The Higher Defense Council held an emergency meeting Tuesday in the Baabda Palace to address the situation of Lebanese expatriates in the Ivory Coast.

The meeting, headed by President Michel Suleiman, stressed the need to place a plan to help the expatriates in the African country and provide the best means to evacuate those seeking to leave through the cooperation of the Lebanese Embassy, United Nations, and Ivory Coast authorities.

Lebanese security officials said on Tuesday a hand grenade has exploded in an apartment in a southern Beirut suburb, killing a man and his wife.

The officials said they believe the grenade went off by mistake as the man, Ali Jaber, was playing with it at his home in Beirut's Chiyah neighborhood.

Caretaker Prime Minister Saad Hariri held talks on Tuesday with French Ambassador to Lebanon Denis Pietton on French troops’ efforts in helping protect Lebanese expatriates in the Ivory Coast.

Pietton said after the meeting that he informed the PM that 650 expatriates have been placed under the French troops’ protection, noting however that no civilian was able to reach Abidjan airport even though air traffic has been restored.

Caretaker Interior Minister Ziad Baroud on Tuesday criticized some parties for allegedly using the demands of inmates at Roumieh prison as instruments to achieve political objectives.

During a press conference he held after a meeting of the Central Security Council, Baroud said he was fully responsible for all issues linked to his post.

Top Lebanese female boxer Rola El-Halabi, who is recovering in hospital after being gunned down by her step-father before a world title fight, may never return to the ring, her promoter said on Sunday.

El-Halabi, 26, was shot her in the hands, feet and knees in her dressing room as she prepared to fight for the WIBF world lightweight title in Karlshorst, Berlin, on Friday night.

Progressive Socialist Party leader MP Walid Jumblat voiced his concern over reports that the Mustaqbal movement was training Sunni militias in Beirut and Tripoli of some 15,000 fighters, said a leaked U.S. Embassy cable published in exclusively in Al-Akhbar newspaper on Tuesday.

The MP stated that MP Saad Hariri’s establishment of private security companies in Beirut and Tripoli is a sign that some individuals are providing him with bad advice, such as ISF chief Ashraf Rifi.

Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea revealed to then U.S. Ambassador to Lebanon Michele Sison that some 10,000 LF fighters were ready to combat Hizbullah if the need arrives, said a leaked U.S. Embassy cable published exclusively in Al-Akhbar newspaper on Tuesday.

Geagea told Sison during a surprise visit to the U.S. Embassy that the fighters “may need to be provided with weapons”, said the WikiLeaks cable dated May 9, 2008.

The Higher Defense Council is scheduled to hold an extraordinary meeting at Baabda palace under President Michel Suleiman at 1:30 pm Tuesday to discuss ways at finding a safe exit for Lebanese expatriates in violence-torn Ivory Coast.

The meeting is rare since it comes at a time of a political vacuum and in the absence of a Lebanese government.

Premier-designate Najib Miqati reiterated that he would form a government that satisfies the Lebanese and respects the Constitution and the Taef Accord.

“I will not shackle myself with any grace period or dates,” Miqati told al-Joumhouria newspaper in remarks published Tuesday.

National Struggle Front leader Walid Jumblat has reportedly urged the U.S. to put more pressure on Syria, without allowing it to exploit the international changes for its own benefits.

According to a WikiLeaks cable dated February 20, 2005, carried by OTV, a meeting was held between MP Jumblat and former U.S. ambassador to Lebanon Michele Sison, in the presence of MP Marwan Hamadeh.