The March 14 General Secretariat condemned on Wednesday Hizbullah and the AMAL movement’s shutdown of the Zahrani power plant, accusing them of committing militia practices aimed at harming the Lebanese state.

It said in a statement after its weekly meeting: “It was an attempt to increase their control over the legitimate state institutions and create more closed security and economic zones outside the state’s control similar to the zones that Hizbullah has created.”

The Maronite Bishops Council voiced its fears on Wednesday over the various security incidents that have taken place in Lebanon, stressing that the country’s sovereignty should not be undermined.

It expressed in a statement after its monthly meeting its concern of the possibility of the unrest in Syria spreading to Lebanon.

U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs Jeffrey Feltman stressed on Wednesday the need for Lebanon to continue its cooperation with the Special Tribunal for Lebanon.

He said after holding talks with Prime Minsiter Najib Miqati that he does not believe that Lebanon wants to wage a confrontation with the Arab and international communities.

Tension was high at the Palestinian refugee camp of Ain el-Hilweh in southern Lebanon on Wednesday after the bodyguard of a Fatah official was severely injured in a shooting, the National News Agency reported said.

The state-run agency said Uday Hammad, the bodyguard of Fatah’s military chief Brig. Gen. Sobhi Abu Arab, received gunshot wounds in different parts of his body. He was taken to Labib Medical Center in Sidon.

An Iranian daily said Wednesday that Tehran may transfer to Syria and Hizbullah intelligence from a U.S. drone that was allegedly downed by Iranian armed forces.

The report came in the conservative Mellat newspaper as state radio said that the unmanned spy plane was deep inside Iran's airspace, flying over an eastern town famous for Persian carpets and saffron when it was downed.

Speaker Nabih Berri said on Thursday that the parliament would convene on December 14 at 11:00 am as a follow-up of the first question and answer session.

The last Q&A session, which was held on November 16, had seven questions on its agenda. While cabinet ministers answered them, Berri decided to put four of them on the agenda of an official inquiry.

Scores of inmates at Roumieh prison have gone on hunger strike to demand general amnesty and protest the parliament’s rejection of a bill on lowering the prison year to nine months.

The state-run National News Agency said 187 prisoners went on hunger strike at the prison’s Ward B.

Internal Security Forces chief Maj. Gen. Ashraf Rifi was chosen as “Man of the Year 2011″ in a ceremony held in Dubai on Tuesday.

Rifi was awarded a Gold Medal in the field of security leadership excellence at the event organized by the Arab Organization for Administrative Development of the Arab League and the Academy of Excellence and Quality.

The leader of the opposition Syrian National Council, Burhan Ghalioun, has warned that Hizbullah and Iran are risking their future relations with Syria by supporting President Bashar Assad.

In an interview with CNN on Tuesday, Ghalioun said: "The Syrian people stood completely by Hizbullah once. But today, they are surprised that Hizbullah did not return the favor and support the Syrian people’s struggle for freedom."

Prime Minister Najib Miqati on Tuesday hit back at Change and Reform bloc chief MP Michel Aoun, without naming him, saying “not everyone preaching reform is necessarily a reformist!”

“People have the ability to differentiate between those seeking to put the country’s interest above all else and those continuously seeking to build personal loyalties,” Miqati said on the social networking website Twitter.