The Internal Security Forces Intelligence Bureau raided on Monday a warehouse in the northern city of Tripoli, confiscating a number of weapons, reported the National News Agency.

It said that an ISF Intelligence Bureau patrol raided the warehouse, belonging to A.N., in the al-Soweiqa al-Mahatra neighborhood, seizing a number of rocket-propelled grenades, Energa-type rockets, bombs, and light and medium weapons.

Clashes erupted on Monday in the Palestinian refugee camp of Ain el-Hilweh between armed groups after news of the death of Fatah al-Islam official Alaeddine Ali Hujair broke out, reported the National News Agency.

It said that four people were wounded in the fighting between supporters of Bilal Badr and Talal al-Urdoni in the camp's al-Fawqani area.

Progressive Socialist Party leader MP Walid Jumblat hoped that a wage hike with “reasonable” figures would be adopted, but defended the people's rights for the raise.

He said in his weekly editorial in the PSP-affiliated al-Anbaa website: “Parliament and the syndicate committees must take into consideration the general financial situation and the Lebanese treasury when adopting the hike.”

Kataeb Party leader Amin Gemayel revealed on Monday that MP Sami Gemayel held talks with al-Mustaqbal Movement leader Saad Hariri in the French capital Paris, urging officials to reach a breakthrough over the presidential elections dispute.

“Hariri is keen to safeguard the state institutions and the role played by the Christians in the country,” Gemayel told reporters from Bkirki after holding talks with Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi.

Syndicate Coordination Committee chief Hanna Gharib stressed Monday that employees are confronting "thieves" who are preventing the approval of the new wage scale, as a parliamentary panel tasked with studying the salary hike cautiously announced that it will likely be approved on Wednesday, throwing the ball in parliament's court.

“The poor united the country under the slogan of the SCC,” Gharib, who is also head of the Public Secondary School Education Teachers Association, said at one of the protests that was held near the Social Affairs Ministry in Beirut's Badaro district.

The European Union Ambassadors to Lebanon, U.S. Ambassador David Hale and U.N. Special Coordinator for Lebanon Derek Plumbly will hold a meeting next week in Beirut to discuss the Lebanese presidential elections.

According to al-Liwaa newspaper published on Monday, the meeting will be held to urge Lebanese officials to elect a new head of state within the constitutional deadline.

The Free Patriotic Movement of MP Michel Aoun has proposed to the Maronite church a vacuum in the government and parliament to pressure lawmakers into electing a new president, al-Akhbar newspaper reported on Monday.

Al-Akhbar quoted Foreign Minister Jebran Bassil as telling Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi that neither Sunni nor Shiite officials were eager to hold the elections on time.

New TV S.A.L. and Karma Tahsin al-Khayat will testify before the international court on charges of “contempt and obstruction of justice,” the Kuwaiti al-Rai daily reported Monday, as al-Akhbar editor-in-chief Ibrahim al-Amin announced that he will not appear before the court.

Al-Amin said he won't go to The Hague because the STL did not respond to his request to postpone the hearing.

President Michel Suleiman is mulling a legal measure to exercise his authorities as acting head of state if MPs failed to elect a new president by May 25, reports said Monday.

According to al-Akhbar newspaper, Suleiman asked Shadi Karam, one of his advisers, to draft a clause that would allow him to stay in power.

Speaker Nabih Berri threatened on Monday to suspend the tripartite meetings held at al-Naqoura crossing between the U.N. Interim Force in Lebanon and senior Lebanese and Israeli officials if the Jewish state continues violating the country's sovereignty.

“Those who are keen to safeguard Lebanon's sovereignty and independence and those who are in a hurry to get rid of the resistance should take into consideration first the Israeli violations,” Berri said in remarks published in As Safir newspaper.