Around 20 inmates rioted at the Baalbek prison to protest the delay in their trials, the National News Agency reported on Thursday.

“The prisoners are rioting in protest against the postponement of their trials, which is delaying the verdicts, as well as the absence of any medical care,” the NNA said.

March 14 opposition lawmakers continued their criticism of the cabinet on the third and last day of a parliamentary session aimed at assessing the performance of Premier Najib Miqati’s government.

Lebanese Forces MP George Adwan said in his statement to the assembly that almost a year after its formation and after holding 50 sessions, “this cabinet was mainly ruled by disputes between its members.”

The March 8 camp MPs continued their defense of the government during the third day of a parliament session aimed at assessing its performance.

Development and Liberation bloc MP Yassine Jaber kicked off the session by saying that the Lebanese people “have grown fed up with the political debates outside and within the government.”

Syrian Ambassador to Lebanon Ali Abdul Karim Ali stressed on Thursday that President Bashar Assad is fully implementing reforms, saying it is necessary to confront any power that doesn’t want the regime to play its role.

“Most Syrians support the reforms and the dialogue that President Assad and the Syrian leadership called for,” Ali told reporters after holding a meeting with Free Patriotic Movement leader MP Michel Aoun in Rabieh.

Three judges from the Justice Palace in Baabda received death threats on Thursday.

Investigations however revealed the threats to be a hoax.

Lebanese Forces chief Samir Geagea said Thursday that Lebanon’s development and economic problems would not be resolved as long as the “evil” continues to grip the country.

“We won’t be able to achieve our objective in terms of a capable and effective institutional state before the eradication of the evil,” Geagea told a visiting delegation.

Premier Najib Miqati kept mum to the severe criticism launched against him by March 14 opposition MPs during a parliamentary session but has vowed to make a calm response that sets the policies of his cabinet and future expectations.

Lawmakers attended the session on Thursday on its third and last day before Miqati issues his response to what his sources said were “parliamentary deliberations that led to a dispute between the majority and opposition to settle scores.”

Lebanese lawyers representing Syrian refugees in northern Lebanon filed a lawsuit to the first chief prosecutor of the Hague-based International Criminal Court (ICC) Luis Moreno-Ocampo against Syrian President Bashar Assad, the Kuwaiti al-Anba newspaper reported on Thursday.

The refugees accused Assad, who is the supreme commander of the Syrian Army and armed forces, and his accomplices of committing “murders, war crimes, genocides and crimes against humanity” in Syria since the March 2010 uprising against the regime.

Progressive Socialist Party leader Walid Jumblat rejected a proposal made by Speaker Nabih Berri to consider Lebanon a single electoral district in a proportional representation law that would be adopted in the upcoming parliamentary elections and lead to the establishment of a senate.

“Honestly, I am not excited for a senate now because if we want to implement the Taef Accord literally then the formation of the senate is linked to the abolishment of political confessionalism which I don’t think is appropriate for the time being,” Jumblat told As Safir daily published Thursday.

Prime Minister Najib Miqati denied on Thursday that a meeting was held with Tripoli MPs and cabinet ministers to tackle the crisis gripping the northern city’s municipal council.

According to a statement issued by his press office Miqati said: “The report is completely inaccurate.”