A year after the murder of Lebanese intellectual and Hizbullah critic Lokman Slim, his family is still searching for accountability in a country where crimes often go unpunished.

"We really need justice for Lokman," his widow Monika Borgmann told AFP from their home in the southern suburbs of the capital Beirut, days before the first anniversary of his killing.

Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea on Monday accused the Free Patriotic Movement and Hizbullah of seeking to postpone the parliamentary elections scheduled for May.

Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri on Monday hailed “the special achievement made by Lebanese security forces, especially the Intelligence Branch (of the Internal Security Forces) for busting a spy network working for the Israeli enemy inside Lebanon.”

“Once again, we salute and applaud the Lebanese security forces and their vigilant eyes for protecting Lebanon’s security and immunizing its civil peace,” Berri added.

Cabinet approved Monday an increase of social contributions for the public sector and for social welfare institutions, while no agreement was reached regarding the electricity treasury loan and the customs dollar.

A social contribution of 75% of the salary basis will be given for the public sector, as well as the pensioners.

President Michel Aoun on Monday asked Foreign Minister Abdallah Bou Habib to file a U.N. Security Council complaint against Israel over its violation of Lebanon’s airspace to carry out an overnight strike on Syria.

Aoun made the request during a Cabinet session in Baabda, in which Interior Minister Bassam al-Mawlawi briefed the conferees on the busting of “17 spy networks that were working for the Israeli enemy” inside Lebanon.

President Michel Aoun on Monday reminded that he has warned against the “deliberate procrastination by the central bank in terms of handing over the complete data that is requested by forensic audit firm Alvarez & Marsal.”

“The Presidency hopes that… the central bank’s governorship does not have anything to conceal in the central bank’s accounts,” the Presidency said in a statement.

Steps and Ideas to implement the U.N. resolution 1559 have started in Washington, according to Middle East expert and former Donald Trump foreign policy advisor Walid Phares.

Al-Liwaa newspaper quoted Phares as saying that the U.S. Congress will study a "security plan prepared by Lebanese groups" for "dividing Lebanon into two security zones."

Cabinet convened Monday at the Grand Serail to continue the discussion of the draft state budget.

The session will focus today on social welfare to families in need as Social Affairs Minister Hector Hajjar is expected to submit a proposal today.

Israeli strikes early Monday hit a military outpost and weapons depot operated by Hizbullah near the Syrian capital Damascus, a war monitor reported Monday.

"Sites operated by the Lebanese Hizbullah group... in the east Qalamoun region, northeast of Damascus, were hit by Israeli strikes at dawn," the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

Iraqi airstrikes killed nine suspected Islamic State fighters, including four Lebanese, in retaliation for an IS attack on Iraqi army barracks earlier this month, officials said Sunday.

IS gunmen in Iraq broke into a barracks in the mountainous al-Azim district outside the town of Baqouba on Jan. 21, killed a guard and shot dead 11 soldiers as they slept. It was one of the boldest attacks by the militants in recent weeks and came amid an uptick in violence that stoked fears the group has been re-energized.