Lebanon bans 'pro & anti Assad' demonstrations

(AFP)- BEIRUT — "Lebanese authorities on Wednesday banned rallies for or against Syria's ruling regime, as a pan-Islamic group insisted it would go ahead with a demonstration in support of Syrian protesters.... Pan-Islamic group Hezb Ut-Tahrir has called for a rally after Friday prayers in Tripoli, a Sunni stronghold in north Lebanon,....

"The local branch of the security council has informed us that our gathering this Friday should take place inside an assembly hall and not in the street," Hezb Ut-Tahrir's Lebanon spokesman Ahmad Kasas told AFP on Wednesday. "But our decision has been made and we will not give in." Kasas said the Lebanese military intelligence bureau had informed the party that the 16 people arrested would be freed on condition that the anti-Assad rally be called off.

Hezb Ut-Tahrir (Arabic for "Party of Liberation") is an international movement which seeks to restore a caliphate by uniting all Muslim countries under a single Islamic rule..."