President Michel Suleiman expressed regret on Sunday over the decision by some parties not to attend all-party talks a day before they kick off at the Baabda Palace under his auspices.

“I hope that the parties that decided to boycott the National Dialogue would participate in upcoming sessions,” Suleiman said during the Alphabet Day Conference held in the city of Jbeil.

Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi expressed deep grief on Sunday over suicide attack that targeted an army checkpoint in the eastern border town of Arsal, calling on the state to put an end to impunity for the offenders.

“We are saddened by the assault against the people of the (northern city of) Tripoli and the Lebanese army in the Bekaa,” al-Rahi said during his sermon at Our Lady of Lebanon basilica in Harissa.

Interior Minister Nouhad al-Mashnouq denounced on Sunday a suicide car bomb attack on a military post in the border town of Arsal.

“The attack against the army in Wadi Ata region in (eastern border town of) Arsal is a criminal terrorist act that will not prevent us from implementing the security plan that the cabinet established,” Mashnouq said in a statement issued by his press office.

President Michel Suleiman is holding on to his call for the political arch-foes to resume the national dialogue despite Hizbullah chief Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah's hints that the party could boycott the session.

Sources close to Suleiman told An Nahar newspaper published on Sunday that the president insists on resuming the all-party talks, pointing out that there is still time to inquire the stances of all parties before taking any decision to postpone it.

Speaker Nabih Berri's presidential elections committee violates the constitution and aims at closing the doors of the parliament in order to delay the presidential polls, the Saudi Okaz newspaper reported on Sunday.

A political source, who spoke on condition of anonymity, told the daily that the three-member committee is to cover-up for Berri's attempt not to call for a session to elect a new president.

Around 200 families fled the villages of Ras al-Maarra and Flita in the strategic Qalamun region into the border town of Arsal after the Syrian regime controlled the area amid the governments absence.

Arsal deputy municipal chief Ahmed Fleiti said in comments published in the pan-Arab daily Asharq al-Awsat on Sunday that the 200 families crossed the border.

A woman and a child were killed at an army checkpoint in the northeastern border town of Arsal late on Saturday, after the vehicle they were in did not comply to the troops' orders and stop.

"A pickup truck's driver did not abide by orders and stop at a checkpoint, and thus, the troops fired gunshots at it,” the state-run National News Agency said.

A Lebanese woman was brutally beaten up by her husband in al-Ouzai area in southern Beirut, which required transferring her immediately to a hospital for treatment.

"However, the Rafik Hariri University Hospital refused to admit Hoda Ali Tay,” LBCI television said on Saturday evening.

Arab Democratic Party leader Ali Eid left Lebanon to Syria on Saturday, accompanied by his son, the party's politburo chief Rifaat Eid.

“Ali Eid left Lebanon,” al-Jadeed television said, without providing any additional details.

Three troops were martyred and four others were wounded on Saturday evening in the border town of Arsal when a suicide bomber driving a booby-trapped car blew himself up at an army checkpoint in region.

"A suicide bomber driving a booby-trapped car blew himself up at an army checkpoint in the Wadi Ata region in Arsal,” the military institution said in a communique.