One person was killed on Saturday and several others wounded in a fire that broke out in a factory in the region of Aley, reported Voice of Lebanon radio.

It said that Sudanese national, Seifeddine Seif al-Safi, was killed in the blaze that was caused by a gas canister explosion on Saturday morning.

Jessica Ghawi had escaped a mall shooting in Toronto weeks ago when an "odd feeling" led her outside, and then blogged about how fortunate she was.

But in an ironic and tragic twist of fate, Ghawi died in Friday's Colorado theater shooting spree, one of 12 fatalities in the mass killing.

The Syndicate Coordination Committee will escalate its action next week through sit-ins in front of ministries on Tuesday and another greater demonstration on Wednesday, reported As Safir newspaper on Saturday.

It said that the committee decided to hold a strike on Tuesday at all ministries and public administrations in Beirut and various other regions, in addition to the sit-ins at the ministries.

The fate of Tuesday’s national dialogue session remains unknown in light of the March 14 camp’s decision to boycott the talks.

Despite the boycott, President Michel Suleiman is attempting to “obtain positive positions” on resuming the all-party talks, reported the daily An Nahar on Saturday.

Social Affairs Minister Wael Abou Faour stated that Lebanon is in need of $115 million to aid Syrian refugees who have poured into the country, reported As Safir newspaper on Saturday.

He told the newspaper: “Lebanon is unable to support the burden of assisting the Syrians.”

Mahmoud Hayek, the suspect in the assassination attempt against MP Butros Hard, refused to appear before the investigative bodies because he is a member of Hizbullah’s security apparatus, according to the lawmaker and some security sources Saturday.

Harb said that a car plate number was found inside the bag carried by the suspect when he tried to booby trap the top of the building elevator of his office in the Sami Solh region. The plate turned out to belong to a Hizbullah member who was called in for questioning, but refused, the An Nahar daily said.

Cyprus police have applied to hold a young Lebanese man for a further week over allegations he was helping to plan an attack on Israeli tourists, media on the island reported on Friday.

The 24-year-old, who holds a Swedish passport, appeared at a closed-door hearing on Friday and a court in the island's second city Limassol will decide on Monday whether he should remain in custody, the reports said.

Grand Mufti Sheikh Mohammed Rashid Qabbani revealed on Friday that Lebanese gunmen have deployed along the Lebanese-Syrian border to prevent refugees “fleeing their country’s massacres” from entering Lebanon.

He therefore demanded during the Friday Muslim prayers from the president, speaker, and prime minister that the border between the two countries be opened to the refugees.

The Free Patriotic Movement refused on Friday to apologize over MP Michel Aoun’s remark that slain Sheikh Ahmed Abdul Wahed had liquor bottles in his car at the time of his death, rejecting Dar al-Fatwa’s demand for the apology.

The FPM press office said in a statement: “God has granted Aoun with the courage to say the truth and the courage to apologize when he has made a mistake.”

The Pentagon said Friday there are signs that Hizbullah may have orchestrated a suicide bombing attack on Israeli tourists in Bulgaria this week.

"The attack does bear some of the hallmarks of Hizbullah but we're not in a position to make any final determination on who was responsible," Pentagon press secretary George Little told reporters.