General Prosecutor Saeed Mirza handed on Wednesday a monthly report on the search for the four suspects in the assassination of former Premier Rafik Hariri to a delegation from the Special Tribunal for Lebanon, reported the National News Agency.

Four Hizbullah members, Salim Ayyash, Mustafa Badreddine, Hussein Oneissi, and Assad Sabra have been accused of being involved in the assassination.

Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea warned on Monday of any manipulation concerning the funding of the Special Tribunal for Lebanon probing the assassination of ex-Premier Rafik Hariri.

All the successive cabinets “insured the funding of the STL since 2008 with the participation of Hizbullah ministers,” Geagea told An Nahar newspapers.

Cabinet discussions on the funding of the Special Tribunal for Lebanon kick off next week amid fears that the issue would lead to a protracted crisis that would threaten Premier Najib Miqati’s government.

Cabinet ministers are scheduled to discuss the 2012draft state budget at a session at Baabda palace on Tuesday. The funding of the tribunal is the most controversial topic in the budget.

A meeting that brought together the two foes, former Premier Omar Karami and al-Mustaqbal bloc leader Fouad Saniora, came out with no result after they expressed conflicting viewpoints on the funding of the Special Tribunal for Lebanon.

Saniora stressed after the meeting in Beirut on Wednesday the importance of funding the STL, stating that it is a “debt on Lebanon.”

Progressive Socialist Party leader MP Walid Jumblat held a dinner banquet for his former allies, al-Liwaa newspaper reported on Thursday.

“Everyone attended the dinner banquet,” ex-PSP member Fouad al-Saad confirmed to the daily.

Special Tribunal for Lebanon Registrar Herman Von Hebel expected from Lebanon to pay its share of the tribunal funding by the end of October, An Nahar newspaper reported on Thursday.

“Lebanon has 30 days to pay its share,” Von Hebel said during a press conference in New York.

The replacement of Judge Antonio Cassese as president of the Special Tribunal for Lebanon probing the assassination of ex-Prime Minister Rafik Hariri triggered wide reactions locally amid controversy on the payment of Lebanon’s share from the tribunal’s budget.

“Judge Baragwanath has been appointed by the STL since March 2009, and has attended all the Appeal Chambers’ meeting,” tribunal spokesman Marten Youssef told An Nahar on Tuesday.

The cabinet is not expected to discuss this week the funding of the Special Tribunal for Lebanon probing the assassination of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri.

High-ranking sources told An Nahar newspaper on Monday that the government will not discuss on Wednesday the payment of Lebanon’s share in the STL.

A March 8 ministerial source that rejects the funding of the Special Tribunal for Lebanon has criticized Premier Najib Miqati for promising the international community that Lebanon would pay its share of funds for the STL.

The source unveiled to pan-Arab daily al-Hayat published Sunday that Miqati hasn’t yet proposed any suggestion to fund the court and hasn’t discussed any approach with Hizbullah, which rejects the funding.

Deputy Commissioner of the New South Wales Police Nick Kaldas slammed Hizbullah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah’s alleged accusations that he was a “stooge for Israel and the CIA” while investigating the assassination of ex-Prime Minister Rafik Hariri.

“They’re very, very hurtful, damaging allegations. No evidence whatsoever has been put up by him,” Nick Kaldas told SBS journalist Yaara Bou Melhem.