The upcoming cabinet session at the Baabda Palace is expected to witness a confrontation with President Michel Suleiman over the formation of an independent authority overseeing the elections.

Sources in the March 8 majority told As Safir newspaper that a decision was taken to vote against the formation of the committee.

Dar al-Fatwa clerics Sheikh Mazen Hariri and Sheikh Ahmed Fakhran were beaten up on Sunday while passing through the Beirut area of Khandaq al-Ghamiq, state-run National News Agency reported.

They were transported to the Makassed Hospital in Tariq al-Jedideh for treatment, NNA said.

Shells fired Sunday during clashes inside Syria struck the outskirts of the Akkar towns of al-Noura, al-Qashlaq, Wadi al-Hour, Janine and Amar al-Baikat, Lebanon's National News Agency reported.

LBCI television reported that the shelling also targeted the outskirts of the town of al-Arma.

The army on Sunday arrested a man who opened fire on the Sidon predominantly Shiite neighborhood of Haret Saida, as anti-Hizbullah Islamist cleric Sheikh Ahmed al-Asir denied that the detainee is one of his supporters.

Earlier on Sunday, MTV said "army intelligence agents arrested al-Asir's supporter Hilal Zeidan for opening fire on the Haret Saida neighborhood."

Free Patriotic Movement leader MP Michel Aoun on Sunday stressed that the government's so-called self-dissociation policy towards the Syrian crisis does not mean “allowing these clashes to move to Lebanon,” warning against “foreign interference” in Lebanon.

“I hold the prime minister (Najib Miqati) responsible, because dissociating ourselves from Syria's clashes does not mean allowing these clashes to spill over into Lebanon,” Aoun said during a tour of the Kesrouan district.

The March 14 alliance on Sunday commemorated the eighth anniversary of the 2005 Independence Uprising at the Beirut International Exhibition and Leisure Center (BIEL), amid the absence of its top leaders over security fears.

“I'm truly confident that March 14 will go on,” head of al-Mustaqbal parliamentary bloc, former premier Fouad Saniora, vowed in a brief speech at the rally.

Cautious calm engulfed the northern city of Tripoli on Sunday as at least two people were wounded by sniper fire in Jabal Mohsen, one day after two men from the neighborhood were wounded in a knife attack at a nearby vegetable market.

Quoting Abdul Latif Saleh, a spokesman for the Arab Democratic Party which is the main political and military group in Jabal Mohsen, the National News Agency said Ali Abdullah, aka Al-Haskeh, was hit by a sniper bullet that penetrated his shoulder. He was rushed to al-Zahraa Dispensary for treatment.

Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi discussed on Sunday with Speaker Nabih Berri and Prime Minister Najib Miqati in Rome the controversial electoral law.

Berri was quoted as saying after the meeting that he will agree on any electoral law that has the consensus of the rival March 14 and 8 alliances.

A man accused of killing another in a family dispute at Burj al-Shamali Palestinian refugee camp in the southern city of Tyre was handed over to the army on Sunday.

According to the state-run National News Agency, Qassem Jamal Saleh, who opened fire on Saturday night at Imad Zayyan al-Qassem, killing him, was handed over to the army in Tyre barracks.

President Michel Suleiman stressed on Sunday that he rejects attempts by any country to impose its stance concerning the upcoming parliamentary election, noting that the capacities of the Lebanese army should be fortified.

“It should be clear. No Lebanese president would accept being directed by any country concerning the electoral law,” Suleiman said at a meeting with the Lebanese community in Ghana during an official visit.