Unknown assailants kidnapped a 21-year-old Lebanese in eastern Lebanon and asked for a 2-million-dollar ransom in return for his release, the National News Agency reported Monday.

NNA said the kidnappers seized Hussam al-Besharrawi around 2:00 am while he was driving his Range Rover in Ras Baalbek.

A judicial committee is expected to meet on Monday to decide whether to allow security agencies to have access to the so-called telecommunications data for “urgent security reasons,” As Safir daily reported.

The newspaper said that the Army Intelligence, the General Security Department and the Internal Security Forces Intelligence Branch had asked for “all data,” which enables the tracking of telephone communications.

Foreign Minister Adnan Mansour confirmed on Monday that two Lebanese were among the dead in the plane crash in Nigeria’s largest city.

One of the victims, a contractor, is from the Awad family, Mansour told Voice of Lebanon radio station (93.3).

The cabinet is expected to approve Finance Minister Mohammad Safadi’s proposal for the allocation of $100 million in a treasury loan to finance projects in the northern city of Tripoli, An Nahar daily reported Monday.

The newspaper quoted sources as saying that the issue would most probably be settled for being the first item on the agenda of the cabinet that is now scheduled to meet at Baabda Palace on Thursday under President Michel Suleiman to resume discussions on the 2012 draft state budget after it was postponed for one day.

A delegation from the Progressive Socialist Party and the National Struggle Front that are headed by MP Walid Jumblat will visit Speaker Nabih Berri on Monday to discuss with him the National Dialogue that is set to take place in Baabda next week, An Nahar daily reported.

The newspaper said the delegation’s expected visit to Ain el-Tineh comes against the backdrop of Jumblat’s announcement on Sunday that only dialogue can prevent a spillover of the Syrian crisis into Lebanon.

Syrian authorities on Sunday released two Lebanese citizens abducted by Syrian forces on Wednesday from the northern border town of al-Abboudiyeh.

The abduction led to an uproar in the region and prompted residents to block the international highway.

Progressive Socialist Party leader MP Walid Jumblat has stressed that only dialogue can prevent a spillover of the Syrian crisis into Lebanon, saying the Lebanese have two options: “entering the Syrian inferno or organizing their disputes.”

During a meeting with Lebanese expats on Saturday in Kuwait, Jumblat described the latest clashes in Tripoli as “very dangerous,” urging Lebanese leaders to avoid a crisis in the key northern city.

President Michel Suleiman on Sunday held talks in Kuwait with Emir Sheikh Sabah al-Ahmed al-Sabah on “strengthening the brotherly and special bilateral ties” between the countries and “the latest developments in the region and the world,” Kuwait’s state-run news agency KUNA reported.

Suleiman, who arrived in Kuwait at noon Sunday, was accompanied by Deputy Prime Minister Samir Moqbel.

Phalange Party leader Amin Gemayel on Sunday said his party has agreed to take part in national dialogue to underline that “we will not tolerate the continued presence of illegal arms outside state control.”

“We in the Phalange Party have supported the president’s call for dialogue, despite our awareness of the current negativities in the country and the other camp’s intentions, in order to create a national environment that allows the state to address people’s concerns away from the major political conflicts,” Gemayel said in a speech during the inauguration of a party office in the Batroun town of Kfar Abida.

Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi urged on Sunday the government to be up to the task of facing challenges in Lebanon.

He stressed during his Sunday sermon “the importance of national dialogue given the political, security, economic, and social situation in the country.”