Central Bank Governor Riad Salameh on Friday noted that Lebanon’s banking sector is being targeted by “suspicious campaigns,” stressing that David Cohen, U.S. Treasury undersecretary for terrorism and financial intelligence, had not addressed any “ultimatums or warnings” to the sector during his recent visit to Lebanon.

“Some are displeased over the success of Lebanese banks in the region, but the sector is robust and enjoys confidence despite being subjected to suspicious campaigns,” Salameh said in an interview on Al-Manar television.

At least 22 civilians, three regime troops and a rebel were killed on Friday in Syria as government forces bombed towns and clashed with rebels in several areas of Syria and tens of thousands of people took part in "Damascus, here we come" demonstrations, monitors and activists said.

Security forces killed 11 people in Homs, four in Daraa, three in Idlib, a person in Latakia, one in Deir al-Zour, one in Aleppo and another in al-Raqq, the Local Coordination Committees, the main activist group spurring protests on the ground, said.

Defense Minister Fayez Ghosn hit back Thursday at Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea over the latter’s call for the army to storm the Ain el-Hilweh Palestinian refugee camp.

“Those behind such calls do not belong to Lebanon, its unity or its future,” Ghosn said in an interview on Al-Manar television.

The cabinet on Wednesday approved the appointment of the six members of the authority tasked with administrating the oil sector.

During a session at the Grand Serail, the cabinet also decided to accept military vehicles and equipment donated to the Internal Security Forces by the U.S. embassy, and called for “keeping the army away from political bickering,” Information Minister Walid al-Daouq announced.

Syrian army troops rained shells on the Homs district of Khaldiyeh on Wednesday and killed at least 70 people across the country, activists said.

"Khaldiyeh is being bombed, with shells and rockets, for a second day," Hadi Abdullah of the Syrian Revolution General Commission told Agence France Presse, reached by telephone from Beirut.

Lebanese director Jude Chehab’s films-Behind The Tents and I'm Here- were recently nominated for 6 awards at the THIMUN Qatar Northwestern Film Festival held annually in Doha, Qatar.

"Being nominated for 6 awards for THIMUN is overwhelming," Chehab said.

Free Patriotic Movement leader MP Michel Aoun noted on Tuesday that whoever is not linked to the recently-discovered “takfiri” network would not criticized the army.

He therefore said after the Change and Reform bloc’s weekly meeting: “Those criticizing the army are linked to the network.”

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.”