An Internal Security Forces intelligence officer was killed at dawn Monday after gunmen opened fire at him in the northern district of Zgharta, the ISF and the state-run National News Agency said, while an explosive device was seized later in the day in the region.

NNA said Chief Warrant Officer Ghassan Ajaj, 47, died after an armed man shot him near his house in the town of Meryata.

Two people were killed Monday in a tragic traffic accident on the road of the Bekaa town of Qab Elias.

The Traffic Management Center posted on its Twitter account a picture showing a collision between a truck, a tanker and a car at the Jdita intersection on the Qab Elias road.

The Kataeb Party called Monday for controlling the border and declaring the eastern border region a "military zone" as it urged the Lebanese parties to speed up the ongoing dialogues in order to elect a president.

In a statement issued after the weekly meeting of its political bureau, Kataeb expressed its “confidence in the Lebanese Army and its role in defending its citizens and land, as well as its pride in the unity among Lebanese every time the country is facing a dangerous test.”

Finance Minister Ali Hassan Khalil referred to the General Prosecution on Monday a file on the introduction of spoiled frozen shrimp to the Lebanese market.

The General Prosecution will tackle how the products entered the market and the squandering of public funds through dodging customs fees.

The army command said on Monday that the military has arrested a Syrian in Beirut's southern suburbs on suspicion of belonging to a terrorist organization.

Mohammed Ibrahim Youssef was apprehended in Haret Hreik at dawn Monday, said the army in a communique.

Subjected to beatings and rape, and often driven to suicide, migrant domestic workers in Lebanon are trying to form a labor union in what would be a first for the Arab world.

"We want to be treated like human beings, like real workers," said Leticia, a Filipina who was assaulted and raped by her employer several years ago.

Lebanese Forces chief Samir Geagea has said that Hizbullah and the extremist Islamic State group are enemies but have closely related features of one idea.

“Hizbullah is the IS's enemy and they are fighting each other,” Geagea told UAE's Alroeya newspaper in an interview published on Monday.

Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi was discharged from the hospital on Monday after undergoing a minor brain surgery over the weekend.

Al-Rahi returned to the patriarchal seat in Bkirki after recovering at the Centre Hospitalier Universitaire Notre Dame de Secours in Jbeil where he underwent a “successful” surgery on Friday to remove a blood clot in the head.

Officials will kickstart this week a new round of negotiations to modify the retirement age of officers in leadership posts in the army, the Internal Security Forces and other security agencies despite reservations expressed by various political blocs and Army Commander General Jean Qahwaji.

Al-Akhbar newspaper reported on Monday that Prime Minister Tammam Salam is keen to push his cabinet to endorse the proposal and refer it to the parliament before the end of February when the tenure of the Higher Defense Council chief General Mohammed Kheir ends.

Prime Minister Tammam Salam has lamented that the government was suffering over the absence of a president despite his determination to improve its productivity.

As Safir daily on Monday quoted Salam as saying that “the work of the government has been transformed into a permanent suffering that takes several forms amid the presidential vacuum.”