Military Tribunal Judge Fadi Sawan demanded on Monday the death penalty for 23 suspects accused of taking part in terrorist acts and belonging to the al-Qaida-affiliated Abdullah Azzam Brigades, reported the National News Agency.

The suspects include top official in the Brigades Naim Mahmoud Abbas, Jamal Daftardar, and Joumana Hmayyed.

French Ambassador Patrice Paoli expressed concern over the presidential vacuum in Lebanon, saying the Lebanese should find common ground on resolving their problems.

In remarks to several newspapers on the occasion of France's National Day, Paoli said the formation of Prime Minister Tammam Salam's cabinet earlier this year and the implementation of security plans in unstable areas across the country were not enough to resolve Lebanon's crises.

Speaker Nabih Berri considered on Monday that the mechanism that the cabinet adopted to regulate its work amid the presidential vacuum is paralyzing it and prompting each minister to be in control.

“We reject attempts to paralyze the cabinet... But unfortunately the followed mechanism doesn't interpret the constitution and the jurisdictions of the government amid the presidential vacuum,” Berri pointed out.

Prime Minister Tammam Salam has said he would not call for a session without a prior agreement among its members to revitalize the cabinet, warning that “degeneration” would lead to “collapse.”

In remarks carried by several local newspapers that hit the newsstands on Monday, Salam said the cabinet members should strike a deal to restore the government's productivity and stop the paralysis, which made the last few sessions “meaningless and useless.”

Lebanese Forces leader MP Samir Geagea voiced concern on Monday that the presidential vacuum is effecting the work of the cabinet and the parliament, describing it as a “crime” against the Lebanese.

“Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi's stance is righteous to press for a solution but things should be named as they are,” Geagea said, noting that parties should be held responsible for the delay in electing a new head of state.

A delegation from al-Mustaqbal movement headed to Jeddah in Saudi Arabia for consultations with head of the movement former premier Saad Hariri.

The delegation will discuss with Hariri the latest developments and the stance from a possible cabinet session on Thursday, An Nahar newspaper reported on Monday.

Education Minister Elias Bou Saab has said he was seeking to resolve the dispute between the Kataeb party and the Progressive Socialist Party on the appointment of deans at the Lebanese University.

Bou Saab revealed that he was in constant contact with Kataeb minister Alain Hakim and Wael Abou Faour, a PSP official, after the cabinet failed last week to approve the LU decree proposed by him.

Two rockets were fired Sunday night from southern Lebanon towards Israel, in the third such attack in four days, drawing an Israeli retaliation.

“At 12:25 am, unknown individuals fired two rockets from al-Qlayleh plain (near the southern city of Tyre) towards the occupied territories (Israel),” Lebanon’s National News Agency reported.

Clashes between Syrian rebels and Hizbullah on the Lebanese border have killed at least four fighters, a security official said Sunday.

The fighting erupted on Saturday in an undemarcated area of the frontier between Qalamun in Syria and Arsal in Lebanon’s Bekaa region, the Lebanese official told Agence France Presse, speaking on condition of anonymity.

Civil Defense firefighters on Sunday managed to extinguish a big blaze that had erupted earlier in the day near fuel tanks in the Jal el-Dib area outside Beirut.

“A big fire erupted at the Abaji refinery on Jal el-Dib's seaside road,” MTV reported.