Former premier Saad Hariri on Monday called on Lebanon’s workers to “put an end to this farce and raise the voice” against the government whose members are “stealing public money.”

In a press release marking Labor Day, which Lebanon observes on May 1, Hariri said “workers are the productive class in our society and it is our duty to celebrate their day with them.”

The Phalange Party questioned on Monday the government’s ability to allow expatriates to vote in the 2013 parliamentary elections.

It said in a statement after its weekly politburo meeting: “Its failure to grant them such a right may force us to question the legitimacy of the electoral process.”

Free Patriotic Movement leader MP Michel Aoun on Monday accused the opposition March 14 camp of “practicing obstruction” and slammed Progressive Socialist Party leader MP Walid Jumblat over his rejection of an electoral law based on proportional representation.

“The parliamentary minority is practicing obstruction in collusion with some of the executive authority, and we will not remain silent over this issue even if some people launched verbal attacks,” Aoun told reporters after the weekly meeting of the Change and Reform parliamentary bloc in Rabiyeh.

Progressive Socialist Party leader MP Walid Jumblat questioned on Monday the insistence to adopt proportional representation in the parliamentary electoral law.

He noted in his weekly editorial in the PSP-affiliated al-Anbaa magazine: “Such a law will, in one way or another, help reproduce the era of hegemony in Lebanon, which will therefore be rejected by all the Lebanese people.”

U.S. Secretary of State Hilary Clinton telephoned on Monday President Michel Suleiman to praise his speech at the Arab League summit that was held in Baghdad in late March.

She lauded his call to implement democracy in political practice and expressed her country’s support to such an end.

A Lebanese man was wounded on Monday when Syrian troops opened fire at skiers in Mount Hermon in the Rashayya district, reported the National News Agency.

It said that Antoine al-Hajj was shot in the shoulder, while three of his companions were left unhurt in the incident.

The Lebanese army announced on Monday that an Iraqi woman, who was a complicit in the kidnapping of two Saudi nationals in Lebanon, was detained.

“The army intelligence bureau arrested Batoul Darwish Habib al-Mansouri, who confessed to luring (the Saudis) into an apartment in Doha al-Hoss (in southern Beirut) to financially blackmail them,” said a communique issued by the army.

Former Prime Minister Saad Hariri denied on Monday a report in al-Akhbar newspaper that he is planning on returning to Lebanon.

He said via Twitter: “If this newspaper published the report, then it is definitely a lie.”

The Israeli military on Monday began building a wall that will run several kilometers along part of its border with Lebanon, a military spokeswoman told Agence France Presse.

"This construction, which began on Monday, is being carried out in coordination with UNIFIL (the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon) and the Lebanese army. The wall is intended to avoid frictions on the border," she said.

United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon Director of Political and Civil Affairs Milos Strugar said on Monday that the strategic dialogue with the Lebanese army is essential, denying any role for the UNIFIL in Syria.

“Dialogue is essential not only to boost the army’s abilities but to also enable it to progress towards a permanent ceasefire,” Strugar told As Safir newspaper in an interview.