A hunch by a young Lebanese security officer prevented a potential massacre as scores of people watched a World Cup match in Beirut's Tayyouneh area, but it also cost his own life.

The intuition and bravery of 20-year-old General Security inspector Abdul Karim Hodroj meant he was hailed as a hero on Tuesday.

The Change and Reform bloc lamented on Tuesday the state of affairs in Lebanon, condemning the ongoing vacuum in the presidency.

MP Ibrahim Kanaan said after the bloc's weekly meeting: “The vacuum is a product of deliberate neglect and the solution lies in returning to the constitution.”

France said Tuesday one of its nationals had been arrested in Lebanon on suspicion of planning an attack under what a Lebanese newspaper claimed was the influence of the ISIL jihadist group sweeping through Iraq.

Lebanese security forces announced Friday they had detained 17 people at the Napoleon Hotel in Beirut's Hamra area following a tip-off that attacks by a "terrorist group" were being planned in the capital and other parts of the country.

Security forces at al-Qobbeh prison in the northern city of Tripoli succeeded on Tuesday in discovering drugs hidden inside a pair of shoes, reported the National News Agency.

It said that security forces discovered the drugs as a Lebanese national sought to deliver the shoes and other objects to an inmate.

U.N. Under-Secretary-General for Peacekeeping Operations Hervé Ladsous said Tuesday that the world body was exerting all efforts to help the Lebanese army.

“We are well aware of the resource constraints the army faces and we are making every effort at every level to garner international assistance necessary to bolster its capacity,” Ladsous said following talks with Lebanese officials.

A Syrian father was apprehended by the Internal Security Force after his wife filed a complaint against him for raping his 15-year-old daughter.

According to a communique issued by the ISF, Syrian national Walida F., the mother of the teenager, headed to the police, accompanied by her daughter and juvenile counselor Abeer al-Hajj, to press charges against her husband, identified by his initials A. N., over violently raping his daughter under torture.

Prime Minister Tammam Salam condemned on Tuesday the bombing that targeted an army checkpoint in Beirut's Tayyouneh neighborhood, deeming it an “ugly terrorist” act.

He said in a statement: “Lebanon will not turn into an open ground for sectarian meddling.”

Lebanese Forces chief Samir Geagea expressed pessimism on Tuesday on the ability of rival parties to elect a new president, saying he was not seeing light at the end of the tunnel amid an ongoing “war of elimination.”

“The patriarch hasn't been able to convince MP Michel Aoun to attend electoral sessions,” Geagea said following talks with Cardinal Beshara al-Rahi in Bkirki.

A Syrian and a Palestinian have been sentenced to death for belonging to the terrorist al-Nusra Front, reported the National News Agency on Tuesday.

It said that Military Tribunal Judge Imad al-Zein demanded the penalty against Syrian detainee Mahmoud al-Kaaki and Palestinian fugitive Ahmed Taha.

Washington condemned on Tuesday the Tayyouneh blast and reaffirmed support for the Lebanese army and Internal Security Forces.

The U.S. Embassy in Beirut denounced via twitter the attack that targeted an army checkpoint at the entrance of Beirut's southern suburbs.