Government is scheduled to convene at the Baabda Palace on Thursday with 57 articles on its agenda, the most prominent of which is the appointment of Fouad Khoury as deputy director of general security, reported the daily al-Liwaa on Thursday.

The appointment was suggested by Interior Minister Marwan Charbel seeing as Khoury is the longest serving officer at the General Security Department and he is among the six officers who joined the department in recent months at an order by the Shura Council.

U.S. Treasury Assistant Secretary for Terrorist Financing Daniel Glaser held a meeting on Thursday with Prime Minister Najib Miqati, Bank of Lebanon Governor Riyad Salameh, and a number of representatives from the Lebanese banking community.

Glaser emphasized the need for Lebanon to take the necessary steps to ensure a transparent and well-regulated financial sector for Lebanon’s continued prosperity.

Rajaa Sharafeddine, the daughter of a Syrian opposition member who was allegedly kidnapped in the eastern Lebanese region of Aley, has demanded that Hizbullah mediate with its close ally Syria the release of her father, Shebli al-Aysami.

She told the pan-Arab daily Asharq al-Awsat in remarks published on Thursday that the Syrian regime “should not turn its mistake into a sin and it should therefore ensure his immediate release.”

The March 14-led opposition wants to debrief the cabinet and Prime Minister Najib Miqati over the “security scandal” in Lebanon, An Nahar newspaper reported on Thursday.

The report said that this “scandal” includes the kidnapping of Syrian opposition figures in Lebanon and the “security and media ban the security forces imposed on the northern Lebanese area of Wadi Khaled” near Syria.

Former Prime Minister Saad Hariri is eager to return to Lebanon, but an exact date for his return has not been set yet, revealed sources close to him told al-Joumhouria newspaper on Thursday.

It reported that security and personal reasons are preventing him from returning to Lebanon.

President Michel Suleiman held separate talks on Wednesday with a number of security officials, urging them to intensify their efforts in maintaining Lebanon’s security given the current situation in the country, reported the daily An Nahar Thursday.

He held talks with General Security chief Abbas Ibrahim, Internal Security Forces chief Ashraf Rifi, Military Intelligence Director Edmond Fadel, and General Director of State Security George Qaraa.

The media campaign that is targeting the Lebanese army aims at forcing it to lift its control of the Lebanese-Syrian border, As Safir newspaper reported on Thursday.

“The military should remain neutral. They want chaos along the border, but the army will not be affected by their (campaign),” high-ranking military sources told the daily.

Prime Minister Najib Miqati arrived back to Beirut from London on Wednesday evening and immediately contacted Higher Relief Council Chief, Brigadier Ibrahim Bashir, asking him to follow up on the humanitarian situation of Syrian refugees in Lebanon.

“Rumors about the halt of aid to the refugees is untrue and falls under political propaganda” Miqati said in a statement.

Revered Lebanese spiritual leader Moussa al-Sadr, who went missing in Libya in 1978, was "liquidated" at the time, a former aide to Moammar Gadhafi said Wednesday.

The fate of the Iranian-born Shiite cleric has been unknown since he vanished during a trip to Libya aimed at negotiating an end to Lebanon's 1975-1990 civil war.

Former Prime Minister Saad Hariri said Wednesday that Premier Najib Miqati will not resign, stressing that the fall of the Syrian regime will solve some of the problems in Lebanon.

Hariri said on Twitter fielding questions from his supporters that he never wanted to go into politics, “but in a split second in 2005 everything changed.”