Customs authorities at Beirut's Rafik Hariri International Airport on Monday foiled an attempt to smuggle into the country a quantity of cocaine that came from Brazil via Ethiopia, state-run National News Agency reported.

“Three Brazilians arrived from Brazil via Ethiopia. Two of them had quantities of cocaine in their stomachs while the third hid a cocaine stash in his double-bottomed suitcase,” NNA said.

United Nations Special Coordinator for Lebanon Derek Plumbly expressed on Monday concern at incidents of violence in the northern city of Tripoli, northern and eastern Lebanon during the past few days,

He also condemned in a statement Sunday's suicide car bombing in the area of Nabi Othman in east Lebanon that killed and wounded a number of people.

Three rockets landed on Monday on residential areas of the eastern town of al-Labweh from the hills overlooking the village of Arsal, the state-run National News Agency reported.

LBCI TV said one person was injured in the rocket attack, which was followed by an assault by another three rockets on the outskirts of the town of Arsal.

Progressive Socialist Party leader MP Walid Jumblat criticized on Monday the lengthy debates and discussions that preceded the drafting of the government policy statement and their impact on the daily lives of the people.

He said in his weekly editorial in the PSP-affiliated al-Anbaa website: “Life has burdened the Lebanese people to suffer the ministerial sophistic debates linked to the policy statement.”

President Michel Suleiman hailed on Monday the “great efforts” exerted by the army and security forces in obstructing the criminal plans of extremists against Lebanon.

He urged “the military and security forces to remain on high alert to thwart attempts to create strife.”

Prime Minister Tammam Salam urged the Army Command on Monday to take measures to control the situation in border regions in the eastern Bekaa Valley after gunmen fled into Lebanon following the fall of the Syrian town of Yabrud.

A statement issued by his office after a meeting between Salam and Army chief Gen. Jean Qahwaji at the Grand Serail, said the PM instructed the military commander “to take all the necessary measures to control the situation in Bekaa's border areas and do what it takes to protect civilians, and consolidate stability in Arsal, al-Labweh and nearby towns.”

The criminal court in northern Bekaa led by Judge Jean Bseibes, sentenced Maher Tleis and three other Syrians for life for their involvement in different kidnappings in the area, the State-run National News Agency said on Monday.

Tleis and the three Syrians, al-Jasem, Ali al-Ali and Radwan al-Tayeh, were sentenced for life hard labor.

The Lebanese army blew up on Monday a booby-trapped vehicle found on the Fakha-Ras Baalbek road in eastern Lebanon, after firing an RPG-7 rocket on it, the military and the state-run National News Agency reported.

The army said in a communique that it blew up the car, which contained 170 kilograms of explosives, after the military expert inspected it and found difficulty in defusing it.

Fears rose in Lebanon on Monday that gunmen, who have fled into Lebanon after Syrian government troops and Hizbullah fighters captured Yabrud, a strategic town near the frontier, would increase retaliatory attacks against the supporters of the Shiite party.

The first alleged retaliation came on Sunday when a suicide bomber driving a Grand Cherokee left several casualties in the town of Nabi Othman, about 30 kilometers north of Baalbek.

Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea has expressed readiness to engage in a “serious dialogue” with its arch foe Hizbullah and described the upcoming presidential elections as the “mother of all battles.”

“There is no tension with Hizbullah. Our differences with it are not personal or sectarian,” Geagea told al-Akhbar newspaper in an interview published on Monday.