Following are summaries of some of the main stories in a selection of Lebanese newspapers Sunday. The Daily Star cannot vouch for the accuracy of these reports.

Al-Mustaqbal

Hariri praises re-arrest of the three officers

The qada of Koura will witness a heated political battle that will surpass more traditional by-elections as the competition for the Orthodox seat is between Lebanese Forces and March 14 candidate Fadi Karam against the Syrian Nationalist Social Party and March 8 candidate Walid Azar. The election will be an indication of what might come in the 2012 parliamentary elections.

Interior Minister Marwan Charbel said that all the preparations at the logistical, technical and security levels have been made for the by-election in Koura and that all the ballot boxes have been distributed.

Former Prime Minister Saad Hariri welcomed “the Military Tribunal’s decision to detain once more the three officers in the case of the killing of Sheiks Mohammad Abdel-Wahed and Hussein al-Mereb in Akkar and considered it a step that boosts the trust of victims and residents of Akkar and all the Lebanese in justice and the Lebanese Army.”

An-Nahar

The race during the by-line election to fill the Orthodox post of the late MP Farid Habib in Koura will offer a democratic opening amid a tense political climate.

And while the elections campaigns portrayed the battle as a “rehearsal” for a wider battle between the March 8 and March 14 coalition, the March 14 alliance is banking on a win [in Koura] given that three of their three MPs won in 2009 with a big margin which makes them more likely to fill the now third empty seat. The March 8 coalition is banking on solidarity by the allies of the Syrian Nationalist Social Party to combine and back a single candidate and that the Sunni vote not be the deciding factor as in previous years.

In this light, Future Movement General-Secretary Ahmad Hariri launched an active campaign for the LF’s candidate.