Interior Minister Nouhad al-Mashnouq has announced that the upcoming polls will be “a Lebanese democratic carnival, after a ten-year absence of parliamentary elections.”

“The electoral law is based on four elements: proportional representation, the preferential vote, counting and voting,” the minister said.

Candidate registration closed at midnight for Lebanon's upcoming parliamentary elections, which for the first time in the country's history will be held under a complex proportional representation electoral system.

The deadline for forming electoral lists will expire on March 26.

A landmine left behind by jihadist groups on Tuesday killed a Lebanese citizen and wounded two others in the outskirts of the eastern border town of Arsal.

The National News Agency said Burkan al-Hujeiri was killed and two others from the al-Hujeiri family were wounded when the landmine went off on an agricultural route in the al-Ajram area in the town's outskirts.

The Supreme Judicial Council on Tuesday condemned ex-minister Wiam Wahhab's recent criticism of the judiciary, asking the state prosecutor to take legal action against him.

In a statement, the Council said it “reviewed the content of Sunday evening's episode of al-Jadeed TV's 'al-Osbou Fi Saa' show,” condemning “the insults against the judiciary and its authority and judges by one of the participants, ex-minister Wiam Wahhab, who defamed the judiciary and questioned its work.”

Justice Minister Salim Jreissati on Tuesday denied referring State Prosecutor Samir Hammoud and First Military Examining Magistrate Riad Abu Ghida to the Judicial Inspection Committee.

"I have rather called on the Judicial Inspection Committee to ask a number of top judges not to give statements to the media before obtaining authorization from the Justice Minister, in line with the applicable norms," Jreissati told reporters after the weekly meeting of the Change and Reform bloc.

UAE Ambassador to Lebanon Hamad al-Shamesi announced Tuesday that “Riyadh and Abu Dhabi will always stand by Prime Minister (Saad) Hariri.”

The envoy voiced his remarks after talks with Hariri at the Grand Serail, where he handed him an invitation from Dubai Ruler Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashed to attend the 17th edition of the Arab Media Forum.

Prime Minister Saad Hariri hoped Tuesday that the private sector would be a “pioneer” at the upcoming CEDRE conference, stressing that he supports the reforms required from Lebanon.

Hariri was addressing this morning the participants in the opening of the “Lebanon Investment in Infrastructure Conference” organized by Al-Iktissad Wal-Aamal group and the Lebanese economic bodies at the Four Seasons Hotel.

New leaks have surfaced in the case of the comedian Ziad Itani and Lt. Col. Suzanne al-Hajj.

Quoting judicial sources, al-Akhbar newspaper reported Tuesday that the wife of E.Gh. -- a hacker allegedly hired by al-Hajj to frame Itani – has claimed that the lieutenant colonel has offered her a hefty bribe aimed at convincing her husband to change his confessions “so that he alone bears the responsibility for the technical forgery that led to fabricating the charges against the actor Ziad Itani.”

An electoral agreement was reached in an overnight meeting between Free Patriotic Movement chief Jebran Bassil and Hizbullah Coordination and Liaison Officer Wafiq Safa, a media report said.

According to al-Akhbar newspaper, the two parties agreed to be on the same lists in Western Bekaa and Beirut's second district.

A public hearing will take place on Wednesday, March 7 and the Trial Chamber Judges of the Special Tribunal for Lebanon will render a decision on an application submitted by the Oneissi Defense seeking a judgement of acquittal under Rule 167 of the STL’s Rule of Procedure and Evidence, the STL said.