process, but before endorsing them there should be a discussion so that we can choose the most representative one.”

The Arab League on Wednesday gave the Syrian regime three days to halt months of deadly violence against its people or face economic sanctions, Qatar's prime minister said.

The 22-member League is "giving the Syrian government three days to stop the bloody repression" of its civilian population, Sheikh Hamad bin Jassem al-Thani told a press conference after a meeting of member states in Rabat.

Women who delay pregnancy until a later age are placing themselves at increased risk of stroke, according to Dr. Matthew Fink, Professor of Clinical Neurology and Interim Chairman and Neurologist-in-Chief of the Department of Neurology and Neuroscience at Weill Cornell Medical College in New York.

Speaking at the monthly community health seminar, Medicine & U moderated by Professor Basim M. Uthman at the Weill Cornell Medical College in Doha, Dr. Fink said the increasing prevalence of hypertension, cardiac disease, obesity and diabetes also adds to the risk of stroke for mothers.