The Free Patriotic Movement commemorated on Saturday the ouster of its leader MP Michel Aoun on October 13, 1990.

“Today the FPM is working on surmounting the difficulties that occurred in the past to uphold the nation,” Aoun told gatherers during a mass at Deir el-Qalaa in Beit Mery.

The army took a pounding at the hands of rebels in northern Syria, a watchdog said on Friday, as tensions between Damascus and Ankara escalated over cargo seized from a Syrian passenger plane.

A rebel offensive killed more than 130 soldiers in two days, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

Hizbullah chief Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah on Thursday acknowledged that his group sent a sophisticated unmanned drone over Israel last week, saying the device was built by the Jewish state's arch-foe Iran, while denying reports that Hizbullah was fighting alongside the Syrian regime.

Nasrallah's acknowledgment of the drone which Israel shot down on October 6 came shortly after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu pointed at Hizbullah and vowed to defend his country against further "threats."

Hizbullah Chief Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah will have a televised appearance on Thursday to discuss current issues on the Lebanese and regional scenes, including rumors of a Lebanese drone crossing into Israeli airspace.

Al-Manar TV reported on Wednesday that Nasrallah will speak at 8:30 p.m. to tackle the latest developments regarding his party's alleged involvement in Syria's events.

Free Patriotic Movement leader MP Michel Aoun on Tuesday complained that “no progress has been made concerning the electoral law” under which the 2013 parliamentary polls will be held, blaming his Christian rivals, the Lebanese Forces and the Phalange Party, for the delay.

“I hold responsible those who are rejecting the laws proposed by the Orthodox Gathering and the government, because they are obstructing justice, especially the LF and the Phalange Party. Their stance is a commodity for sale and they are claiming to be defending the rights of Christians,” said Aoun after the weekly meeting of the Change and Reform parliamentary bloc.

Turkey warned Syria again on Tuesday that it would not hesitate to retaliate for any strike on its soil as the country's top military commander visited troops stationed at the reinforced border.

"It has become inevitable for our armed forces to retaliate in kind... as the Syrian administration maintains its aggressive position," Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan told lawmakers from his ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP).

More than 2,000 Hizbullah supporters gathered in the Bekaa Valley on Monday to bury one of their fighters who a security source said was killed in the border area with Syria.

Hussein Abdul Ghani al-Nimr, 35, "died while he was performing his jihadist duty," said a Hizbullah spokesman from the eastern city of Baalbek.

Progressive Socialist Party Leader MP Walid Jumblat said on Monday that refraining from slashing the salaries of MPs, ministers and officials will only lead to deepening the rift between the citizen and society.

In his weekly editorial in al-Anbaa newspaper, Jumblat called for reconsidering the financial disbursement of Lebanese officials “at the expense of citizens and the public treasury”.

Syrian President Bashar Assad's media adviser Buthaina Shaaban has declined to comment on a probe in Lebanon into her possible involvement in a plot by former minister Michel Samaha and Syrian security chief Ali Mamlouk to carry out strife-inciting bombings in Lebanon, sources close to Shaaban told Agence France Presse on Sunday.

The sources said Shaaban has rejected to comment on “the leaks” about her in Lebanon, dismissing them as “part of the polemics and political debates that Lebanon is known for and which do not deserve any response or comment.”

U.S. Ambassador to Lebanon Maura Connelly on Friday said “the United States calls on all parties to work together to insulate Lebanon from the effects of the violence in Syria resulting from the Assad regime’s brutal crackdown on the Syrian people.”

Speaking after a meeting with Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea in Maarab, Connelly said she discussed with the LF leader their “deep concern over the destabilizing actions of Syria in Lebanon.”