Lebanese Democratic Party leader Talal Arslan remained mum on Sunday on whether he would grant his vote of confidence to the new cabinet after he resigned from the government the day it was formed.

Arslan is considering the nomination of his brother-in-law Marwan Kheireddine to replace him as minister of state. The MP resigned last Monday hours after the cabinet was announced, accusing Premier Najib Miqati of discriminating against the Druze community and other minority groups.

Interior Minister Marwan Charbel vowed on Sunday to prevent the Internal Security Forces from entering the political game and said he would hold them accountable if they made mistakes.

In remarks to Voice of Lebanon radio station (100.5), Charbel said he won’t allow any side to shove politics into security agencies because politics had ruined them.

Hizbullah has uncovered spies within the ranks of the party’s leadership, creating a shock to both the Shiite party and Israel, the Kuwaiti daily al-Rai reported Sunday.

The newspaper said that the discovery was made around three months ago when Hizbullah intentionally sent “fateful information” to Israelis and put the suspects under tight surveillance.

Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi said Sunday that he gave his blessing to the new cabinet when President Michel Suleiman and Premier Najib Miqati signed the decrees of its formation.

Before heading to the Vatican, al-Rahi said the government should meet the expectations of the Lebanese and its top priority should be to restore trust and unity among the people.

Sources close to Premier Najib Miqati have accused the March 14 forces of truncating his remarks on the incidents in the northern port city of Tripoli to create tension.

In remarks to al-Mustaqbal newspaper published Sunday, the sources expressed surprise at “not taking Miqati’s statement seriously in an attempt to fabricate a new source of political differences.”

Al-Mustaqbal movement Secretary-General Ahmed Hariri confirmed that former Prime Minister Saad Hariri’s convoy was closely monitored after a report said that the Syrian regime was planning to assassinate him.

“The security caution taken by Hariri is very serious,” Ahmed Hariri told pan-Arab daily Asharq al-Awsat in remarks published Sunday.

The Lebanese army is expected to remain in a state of alert in the northern port city of Tripoli for a period of three to six months to contain the latest deadly clashes that erupted between Alawites and Sunnis over a rally against the Syrian government.

Officials in Tripoli that are in contact with security authorities told An Nahar daily published Sunday that “the army succeeded in putting an end to the lava of the Syrian volcano and would continue along with the security forces to confront” a new eruption.

President Michel Suleiman has blamed March 14 politicians over allegedly ending their support to him while the new opposition advised him to become neutral or face the consequences of its campaign against the new government.

An Nahar daily said Sunday that both sides have blamed each other through common friends. Suleiman believes that March 14 stopped supporting him when it decided to boycott the cabinet.

She grew up amid the Lebanese civil war and was orphaned at 9. A nursing director who came to admire businesswomen, Andree "Sara" Bejjani moved to New York to foster her new career in her 40s, settling in an apartment in an elegant hotel overlooking Manhattan's Central Park. She felt safe there, she told her sister.

Within months, Bejjani was found strangled on her kitchen floor at the Jumeriah Essex House with a knife sticking out of her neck, police said. She had been murdered by a housekeeping manager who used his employee key card to break into her apartment and attack her as she slept.

The North’s Lebanon First MPs lamented on Saturday that the residents of the deprived areas in Lebanon would have to pay the price of petty disputes in Lebanon, reported the National News Agency.

They said after holding a meeting at MP Samir al-Jisr’s residence: “We are even more saddened by Prime Minister Najib Miqati’s indirect accusation against the opposition of being responsible for the unrest when he said that the opposition must be ‘constructive and peaceful’.”