A suspicious box was found on Saturday evening near the house of former Prime Minister Fouad Saniora in the southern city of Sidon, the state-run National News Agency reported.

“The suspicious box was placed 150-200 meters away from Saniora's house in (Sidon's neighborhood of) Hilaliyeh,” the NNA detailed.

Former Internal Security Forces chief Ashraf Rifi voiced on Saturday his support to the army's procedures in the northern city if Tripoli, remarking that there is no stability if justice was not achieved.

“We urge citizens to cooperate with security forces to achieve stability in Tripoli,” Rifi said after holding talks with the city's MPs at his house.

A shop owned by an Alawite was set on fire on Saturday in Souq al-Qamh area in the northern city of Tripoli, media reports said.

The arson was allegedly caused after Ziad Allouki torched a shop owned by Firas Hashem from Jabal Mohsen neighborhoods.

President Michel Suleiman stated on Saturday his rejection of all foreign intervention schemes, adding that illegal arms have become a tool of destabilization in the country.

“The issue of the Lebanese identity has drawn foreign interference and it was only the result of local mistakes,” Suleiman said in a speech he gave at an event to unveil the busts of the 12 Lebanese presidents that have ruled the country since its independence in 1943., noting that Saturday's meeting aims at reviving “the cause.”

Two separate meetings for the Higher Islamic Council were held on Saturday, the first was chaired by Grand Mufti Sheikh Mohammed Rashid Qabbani in Dar al-Fatwa, while the second was held at al-Amin mosque and headed by his deputy Sheikh Omar Mesqawi, amid the lingering dispute over the extension of the term of the HIC.

The Council is divided between the members led by the Mufti and those headed by Mesqawi.

Caretaker Prime Minister Najib Miqati declared on Saturday a day of mourning over the death of former South African president Nelson Mandela.

According to a memo issued by the premier's office, flags will fly at half-mast on Tuesday during the memorial service that will be held in the Soweto sports stadium in South Africa.

The General Directorate of State Security detained four people suspected of being involved in assassinating former ambassador Michel Bou Khater, state-run National News Agency reported on Saturday.

According to the news agency, the four men, who are allegedly involved in the murder of ambassador Bou khater in in September, were arrested in the town of Taalbaya in the Bekaa valley.

Change and Reform MP Ibrahim Kanaan, head of the Finance and Budget Parliamentary Committee, referred on Saturday the new wages report to the parliament's General Secretariat.

Kanaan will hold a press conference next week to explain the results reached by the committee and the drafted modifications.

General Security chief Abbas Ibrahim is scheduled to travel to Qatar in order to tackle the case of the nuns who were kidnapped in Syria's Maalula region earlier this week, reported LBCI television.

He told the station that he was tasked by President Michel Suleiman to address the case in the Arab Gulf state.

Russian ambassador to Lebanon Alexander Zasypkin stressed that since the eruption of the conflict in Syria, Moscow had supported Lebanon's policy of disassociation, reported As Safir newspaper on Saturday.

He asked: “Why should we ask Hizbullah to withdraw its fighters from Syria when two years ago our calls on armed groups from northern Lebanon to withdraw was left unheeded?”