Attorneys told a federal judge Tuesday that a Lebanese immigrant accused of placing a backpack he thought held a bomb near Chicago's Wrigley Field will plead guilty under an agreement worked out with prosecutors — a deal experts say may reflect the enormous odds the 23-year-old would face at trial.

The rift over the wage hike decree is persisting as the cabinet is expected to tackle the top-priority issue on its agenda on Wednesday amid disputes between the Economic Committees and the General Labor Confederation on a LL25,000 increase.

Intensive contacts were held on Tuesday by Prime Minister Najib Miqati in an attempt to resolve the dispute over the raise. Separate delegations from the GLC and the Economic Committees met with Miqati at the Grand Serail then headed to Ain al-Tineh for talks with Speaker Nabih Berri.

A three-member Maronite delegation has so far failed to bridge the differences between President Michel Suleiman and Free Patriotic Movement leader Michel Aoun on the right candidate for the post of the Higher Judicial Council president, sources told pan-Arab daily al-Hayat on Thursday.

The Maronite sources said that former Ministers Michel Edde and Wadih Khazen and the head of the Maronite League Joseph Tarabay were only able so far to set a meeting between Suleiman and Aoun who held talks at Baabda palace on Saturday.

Hizbullah chief Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah and Free Patriotic Movement leader Michel Aoun stressed their strong alliance and the importance of full coordination in the next stage during a meeting they held on Tuesday.

A statement released by Hizbullah’s press office on Wednesday said Nasrallah and Aoun “stressed the importance of full coordination and the adoption of an effective mechanism in this regard during the upcoming stage.”

Former Premier Saad Hariri has said that Hizbullah will stop being stronger than the state once it stops relying on its weapons to impose its will.

“I believe weapons should be only in the hands of the Lebanese government,” Hariri said on twitter on Tuesday night.

Defense Minister Fayez Ghosn on Tuesday warned that al-Qaida members have entered the country through the Bekaa border town of Arsal “under the guise of being members of the Syrian opposition,” noting that he will raise the issue in cabinet.

During a meeting at his office with a delegation of high-ranking Lebanese army officers, Ghosn said: “We have information that certain operations are taking place at some illegal border crossings, especially in Arsal, where weapons and some al-Qaida terrorist elements are entering (the country) under the guise of being members of the Syrian opposition.”

The Mustaqbal bloc condemned on Tuesday the recent clashes that erupted in Beirut, saying that the security incidents are a reminder to the Lebanese people of the dangerousness of the ongoing presence of armed groups in the capital.

It said in a statement after its weekly meeting: “These incidents were met with a lax approach by the security forces, which is a sign of the state’s waning power over the country.”

Free Patriotic Movement leader MP Michel Aoun hoped on Tuesday that political parties would grant the Orthodox gathering proposals over the parliamentary electoral an opportunity because its suggestions could probably be adopted in the 2013 parliamentary elections.

He said after the Change and Reform bloc’s weekly meeting: “We are experiencing the reasons that prompted the gathering to make its proposals in the first place.”

The director for United Nations and international organizations in the French Foreign Ministry Nicolas de Riviere renewed on Tuesday France’s support to Lebanon and its commitment to maintaining the stability and security of the South.

The French Embassy said in a statement: “De Riviere informed Lebanese officials during his trip to Lebanon that France will remain part of the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon in order to preserve the stability of Lebanon and the region.”

A gunfight erupted between the Internal Security Forces and Qobbeh residents in the northern port city of Tripoli on Tuesday after a dispute over efforts to curb illegal construction.

Voice of Lebanon radio station (93.3) said that Qobbeh residents in the area of al-Bqar held a sit-in against attempts by the ISF to end the construction of illegal buildings.