Electricite du Liban announced on Monday that it will consider the company as “forcibly closed” after contract workers shut the company’s entrances in Mar Mikhael in Beirut.

It warned in a statement that this measure “will lead to a power blackout throughout Lebanon within the next few hours.”

The cabinet discussed on Monday an electoral draft-law proposed by Interior Minister Marwan Charbel that is likely to hit a stumbling block over the rejection of ministers loyal to Progressive Socialist Party leader Walid Jumblat to adopt it.

The cabinet that convened at Baabda Palace agreed however to continue discussions on the draft-law that is based on proportional representation, Information Minister Walid al-Daouq said.

Two people were killed and five others were wounded on Sunday when a dispute between the families of Shaaban and Zahra erupted into gunfire in the Tripoli district of Bab al-Tabbaneh, state-run National News Agency reported.

The wounded were rushed to the Islamic Hospital in Tripoli as Internal Security Forces and army troops arrived immediately on the scene and contained the situation, NNA said.

One of the abducted Lebanese Shiite pilgrims in Syria on Sunday confirmed that the 11 kidnapped men are in the remote Aleppo area of Aazaz, blaming Hizbullah chief Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, without naming him, for their protracted captivity.

“We are in good health and we are in the remote Aazaz area which is liberated and not witnessing any bombardment,” abductee Ali Abbas said in a phone interview with LBCI.

The General Security received from Syrian authorities on Sunday two Italian technicians who went missing in Syria a few days ago.

The General Security announced in a statement that Oriano Cantari, 64, and Domenico Tedeschi, 36, were handed over to it after three days of coordination with the concerned powers.

Syrian renewed on Sunday its demand to Lebanon to prevent the infiltration of “terrorist groups” from its territories into its own.

Foreign Minister Walid al-Muallem stated: “We hope Lebanon would help thwart the infiltration, which will benefit it and Syria.”

A number of officials from the southern city of Sidon announced on Sunday that they have decided to call off Monday’s general strike in order to make room for government efforts to end Sheikh Ahmed al-Asir’s sit-in in the city.

The head of the Sidon merchants association Ali al-Sharif made the announcement after the meeting of political, economic and religious officials.

Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi urged on Sunday the participants of the national dialogue to assume their “historic responsibilities” towards their country.

He called on them during his Sunday sermon “to heed President Michel Suleiman’s invitation to attend the national dialogue session where they can tackle all pending issues, which are at the heart of the chaos in our state institutions.”

One Lebanese citizen was wounded during the rocket fire that targeted al-Buqaia region in Wadi Khaled on Saturday, reported the National News Agency on Sunday.

The rockets fired from the Syrian side of the border landed in the areas near al-Kabir River in Akkar.

A reporter for the American publication, The New Yorker, succeeded in meeting one of the abductors of the 11 Lebanese pilgrims, who revealed his willingness to hold negotiations over their release.

The New Yorker quoted the kidnapper, Abu Ibrahim, as saying that the abduction was aimed at sending a message to Shiites to support the Syrian people, not the regime.