The United Nations peacekeeping force in south Lebanon UNIFIL said Wednesday it has turned over a longtime local staffer to Lebanese authorities who accuse him of spying for Israel.

The Lebanese man who had worked in the UNIFIL administration for over 20 years is among three people accused by authorities of spying for Israel.

Prime Minister Tammam Salam stated on Wednesday that Lebanon is carrying the burden of some 1.5 million Syrian refugees with limited help from donor countries, assuring that Lebanon adheres to the dissociation policy towards Syria.

“In Lebanon, we suffer from the presence of about 1.5 million displaced Syrians, a burden unparalleled by any other in the world compared to the small size of our country,” said Salam during the Arab-South American summit in Riyadh.

A Lebanese officer was among those who were wounded Monday when a Jordanian policeman opened fire at a police academy in al-Muwaqqar, Lebanon's state-run National News Agency reported.

It identified the officer as 23-year-old Internal Security Forces lieutenant George Hazzouri, saying he sustained "very light injuries."

Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi stressed on Monday that it is necessary to call for the election of a head of state, urging the parliament to take "technical action" with regard to the financial laws.

“As Christians, it is our duty to call for the election of a president and for the restoration of the functions of the parliament, the cabinet and public institutions” said al-Rahi during the opening of 49th cycle of the Council of Catholic Patriarchs and Bishops in Bkirki.

The army arrested a Lebanese national in the northern region of Akkar on charges of smuggling weapons to a terrorist group, an army statement said on Saturday.

“An army patrol arrested Youssef Mahmoud al-Khodr on Friday, in the northern Lebanese border town of Mashta Hassan,” the statement said.

Swedish authorities decided to deport tens of Lebanese families that have already resorted to Sweden many years ago after it refused to give them the necessary accommodation to settle on its territory, media reports said on Saturday.

Despite the fact that these families have settled in Sweden for more than ten years and have founded private businesses and paid the taxes, they did not get the accommodation required, the reports stated.

Progressive Socialist Party leader MP Walid Jumblat described the stances of Christian blocs that are rejecting to take part in a legislative session as a "suicide," An Nahar daily reported on Saturday.

“The stances of the Christian blocs is only a bidding and a message towards additional self suicide,” Jumblat told the daily in a phone conversation from Paris.

Five soldiers were injured in a blast that targeted an army tank in Ras al-Sarj in the eastern border town of Arsal, the state-run National News Agency said on Friday.

Gunfire was later heard in the area and the army deployed heavily, NNA added.

Speaker Nabih Berri insistence to hold a legislative session on the 12 and 13 of November to approve 38 items including financial draft laws have driven contacts between the Free Patriotic Movement and the Lebanese Forces who say could boycott the session, al-Hayat daily said.

FPM and the LF could possibly boycott the session over the exclusion of the electoral law proposal from the agenda, which the Speaker believes that it needs more time to be studied.

A new committee has been formed on Thursday to tackle the controversial trash crisis and to study the proposals presented by some companies to export Lebanon's waste abroad, al-Mustaqbal daily reported on Friday.

Agriculture Minister Akram Shehayyeb heads the committee which is comprised of three new members one representing the Environment Ministry another representing the Council for Development and Reconstruction in addition to a judge to study the legal aspects of the offers put forward, unnamed ministerial sources told the daily.