Customs agents at Rafik Hariri International Airport succeeded in thwarting an attempt to smuggle cocaine into Lebanon, announced the National News Agency on Saturday.

It said that a Lebanese national was arrested after 9.2 kilograms of cocaine were found hidden in his luggage.

Three people were killed Friday and three wounded during a family dispute in the region Mastita in Jbeil, reported the National News Agency on Saturday.

It said that the dispute erupted between members of the al-Qouba, Abi Younes, and Ghussein families, as well as a number of Syrian nationals.

Lebanon avoided being cut from the India-Middle East-Western Europe (IMEWE) consortium project after caretaker Telecommunications Minister Nicolas Sehnaoui announced that the country had paid its dues, he announced via Twitter on Saturday.

He revealed that the payment was made at 11:00 a.m. on Saturday.

Speaker Nabih Berri urged on Saturday President Michel Suleiman and Prime Minister-designate Tammam Salam to form a national unity cabinet, saying that the 9-9-6 formula aims at ending the vacuum.

“If I was in the place of Suleiman and Salam I would issue decrees to form a national unity cabinet and make all parties assume their responsibilities,” Berri said in comments published in al-Akhbar newspaper on Saturday.

President Michel Suleiman stressed the need to keep Lebanon away from the repercussions of the Syrian crisis as stipulated by the Baabda Declaration, reported the daily An Nahar on Saturday.

He told the daily: “We want to keep Lebanon neutralized from Syria in line with the Declaration.”

Caretaker Foreign Minister Adnan Mansour will head to the Egyptian capital on Sunday to attend a meeting for the Arab Foreign ministers.

Arab Foreign Ministers will hold an emergency meeting on Sunday to discuss the Syrian conflict and the Geneva ll peace conference, in addition to the efforts exerted by U.N. Arab League envoy Lakhdar Brahimi who is currently in Beirut as part of a regional tour to garner support for the U.S.-Russian peace initiative.

The Judicial police detained on Saturday two German citizens after they were freed from their kidnappers in Lebanon's eastern Bekaa over drug trafficking accusations, the state-run National News Agency reported.

The news agency reported that the two Germans were kidnapped after financial disputes with their abductors.

More than 400,000 Syrian refugee children in Lebanon urgently need the international community to step up its assistance, especially ahead of the harsh winter months, the U.N. Children's Fund said Friday.

Also in urgent need of action are Lebanese and Palestinian children who live in poor, marginalized areas of Lebanon, where public health and education services have become massively overstretched by the refugee crisis.

The Internal Security Forces on Friday responded to remarks voiced by Arab Democratic Party leader Ali Eid after he was summoned for interrogation by the ISF Intelligence Bureau, stressing that the request was authorized by the relevant judicial authorities.

“In response to remarks reported by some media outlets about Ali Eid rejecting to appear before the Intelligence Bureau and his willingness to appear before any other legal authority, and his claims that a person called Bassam al-Halabi who allegedly serves at the office of the bureau's chief had advised Khodor Shaddoud and his relatives to leave their neighborhood to avoid being arrested … the ISF Directorate General clarifies that the Intelligence Bureau does not have and did not have any officer, non-commissioned officer or agent with the name Bassam al-Halabi,” a statement said.

Caretaker Prime Minister Najib Miqati stressed on Friday that officials are determined to tackle the situation in the northern city of Tripoli “wisely and calmly.”

He said after meeting a delegation of Tripoli MPs: “The army and security forces will continue their mission to halt the unrest, restore calm, and protect its residents.”