Islamic Action Front official Saadeddine Ghiyyeh was killed on Tuesday after sustaining gunshots wounds to his head.

According to state-run National News Agency, masked men opened fire at Ghiyyeh in al-Bahsa in the northern city of Tripoli.

Caretaker Prime Minister Najib Miqati has said he would prefer the extension of President Michel Suleiman's mandate if given the choice between it and vacuum in the country's top post.

“If the elections were not held, then I would support the extension of President Michel Suleiman's tenure which is a better option than having vacuum,” Miqati told As Safir newspaper in remarks published on Tuesday.

Prime Minister-designate Tammam Salam described on Tuesday the visit of President Michel Suleiman to Saudi Arabia as positive, pointing out that the formation of his cabinet is a local affair linked to foreign circumstances.

“Suleiman's (visit to Saudi Arabia) definitely has benefits,” Salam said in comments published in al-Akhbar newspaper.

Mokhtar Lamani, U.N.-Arab League envoy Lakhdar Brahimi's representative in Damascus, denied on Tuesday that he is personally contacting the kidnappers of the two Orthodox bishops, who were seized in northern Syria in April.

Lamani's office denied in comments published in al-Akhbar newspaper that he contacted head of a radical Chechen group led by Mohammed Akroff via Turkish intelligence chief Hakan Fidan.

Speaker Nabih Berri has expressed optimism that a deal on Iran's nuclear program would have positive effects on Lebanon, reiterating his call on the March 14 alliance to agree to its participation in the government with nine ministers similar to the March 8 coalition.

In remarks to local newspapers published on Tuesday, Berri said: “The region would witness a political nuclear explosion whose shrapnel and effects would reach the entire region, including Lebanon” if world powers agreed on a deal to curb Iran's nuclear program.

Phalange party called on Monday for expanding the security plan adopted to control the tensed situation in the northern city of Tripoli, considering that all accusations against the army and the security forces “are driven by foreign agendas.”

"We must take advantage of the current truce in Tripoli to expand the army's security plan and withdraw all presence of armed men in the region,” the party said in a released statement after its political bureau's weekly meeting.

Progressive Socialist Party leader MP Walid Jumblat stressed on Monday the need for the judiciary to take its course in addressing the situation in the northern city of Tripoli.

He said in his weekly editorial in the PSP-affiliated al-Anbaa website: “The judiciary needs to take its course in Tripoli in order to avert strife.”

President Michel Suleiman kicked off on Monday his one-day official visit to Saudi Arabia, meeting with King Abdullah bin Abdul Aziz and holding also talks with former Prime Minister Saad Hariri in Riyadh.

Suleiman started his visit by meeting with Crown Prince Salman bin Abdul Aziz and both men discussed the latest developments in the region.

Three people were killed and five others were wounded in a car accident on the Kahhale road, the state-run National News Agency said on Monday.

NNA said that the van was packed with passengers when it overturned and hit the wall of one of the houses close to the route.

The parliamentary telecommunications committee denounced on Monday the Israeli espionage stations along the border as violation of Lebanon's sovereignty, pointing out that it is happening despite the United Nations Security Council Resolution 1701 and the presence of the UNIFIL.

“The ongoing Israeli aggression took a new direction in terms of the used techniques,” head of the committee MP Hassan Fadlallah told reporters after chairing a two-hour meeting at the parliament.