President Michel Suleiman called on Syria to investigate the deadly cross-border shooting that targeted an al-Jadeed TV crew on Monday “in order to prevent the recurrence of such attacks,” as Premier Najib Miqati urged Damascus to “hold the perpetrators accountable” and ex-PM Saad Hariri blamed Miqati’s government for “turning a blind eye to the Syrian violations.”

Suleiman telephoned al-Jadeed’s owner, Tahsin Khayyat, expressing his condolences. He also telephoned Justice Minister Shakib Qortbawi, Higher Lebanese-Syrian Council chief Nasri Khouri and Lebanese Ambassador to Syria Michel Khouri, asking them to follow up on the investigations.

Al-Jadeed TV cameraman Ali Shaaban was killed on Monday in the northern border area of Wadi Khaled when he and two of his colleagues came under gunfire from the Syrian side of the border.

Reporter Hussein Khreis and cameraman Abed Khayyat managed to escape unharmed.

Phalange Party leader Amine Gemayel expressed fear on Monday that the Syrian turmoil might spill into Lebanon over the sharp differences between parties on their stances from the regime.

“Lebanon should disassociate itself from the developments in Syria,” he told reporters.

Burglars shot dead a citizen who tried to stop them from stealing his neighbor’s house in the town of Bechmezzine in Koura in northern Lebanon, the National News Agency reported on Monday.

According to the news agency the thieves were trying to rob the house of Kamil al-Najjar, when his neighbor George al-Najjar heard the noises and tried to stop them.

The March 14 forces warned the cabinet on Monday against handing over any Syrian refugees who entered the country to escape the Syrian regime’s crackdown against protests, the Kuwaiti newspaper al-Seyassah reported.

According to sources the opposition will take all the necessary measures on the issue and will hold the government responsible for the repercussions of such a decision on Lebanon.

The March 14 forces MPs are expected to discuss the telecom data during the general parliamentary sessions set to assess the cabinet’s performance on April 17-19, the pan-Arab daily al-Hayat reported on Monday.

According to the daily, Telecommunications Minister Nicolas Sehnaoui will be questioned about preventing the security authorities from obtaining the telecom data.

Prime Minister Najib Miqati held talks last week away from the media spotlight with Progressive Socialist Party leader MP Walid Jumblat, revealed the pan-Arab daily al-Hayat on Monday.

Ministerial sources said that the talks focused on the government deadlock over a number of issues, with the premier stressing that he will avoid a dispute with the MP “at all costs.”

Mortar rounds fired from the Syrian side of the border targeted a number of Lebanese towns in the vicinity of the al-Masharfeh area in the northern region of Wadi Khaled on Sunday evening, LBC television reported.

On Tuesday, Syrian troops staged a brief incursion into Lebanese territory amid fierce clashes with rebel forces, local official and residents said.

Sheikh Nabil Qaouq, deputy head of Hizbullah’s Executive Council, on Sunday said his party backs Premier Najib Miqati’s government out of “keenness on political stability and security in Lebanon and not because it is satisfied with its performance.”

The top Hizbullah official described the government’s performance as “slow, floundering and unconvincing.”

Progressive Socialist Party leader MP Walid Jumblat on Sunday stressed that his support for the Syrian uprising does not imply a change in his domestic alliances, noting that his ministers will not resign from Premier Najib Miqati’s government.

“We stress the firm stances: we will stay in this government and we are with (Hizbullah’s) weapons in order to defend Lebanon in the face of Israel, but we reject the use of arms domestically,” Jumblat said during a meeting with his party’s cadres in the Mount Lebanon town of al-Khalwat.