U.N. Special Coordinator for Lebanon Derek Plumbly discussed with Speaker Nabih Berri on Tuesday preparations for the 2013 parliamentary elections.

He revealed after the talks the formation of a U.N. “technical unit” to provide support during next years polls.

Pope Benedict XVI will not intervene politically in the Syrian crisis during his visit to the Middle East this week or tell Catholics where their alliances should lie, the Vatican said Tuesday.

"The pope will not present himself as a powerful political leader" or make "big speeches of a political nature" when he travels to Lebanon on Friday for a three-day trip, Vatican spokesman Federico Lombardi said at a press conference.

A tiny village in northern Lebanon, perched on a hill overlooking Syria, Minjez is a bucolic and peaceful place by day but terrorized at night by shelling from across the border.

"We can't sleep a wink," laments Marcele Shahine, a 37-year-old mother of four. "The other night a rocket hit a house, but happily no one was there."

Prime Minister Najib Miqati threw his weight behind the army on Tuesday, criticizing some politicians for shoving the military institution into political differences that flourish ahead of parliamentary elections.

“The support for the army should be a common denominator because it has proved that it remained at a single distance from everyone and worked for the service of Lebanon and its people without any distinction,” Miqati said during talks with army chief Gen. Jean Qahwaji.

Hizbullah has between 60,000 and 70,000 rockets aimed at Israel, the Jewish state's Defense Ministry Diplomatic-Security chief said Monday.

Speaking at the International Institute for Counter-Terrorism's World Summit, Amos Gilad said Hizbullah has stockpiled rockets of various types, and its arsenal is far more robust than the one it had prior to the 2006 war with Israel.

Unknown assailants robbed the bag of a Syrian passenger at Rafik Hariri International Airport, which contains more than $30,000 of jewelery, the National News Agency reported on Tuesday.

26-year-old M. al-Makh was on her way to Dubai when unknown assailants snatched her bag that she claimed it contained 4 diamond rings, a bracelet and other jewelry items.

A meeting held between Speaker Nabih Berri and Prime Minister Najib Miqati was not “exceptional,” informed sources told al-Liwaa newspaper on Tuesday.

The sources said that the meeting in Ain al-Tineh on Monday was to reinforce the personal ties between the two officials, who tackled the general situation in the country.

The Lebanese Army said it freed at dawn Tuesday four Syrians kidnapped by al-Meqdad clan during a raid in Beirut's southern suburbs that allegedly left a Turkish abductee injured.

Moreover, LBCI reported that the Turkish abductee was freed Tuesday evening and handed over to the Lebanese authorities at the General Directorate of General Security in the presence of the Turkish ambassador, General Security Chief Abbas Ibrahim and Interior Minister Marwan Charbel.

The incriminating evidence that former General Security chief Jamil al-Sayyed accompanied ex-Minister Michel Samaha when he transported explosives from Syria to Lebanon last month was a DNA sample, security sources said.

The sources told An Nahar daily published on Tuesday that the Internal Security Forces analyzed the sample after being taken from Samaha’s vehicle.

Despite the dilemma over the funding of the new wages scale, the salaries hike wasn't limited to public sector employees but also reached the salaries and compensations of the three top presidential posts of the country, the ministers and the parliament members, As Safir newspaper reported on Tuesday.

According to the report, the president, the speaker and the premier will collectively have an increase of around LL 6,200,000 while the ministers and MPs will be allocated around LL4,300,000, where the state's treasury will have to hold a burden of around LL8,300,000,000 each year.