Several hundred Palestinian and Israeli women demonstrated on Saturday on each side of Israel's Qalandiya checkpoint, the main passage point between Jerusalem and the West Bank city of Ramallah.

Assembling nearly a week ahead of a Palestinian bid for statehood at the United Nations Security Council, the women all gathered under the slogan "Women want an independent Palestine".

The March 14-led opposition has denied that it is seeking to propose a draft law in parliament to fund the Special Tribunal for Lebanon if the government fails to take such an action.

MPs Marwan Hamadeh and George Adwan and March 14 general-secretariat coordinator Fares Soaid told An Nahar daily on Friday that the opposition is not mulling to propose a draft law.

Pro-democracy activists called a "day of anger" across Syria on Tuesday to protest against Russia's backing for President Bashar Assad, after his security forces shot dead at least another 19 people.

"Do not support the killers," activists urged Russia in a message announcing Tuesday's action posted on The Syrian Revolution 2011, a Facebook page that has been the engine for the six-month-old revolt against Assad's regime.

Speaker Nabih Berri expressed discontent on Tuesday over the violent verbal attack against Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi by the March14-led opposition.

“His eminence realizes what’s happening in Syria and the region, and his only aim is to protect the Christians and all the Lebanese,” Berri told An Nahar newspaper.

Pro-democracy activists in Syria have called for a "day of anger" against Russia on Tuesday to protest Moscow's backing for President Bashar al-Assad, who for more than six months has tried to stifle an anti-regime uprising.

"Do not support the killers. Do not kill the Syrians with your position" in favor of the regime, the activists urged Russia in a posting on The Syrian Revolution 2011, a Facebook page that has been the engine for anti-Assad revolt.

Syria, accused by France of "crimes against humanity," on Thursday sent its security forces storming into a northwestern village where they killed three military defectors, rights activists said.

"A force comprising seven armored vehicles and 10 jeeps stormed the village of Ibleen in Jabal Al-Zawiyah (region) in search of people wanted by the security services," the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said in a statement.

Prime Minister Najib Miqati stressed on Tuesday the “constant” cooperation between the Lebanese army and United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon, saying that the army should be properly supplied with necessary equipment to enable it to implement its duties, especially U.N. Security Council resolution 1701.

He said after holding talks with UNIFIL Commander Major General Alberto Asarta: “The Lebanese government is determined to take the necessary measures to allow the international force to perform its duties in aiding the army in maintaining the security in the South.”

Iran is ready to give the International Atomic Energy Agency "full supervision" of its nuclear program for five years if U.N. sanctions are lifted, its nuclear chief said in remarks published Monday.

"We have proposed that the agency keep Iran's activities and nuclear program under full supervision for five years, providing the sanctions are lifted," the nuclear chief, Fereydoun Abbasi Davani, told ISNA news agency.

Speaker Nabih Berri encouraged a military and a political strike against Hizbullah during the 2006 war so that the Israeli aggression against Lebanon doesn’t last long and so that the operation doesn’t have any repercussions, revealed a leaked U.S. Embassy cable published in al-Mustaqbal newspaper on Monday.

The WikiLeaks cable dated August 18, 2006, reported about a meeting between the speaker and then U.S. Ambassador Jeffrey Feltman during which Berri described Syrian President Bashar Assad’s speech on Aug. 15, 2006 as “stupid and unreasonable… because people forgot everything related to Israel.”

Speaker Nabih Berri warned on Monday against widening the dispute over the electricity project, stressing that a breakthrough must be achieved to solve this vital issue that concerns all the Lebanese, As Safir newspaper reported.

“It should be an issue that unites (all the Lebanese) not divides them,” Berri told his visitors.