The Lebanese army denied a media report that Hizbullah members have prevented it from inspecting a truck loaded with weapons in the western Bekaa valley.

The army command said in a communique late Saturday that neither party members intercepted the army unit nor there was a military presence in the region of Khirbet Qanafar.

Nearly 14,000 Syrian refugees had fled the crackdown in their country to Lebanon according to a report issued on Saturday by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees.

According to the UNHCR the number of registered Syrians in Lebanon includes 8,148 in the north, more than 5,000 in Western Bekaa, and around 1,200 in Northern Bekaa as the numbers are rising daily.

Boxes of expired medicine were found dumped in Akkar in a trash container as authorities are carrying on a firm crackdown on harmful goods across Lebanon, the National News Agency reported.

According to the news agency, the violators tried to burn the expired medicine boxes in order to hide any evidence, however, their attempt failed.

President Michel Suleiman called on the competent security and judiciary authorities to exert efforts to implement stricter food safety measures, the National News Agency reported on Saturday.

“If security is a priority, then the citizens’ health and their right to eat safe food is sacred,” Suleiman said.

Interior Minister Marwan Charbel visited Roumieh prison on Saturday where he presented checks to inmates whose jail sentences were complete and who also cannot afford their bail.

He revealed that future steps will follow this one at other jails in Lebanon.

The Earth Day celebrations that are set for March 30 will take place at the Beaufort, or Shqeef, Castle in southern Lebanon, reported the National News Agency on Saturday.

Abdul Malek Sukkariyeh, the media coordinator of the rally, announced that the Lebanese army had officially permitted the staging of event.

The head of the takfiri network that has been recently discovered in Lebanon is currently residing in the Ain el-Hilweh Palestinian refugee camp in southern Lebanon, reported Voice of Lebanon radio on Saturday.

Jamaa al-Islamiyya official Bassam Hammoud told the radio that Abu Mohammed Toufic Taha is controlling three al-Qaida cells in Lebanon and he works for Majed al-Majed, a Saudi member of the terrorist group.

Daylight-saving time will begin in Lebanon at midnight where clocks should be set an hour ahead as per a decree issued by cabinet earlier this month.

The move will put Beirut 3 hours ahead of Greenwich Mean Time.

Foreign Minister Adnan Mansour announced that Lebanon must help Syria end its crisis because it is a “sister state” with which “we share special and historic ties that cannot be abandoned,” reported As Safir newspaper on Saturday.

He told the newspaper: “Lebanon will not recognize the Syrian National Council.”

Progressive Socialist Party leader MP Walid Jumblat demanded on Friday that the ruling Assad family in Syria be removed from the country.

He said: “Anyone who believes that a settlement can be reached with the Assad family is crazy.”