U.S. prosecutors have tried to link a prominent businessman in the State of Iowa to a scheme in which four defendants are charged with using his shipping company facilities to smuggle weapons to Lebanon.

Bill Aossey Jr. had been in contact with the suspects, one of whom is a close friend, and is shown on surveillance video briefly going into one of the containers after it was packed, prosecutors in Cedar Rapids argued Monday.

Several parties have launched initiatives to resolve the dispute among cabinet members over the government's decision-making mechanism, sources said.

Progressive Socialist Party chief MP Walid Jumblat, a centrist, has tasked Health Minister Wael Abou Faour to hold talks with Prime Minister Tammam Salam and Hizbullah officials.

Italian Foreign Minister Paolo Gentiloni, who is on an official visit to Beirut, has expressed concern over the presidential crisis in Lebanon.

“A commitment to elect a president concerns all the Lebanese,” Gentiloni told An Nahar daily in an interview published on Tuesday.

The 15th round of talks between Hizbullah and al-Mustaqbal Movement that lasted until dawn Tuesday failed to reach a breakthrough on controversial issues, officials told al-Mustaqbal daily.

The officials, who were not identified, said the talks started at 10:00 pm Monday and lasted till 1:00 am during which several issues were discussed.

Italian Foreign Minister Paolo Gentiloni arrived in Beirut Monday evening for a two-day official visit, Lebanon's National News Agency reported.

“He will meet with senior Lebanese officials to discuss with them the current developments in Lebanon and the region and the bilateral ties between the two countries,” NNA said.

Unknown assailants kidnapped at dawn Monday the manager of a bank in the eastern Bekaa Valley in an apparent kidnap for ransom operation, the state-run National News Agency reported.

The manager of a-Mawarid bank's Chtaura branch, Mohammed Abou Jakh, was abducted at gunpoint by the assailants who were riding a black four-wheeler near the West Bekaa town of al-Rawda, it said.

The Lebanese army contained on Monday a family dispute in the northern district of Akkar that left several people dead and wounded, the state-run National News Agency and Voice of Lebanon radio (93.3) reported.

NNA said that Ahmed Hamza was killed and his brother Shaalan and three others were injured when the dispute on a land plot between members of the Hamza family in the town of Safinat al-Qateeh turned into a gunfight.

Seven people, mostly children, were hospitalized after they were food poisoned in the eastern district of Zahle, the state-run National News Agency reported late Sunday.

NNA said among the seven, who reached al-Hrawi state hospital in al-Maalaqa, are a woman and her four children.

A major crisis looms on the Naameh landfill this week as environmentalists warned that they would stop trucks from hauling waste there starting Friday, which coincides with Eid al-Fitr.

The landfill that lies in the town of Naameh south of Beirut is scheduled to be closed in accordance with a government decision.

General Security chief Maj. Gen. Abbas Ibrahim is expected to travel to Qatar this week after it was reported that he would visit Turkey to discuss with Qatari officials the case of Lebanese servicemen taken hostage by jihadists last year.

Security sources told al-Akhbar daily published on Monday that the officials asked Ibrahim to meet them in Doha instead.