The Kataeb party called on Monday for addressing the presidential elections through a meeting of Maronite leaders in Bkirki, and through talks between March 14 figures.

In a statement released after the political bureau's weekly meeting, the party called on all parties to embark on the process of electing a new president within the constitutional timeframe.

The joint parliamentary committees approved on Monday the fifth article of the new wage scale, which tackles the taxes on construction licenses.

"We have approved Article 5 of the draft law, which is related to the fees of the construction licenses, and we discussed other articles,” Finance and Budget Parliamentary Committee chief MP Ibrahim Kanaan announced after the afternoon discussions.

A parliamentary committee formed by Speaker Nabih Berri announced Monday that all the parliamentary blocs it has met with have promised to attend the first parliamentary session to elect a new president, which the speaker is expected to schedule "between April 15 and April 30."

Following talks with Berri in Ain el-Tineh, panel member MP Yassine Jaber said: "We briefed him on the outcome of our consultations and on all the viewpoints that we heard."

The bomber who targeted a bus in the Bulgarian Black Sea resort of Burgas in 2012, killing five Israeli tourists, was of Algerian origin and trained in camps in southern Lebanon, the Bulgarian daily Presa said Monday.

"The assailant was born in Algeria, lived in Morocco and was trained in camps in South Lebanon. He also studied at a Beirut university with the other two suspects," the newspaper quoted sources familiar with the investigation as saying.

Several people were killed on Monday in clashes that broke out at the Palestinian refugee camp of Mieh Mieh in the southern city of Sidon, reported the National News Agency.

It said that eight people were killed and ten others were wounded in the unrest that started as an individual dispute ten days ago.

The Lebanese army on Monday arrested two suspects and seized weapons during raids in several neighborhoods of the northern city of Tripoli as part of a security plan aimed at bringing stability to the country.

The military said in a communique that soldiers raided two arms depot in the impoverished neighborhood of Jabal Mohsen and the area of al-Baraniyeh.

Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi on Monday traveled to Switzerland on a five-day official visit, reiterating his call for the election of an “honorably” strong president.

Al-Rahi, who headed to Geneva, was accompanied by Bishop Boulos Matar and Bkirki spokesman Walid Ghayyad.

A meeting held between head of al-Mustaqbal movement leader Saad Hariri's adviser and Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea following his candidacy to the presidential elections was to confirm the “strong ties” between the allies.

According to al-Joumhouria newspaper published on Monday, Nader al-Hariri and Geagea's meeting “came at a time to stress the strong ties between the factions of the independent move and the consultations between them.”

Interior Minister Nouhad al-Mashnouq has held onto a security plan as officials said security agencies would seek to arrest more than 50 people whose names are on a list of wanted suspects in the eastern Bekaa Valley.

In remarks to al-Mustaqbal daily published on Monday, al-Mashnouq said: “There is no going back on the security plan and there is no hesitation.”

Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah claimed Hizbullah's responsibility for an attack on an Israeli military patrol in the occupied Shebaa Farms area last month.

Nasrallah told As Safir daily in an interview published on Monday that the roadside bomb ambush was carried out by the resistance in response to an Israeli raid in February on one of its positions in an area near the Lebanese-Syrian border.