A military explosives expert defused at dawn Friday a bomb in the eastern city of Zahle, the state-run National News Agency reported.

NNA said the bomb, which was connected to an electric wire, was found at 12:30 am in a box on the side of the road between Grand Hotel Kadri and Khoury hospital.

The Lebanese army arrested on Wednesday a Syrian who threatened to blow himself up at the Lebanese University in Zahle, reported the National News Agency.

It said that Youssef Ali Mubarak was threatening to blow himself up with an explosive belt he was wearing.

A women and her daughter fled away from unknown assailants that assaulted them on their way back to their house on the outskirts of Zahle in the Bekaa, the state-run National News Agency reported on Wednesday.

According NNA, ten unknown people aboard three cars intercepted on Tuesday night a white Mercedes, the vehicle of the mother A. K., on the outskirts Zahle and pointed a gun at her daughter S. K. trying to forcefully get her out of the vehicle.

The Army Intelligence Bureau referred on Saturday four suspects to the judiciary over their links to the abduction of a pharmacist in the Zahle district in the Bekaa region in September, reported al-Mustaqbal daily on Sunday.

Lebanese nationals Hussein Ahmed Saleh and his brothers Dureid and Abdul Amir and Palestinian Mohammed Ahmed Omar were arrested on October 19 and 22 on charges of kidnapping Wissam al-Khatib and later releasing him on ransom.

A pharmacist was kidnapped by unknown assailants in the eastern Zahle district on Sunday morning, drawing condemnation and calls for his release, the state-run National News Agency reported.

Wissam al-Khatib was abducted as he was opening his pharmacy that lies on the main road of the town of Karak, NNA said.

MP Marwan Hamadeh on Tuesday snapped back at Free Patriotic Movement leader MP Michel Aoun over remarks related to Hizbullah's controversial telecom grid in Zahle, accusing ministers loyal to Aoun of employing “Hizbullah cronies” at the Ministry of Telecommunications.

Aoun “protected Hizbullah's May 2008 coup against the Lebanese government, which tried back then to prevent Hizbullah from installing its illegal telecom network,” Hamadeh said, noting that the party “invaded the capital Beirut and attacked Mount Lebanon” to thwart the government's efforts.

Free Patriotic Movement leader MP Michel Aoun stated on Tuesday that Hizbullah's expansion of its telecommunications network can be attributed to the failure to address this issue back in 2008 when this case first arose.

He said after the Change and Reform bloc's weekly meeting: “Whoever allowed Hizbullah to expand its telecommunications network in the Bekaa town of Zahle must resolve this issue to prevent unrest similar to that of May 7, 2008.”

Zahle's MPs on Monday called on President Michel Suleiman and caretaker Prime Minister Najib Miqati to ask Hizbullah to remove its controversial telecom network from their city.

“The region is characterized by harmony and interaction among all the Bekaa residents and we will launch an initiative out of our faith in our unifying political role,” Lebanese Forces bloc MP Tony Abou Khater said at a news conference, reciting a statement issued by Zahle's lawmakers.

Tensions were high in the Bekaa city of Zahle on Sunday after members of Hizbullah attempted to expand the party's telecommunications network in the area, reported various media outlets on Monday.

On Sunday, armed members of the party deployed along the highway extending between the city's industrial zone to the Mar Charbel church in an attempt to expand the network.

Armed men have kidnapped two Syrian gold traders in the eastern Bekaa Valley, the state-run National News Agency reported late Saturday.

NNA said the driver of the businessmen – Joseph Ltaf and Yehya Suleiman Marzouq - informed police in Beit Shama that he drove them to the area of Tamnin al-Tahta after one of them received a phone call from a person allegedly wanting to do business with them.