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.

The Gulf countries will ban Lebanese citizens from entering their territories if the Lebanese state failed to take a firm stance from statements issued by Free Patriotic Movement leader Michel Aoun, media reports said on Tuesday.

According to al-Akhbar newspaper, Secretary-General of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) Abdullatif bin Rashid al-Zayani informed Lebanese Chargé d'affaires in Saudi Arabia Munir Anouti that the Gulf countries demand the government to take a strict stance from Aoun's statements on the developments in Bahrain.

The Free Syran Army Military Commander General Salim Idris said on Monday that he ordered his fighters to treat Hizbullah's captives as “mercenaries and not as prisoners of war”.

Idris elaborated that Hizbullah's fighters will be tried in military courts: “They will not be treated following the conditions mentioned in the international law and which mention a trade between the prisoners of the parties at war”.

Syria's opposition coalition condemned on Monday Iran and Hizbullah's “interference in Syrian matters”, considering it “a violation of international agreements that cannot be ignored”.

"The testimonies of several Syrians and the events documented so far all confirm a direct involvement of Hizbullah in the criminal activities in the country,” a statement released by the coalition said, elaborating that the party explains that it is “supporting President Bashar Assad against a conspiracy targeting him”.