The Change and Reform bloc demanded on Tuesday that the dispute over the presidential elections be resolved through Lebanese channels.

MP Ibrahim Kanaan said after the bloc's weekly meeting: “We should adhere to the Lebanese will and constitutional means to solve this issue.”

Contact has been lost with a member of the Internal Security Forces since Friday, state-run National News Agency reported on Tuesday.

“ISF Corporal Charbel Saeed, who hails from the (southern) town of Qlayaa, has been missing since Friday,” NNA said.

Salafist cleric Sheikh Salem al-Rafehi expressed on Tuesday reservations over Interior Minister Nouhad al-Mashnouq's proposal to replace a slogan in Tripoli's al-Nour Square with a Quran verse.

Al-Rafehi expressed hope that the slogan wouldn't be replaced or removed, Voice of Lebanon radio (100.5) quoted him as saying.

Security forces have arrested a Lebanese taxi driver in the South on charges of rape and attempted rape, the state-run National News Agency reported on Tuesday.

NNA said Aa.Sh., who hails from the southern town of Tayr Felsay, was apprehended by security forces, after an unidentified girl filed a complaint at the Nabatiyeh police station claiming he tried to rape her.

A Lebanese man went on trial in the United States on Monday on charges that he kept secret his prior affiliation with Hizbullah and Amal movement to remain in the country and to possibly gain access to sensitive information.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Mark Roomberg told jurors in San Antonio, Texas, that Wissam Allouche admitted to an undercover agent to previously being an Amal commander and that he supported Hizbullah.

A U.S. Marine who vanished from his post in Iraq a decade ago and later wound up in Lebanon chose Monday to have his case decided by a military judge instead of a jury.

Court was recessed until Tuesday, when opening statements are expected in Cpl. Wassef Hassoun's trial on charges of desertion, larceny and destruction of property before the judge, Marine Maj. Nicholas Martz.

Interior Minister Nouhad al-Mashnouq has said that a much-anticipated security plan for the eastern Bekaa Valley will be implemented in the coming days.

The plan for Bekaa's North will most likely be implemented over the weekend, al-Mashnouq told pan-Arab daily al-Hayat published on Tuesday.

Lebanese Forces official Melhem Riachi stressed on Tuesday that dialogue with the Free Patriotic Movement is on the right track, pointing out that negotiations are based on fixed principles.

“The meetings will not be folkloric,” Riachi said in comments published in the pan-Arab daily Asharq al-Awsat.

Environment Minister Mohammed al-Mashnouq revealed on Tuesday that Prime Minister Tammam Salam is seeking to reach a new mechanism that organizes the work of his cabinet.

“Salam aims at giving ministers the right to veto decrees that are exceptional and non-controversial,” Mashnouq said in comments published in the Kuwaiti al-Seyassah newspaper.

Head of al-Mustaqbal Movement and former Prime Minister Saad Hariri might reportedly attend the anniversary of his father's assassination at the BIEL exhibition center in downtown Beirut on February 14.

According to An Nahar newspaper published on Tuesday, Hariri is mulling to give his speech in person instead of appearing via video link.