A cabinet session will be held at Baabda Palace instead of the Grand Serail on Wednesday given “the importance and the seriousness of the topics to be discussed”, the Turkish state-run Anadolu Agency reported on Tuesday.

Wednesday's session will try to contain the discontent over Free Patriotic Movement leader MP Michel Aoun's comments on the current situation in Bahrain.

A statement attributed to the Free Syrian Army gave Hizbullah on Tuesday a 48-hour ultimatum to halt its alleged operations in Syrian territories, warning that it will retaliate to the sources of fire inside Lebanon.

“If Hizbullah didn't halt shelling Syrian territories, villages and civilians from Lebanese territories within 48 hours, we will strike back,” a statement attributed to the rebel FSA said.

Beirut airport security officers have thwarted an attempt to smuggle narcotic pills to Saudi Arabia, the state-run National News Agency reported on Tuesday.

NNA said that the officers searched a 25-year-old Jordanian after suspicion fell on him.

Al-Mustaqbal movement leader former PM Saad Hariri condemned on Tuesday the approval of the Orthodox Gathering electoral draft-law, describing the step as a “black day in the history of the parliament.”

“Approving the Orthodox electoral draft-law in the joint parliamentary committees is a black day in the history of legislative work,” Hariri said on his twitter account.

The Internal Security Forces removed on Tuesday posters mocking Saudi King Abdullah in a move considered as a response to a caricature published in a Saudi newspaper on Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi.

According to Voice of Lebanon radio (100.5) the posters were erected in the areas of Jal el-Dib and Fanar.

Foreign Minister Adnan Mansour traveled to Moscow on Tuesday to attend the Arab-Russian Forum and hold talks with Russian officials on the situation in Syria.

In remarks carried by the state-run National News Agency, Mansour said the foreign ministers of Egypt, Iraq and Kuwait, and the Arab League chief will attend the forum.

A meeting between Prime Minister Najib Miqati and a delegation from the Syndicate Coordination Committee on Tuesday failed to resolve the dispute over the new wage scale for public employees.

Public Secondary School Education Teachers Association Hanna Gharib described the meeting as “negative” and stressed that the SCC will go ahead with its escalatory measures to “confront a conspiracy” by the cabinet and the Economic Committees against public employees.

British Foreign Secretary William Hague is expected to arrive in Lebanon this week on a short visit to meet with senior officials in a tour that includes several countries in the region.

As Safir newspaper reported on Tuesday that Hague will tackle several issues with President Michel Suleiman, Speaker Nabih Berri, Prime Minister Najib Miqati, and his counterpart FM Adnan Mansour.

High-ranking judicial sources expected on Tuesday former Minister Michel Samaha to be indicted in the next few days pending his trial on counts of terrorism.

The sources told al-Liwaa newspaper that Samaha's case would be referred to the permanent military court for trial after Military Examining Magistrate Riyad Abu Ghida issues the final indictment in the case.

Hopes for consensus between rival lawmakers on an electoral law were shattered on Tuesday after lawmakers from several blocs withdrew from the meeting of the joint parliamentary committees in protest at the adoption of the so-called Orthodox Gathering proposal.

“We proposed today a 48-hour postponement of discussions” on article 2 of the proposal “to pave way for the success of deliberations held outside the parliament,” al-Mustaqbal MP Ahmed Fatfat told reporters after pulling out of the meeting.