A dispute between members of the same family in a western Bekaa town turned into a shooting, leaving several people injured, the state-run National News Agency reported Monday.

NNA said that the disagreement between Hashem family members started when they began throwing stones on each other in the town of Ain el-Tineh. It later turned ugly when shots were fired.

The joint parliamentary committees approved on Monday a draft-law on the protection of women from domestic violence, a major step towards helping women become first-class citizens in multi-confessional Lebanon.

If passed by parliament, the law would come under the penal code -- under which cases are referred to a criminal court -- rather than personal status laws, which are ruled on by religious authorities.

A meeting held on Sunday between former Prime Minister Saad Hariri and a delegation from al-Mustaqbal movement addressed the on going crises in Lebanon, local newspapers reported on Monday.

According to al-Joumhouria newspaper, discussions with the delegation, which is comprised of ex-PM Fouad Saniora and MPs Ahmed Fatfat and Nohad al-Mashnouq, focused on the formation of the cabinet and the resumption of the national dialogue.

Political leaders of the Sunni sect might force out Grand Mufti Sheikh Mohammed Rashid Qabbani after Ramadan despite his insistence to remain in his post until elections next year.

Informed sources told pan-Arab daily Asharq al-Awsat that such a decision would be delayed until after Eid al-Fitr out of respect for the holy month.

Speaker Nabih Berri urged former Prime Minister and the head of Mustaqbal movement Saad Hariri to return to Lebanon, pointing out that he is ready to reconsider Hariri's reappointment as a premier.

“Hariri must return to Lebanon to facilitate the resumption of the dialogue so that we cooperate to face the current challenges,” Berri said in comments published in local newspapers on Monday.

European Union foreign ministers agreed Monday to blacklist Hizbullah's armed wing, holding it responsible for terror attacks in Europe.

"It is good that the EU has decided to call Hizbullah what it is: a terrorist organization," said Dutch Foreign Minister Frans Timmermans.

Young man Malek Salman al-Zayyat suffered minor burn injuries on Sunday when a power generator exploded at the roastery he works at on the al-Hmadiyeh public road, north of the city of Tyre, state-run National News Agency reported.

“The sound of the enormous explosion was heard across the region,” NNA said.

Customs officers at the Rafik Hariri International Airport on Sunday foiled an attempt to smuggle 12 kilograms of cocaine into the country from Nigeria's Kano.

“The quantity was packed in a professional and creative way and was seized in the possession of a man who arrived from Kano,” one of the largest cities in Nigeria, Lebanon's National News Agency reported.

Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi warned on Sunday that political conflict leads to war, saying there should be a neutral cabinet that comes up with a new electoral law.

“Our salvation comes from political thought and not from political conflicts that lead to war,” al-Rahi said in his sermon at St. Maroun monastery in Annaya.

A Lebanese man was killed when two families armed with sticks and machetes engaged in a fight in a town in the northern district of Akkar, the state-run National News Agency reported on Sunday.

NNA said that Khairallah al-Sheikh died when he was hit on his head with a stick.