The residents of northern border towns blocked the roads that lead to Syria on Wednesday to prevent fuel tanker trucks from crossing into the country, the state-run National News Agency reported.

NNA said protesters from the town of Arida that has a crossing with Syria blocked the international highway with rocks and barbed wires in the morning over the alleged smuggling of oil and diesel. They reopened it around 2:00 pm after MP Moeen al-Merehbi negotiated with them.

The cabinet formed on Wednesday a committee headed by Justice Minister Shakib Qortbawi to study the establishment of the independent authority overseeing the elections.

“The committee includes two judicial figures,” Information Minister Walid al-Daouq told reporters after the session that was held at the Baabda Palace.

New oil reserves were found off Lebanon's shore along it's northern maritime boundary with Cyprus and Syria, which could generate billions of dollars.

According to a report published by Beicip Franlab, a French consultant, there are around 440 million barrels of oil in the area and the quantity could reach 675 million barrels.

Speaker Nabih Berri has admonished Prime Minister Najib Miqati during a telephone conversation on his alleged support for the 1960 electoral law that is based on a winner-takes-all system, As Safir daily reported on Wednesday.

During their conversation on Tuesday night, Berri asked Miqati whether he is supporting the 1960 law and has backed off from a government draft-law referred to the parliament last summer that calls for dividing Lebanon into 13 districts based on a proportional representation system.

Israel’s ambassador to the United Nations has criticized the European Union for regarding Hizbullah as a legitimate political organization, urging it to designate the party a terrorist party.

“Calling Hizbullah a charity is like calling al-Qaida an urban-planning organization because of its desire to level tall buildings,” Ambassador Ron Prosor told the U.N. Security Council on Tuesday in an open debate on the protection of civilians in armed conflict.

March 14 MP Butros Harb denied overnight reports that two men detained for the possession of hashish, were his bodyguards, pointing out that he is holding on to his right to prosecute any person who “impersonates" him.

“MP Harb denies that any of his staff members or bodyguards use drugs. The MP was surprised with the news,” a statement issued by his press office on Tuesday night said.

Bulgaria has given Europol the names of two of the people suspected in a bus bombing that killed five Israeli tourists last year, with hopes that the police agency can trace their movements and uncover how they financed the attack, the country's interior minister said.

The European country also has requested that Lebanese authorities arrest and extradite the two suspects, who are allegedly Hizbullah members and believed to be living in Lebanon, an official said.

Al-Watan Saudi newspaper published on Tuesday a caricature criticizing Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi's visit to Syria, which sparked popular outrage on social media websites.

Jihad Awrati's caricature replaced al-Rahi's mitre with a rocket and highlighted the common letters between the patriarch and the Syrian president's names in Arabic.

The Anti-Drug Bureau of the Internal Security Forces on Tuesday seized three grams of hashish from a car in the Bekaa region and found a fake vehicle registration certificate carrying the name of MP Butros Harb in the possession of the driver, state-run National News Agency reported.

Earlier on Tuesday, OTV said “the Anti-Drug Bureau seized a quantity of drugs from the car of a northern MP."

The Energy Ministry announced on Tuesday that fuel tankers captured transporting oil to Syria are filled by private companies, stressing that the cabinet is not committed to the sanctions imposed on the neighboring country.

"All matters related to exporting fuel from the ministry's reservoirs in the Tripoli and al-Zahrani refineries are strictly under its powers,” the ministry said in a released statement.