President Michel Suleiman congratulated on Thursday the newly-appointed members of the Petroleum Authority and urged for unity in their work plan.

Energy Minister Jebran Bassil and the authority's six members visited Suleiman in Baabda palace to brief him on their work on decrees that regulate the stage of issuing tenders for oil exploration.

Palestinians fleeing the battleground between pro- and anti-regime forces at Yarmuk refugee camp in Damascus held a sit-in on Thursday near UNRWA office in al-Baddawi refugee camp in the northern city of Tripoli, demanding the organization to act responsibly towards their humanitarian crisis.

Protesters urged United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine refugees (UNRWA) “to act swiftly to implement a comprehensive emergency plan to aid the Palestinian refugees” fleeing the neighboring country Syria.

U.S. Ambassador to Lebanon Maura Connelly and U.N. Special Coordinator for Lebanon Derek Plumbly held separate talks on Thursday with Prime Minister Najib Miqati on the flow of refugees from Syria to Lebanon.

Connelly praised “the generosity of the Lebanese people and the efforts of the government, in conjunction with international partners and organizations, to provide humanitarian assistance to the growing number of Syrian and Palestinian refugees and affected Lebanese communities.”

An officer at Roumieh Prison, the oldest and largest of Lebanon's overcrowded prisons, was detained after allegedly smuggling prohibited items to inmates and being involved in illegal actions, al-Akhbar newspaper reported on Thursday.

According to the report, the officer is the warden of a bloc at the facility and accused of smuggling prohibited items, narcotics, in addition to involvement in discrimination against prisoners.

Sharp differences surfaced among cabinet members on how to deal with the mass influx of Syrian and Palestinian refugees into Lebanon from Syria, local newspapers said on Thursday.

According to An Nahar newspaper, Free Patriotic Movement's Energy Minister Jebran Bassil and Minister of State Ali Qanso from the Syrian Social Nationalist Party proposed during a cabinet session at the Grand Serail on Wednesday to close the border with Syria and halt the influx of the refugees.

Speaker Nabih Berri expressed hope on Thursday that a parliamentary subcommittee on the electoral draft-law would resume its meeting by the year's end.

In remarks to An Nahar daily, Berri said he was in continuous contact with the March 14 opposition alliance to pave way for the revival of the subcommittee before the New Year.

The Mufti of Tripoli and the north Sheikh Malek al-Shaar revealed on Wednesday details surrounding the alleged death threats he had received and which made him decide to prolong his stay in Europe.

In an interview on Future TV, al-Shaar said: “I have received several phone calls and I even met with army officers that advised me to be cautious as my movements are being watched”.

The United Nations warned Lebanon on Wednesday that the alleged Lebanese fighting in Syria's civil war put the country increasingly at risk of being dragged into the conflict.

The U.N. Security Council meanwhile expressed concern over Syrian army operations in the Golan Heights ceasefire zone with Israel and said that also threatens to extend the 21-month old civil war.

The U.S. government is not seeking to build a telecommunications network in Lebanon as was alleged in an article published by As Safir newspaper on December 15, announced the U.S. Embassy in a statement on Wednesday.

“We understand that a request for bandwidth access for internet use on behalf of the U.S. military was made by a U.S. law firm acting for the private company that provides internet service for the U.S. military,” it explained.

First Military Investigation Judge Riyad Abu Ghida received on Wednesday a file on the complete identity of Syrian security chief Ali Mamlouk, reported the National News Agency.

The file contains the name of the mother of the Syrian official, who is charged, along with former Minister Michel Samaha of forming a criminal gang aimed at carrying out attacks in Lebanon at Syria's behest.