Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi stressed on Monday the importance of supporting state institutions through the rise of the civil state, lauding the residents of northern region of Akkar for their loyalty to their country.

He said during a visit to the region: “God protect Akkar from evildoer plans to carry out attacks in the region.”

A man was wounded when a dispute between street vendors erupted into gunfire in Tripoli's al-Tal Square on Sunday evening, state-run National News Agency reported.

NNA said heavy gunfire was heard around 10:00 p.m.

Al-Mustaqbal parliamentary bloc sources said Friday that the biggest loser in the end of a 35-day sit-in launched by Salafist cleric Sheikh Ahmed al-Asir in the southern city of Sidon is “the party that Hizbullah tried to mobilize.”

The sources made their remarks to An Nahar daily, a day after Popular Nasserite Movement leader Osama Saad, a Hizbullah ally, said Asir’s protest failed and reiterated accusations that ex-PM Saad Hariri’s al-Mustaqbal movement that is part of the March 14 opposition coalition supported the cleric.

Calm has been restored in the northern city of Tripoli after the clashes of the past two days left over 20 wounded, including three soldiers, reported the daily An Nahar on Sunday.

A source from the Army Command told the daily that the situation is under control, noting that Friday’s clashes are the culmination of tensions that had been mounting in Tripoli since the assassination of senior Syrian security officials on July 18, among other factors.

Twelve people were injured in gunbattles between rival neighborhoods in the northern city of Tripoli as sniper fire prevented motorists from using the Tripoli-Akkar highway, the National News Agency reported Saturday.

NNA said the clashes that erupted between mainly Alawite Jabal Mohsen and the majority Sunni area of al-Bakkar around midnight Friday spread to the al-Rifa, al-Mankoubeen, al-Shaarani, al-Hara al-Barraniyeh, Souq al-Qamh and Syria street in Bab al-Tabbaneh.

Clashes with light and medium caliber weapons erupted in Tripoli on Friday after two young men were beaten and stabbed while on their way to their place of residence in the mainly Alawite Jabal Mohsen district, a security source told Agence France Presse.

“Two young men were on their way to the Jabal Mohsen area minutes before iftar when they were intercepted in the area that separates Jabal Mohsen and al-Qobbeh by unknown attackers who assaulted and stabbed them,” the source said, adding that the two wounded young men were rushed to a hospital in the area.

One person was killed in Tripoli on Wednesday by gunshots fired in celebration of the Syria bombing.

Khaled Fares was killed at the Malloula roundabout by a stray bullet shot during the Tripoli celebrations over the news of the Damascus explosion that targeted a number of Syrian security officials, reported MTV.

Liberals claimed an early lead on Sunday in vote counting across the country after Libya held its first free elections following Moammar Gadhafi’s ouster, winning plaudits from the international community.

If the trend is confirmed, Libya, unlike neighboring Tunisia and Egypt whose strongmen were also toppled in last year's Arab Spring, will buck the trend of electoral success for Islamist movements.

Minister of Foreign Affairs Adnan Mansour was informed Sunday that a four-member International Criminal Court team comprising Lebanese national Helene Assaf, detained in Libya since weeks, will be released soon.

According to Lebanon’s National News Agency, the ICC members are in good health and will be transferred from Zintan area, where they are being held, to Tripoli and later to Rome.

Prime Minister Najib Miqati slammed allegations that he is arming Salafist movements in the northern city of Tripoli, saying that such accusations are politically motivated.

He said before reporters during his trip to Brazil: “I support the mentality of openness, knowledge, and forgiveness, not that of arms or war.”