Al-Mustaqbal movement has urged supporters to gather at ex-Premier Rafik Hariri’s graveside in downtown Beirut after Friday prayers.

The movement’s sources told As Safir daily that al-Mustaqbal “has never said it was convinced about killer sects and killed confessions.”

A loud blast shook the neighborhood of Shiyyah in Beirut’s southern suburbs at dawn Monday, which the National News Agency said was the result of the explosion of a vehicle that suffered a technical malfunction.

Hizbullah and Amal members threw a security dragnet at the blast scene shortly after the explosion was heard at around 2:20 a.m., NNA said.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, who visits Beirut on Tuesday, is expecting that the Palestinian bid for United Nations recognition will receive a boost from Lebanon's taking over the presidency of the U.N. Security Council.

In an interview with al-Liwaa daily published Monday, Abbas hoped that Lebanon would play an effective role in his bid for U.N. membership on September 20, despite Israeli opposition.

The military prosecutor general has charged two Lebanese men with allegedly smuggling weapons from the Beirut Marina to Syria, a security source told As Safir daily published Saturday.

Wasim Tamim and Samir Tamim, who hail from the northern port city of Tripoli, are members of the most prominent movements in the former parliamentary majority, sources said in reference to ex-PM Saad Hariri’s al-Mustaqbal movement.

Progressive Socialist Party leader MP Walid Jumblat stressed on Wednesday the need for peaceful demonstrations to take place within legal norms in order to maintain freedom of expression that preserves Lebanon’s diversity.

He said in a statement: “The transformation of some of Beirut’s neighborhoods into closed security zones does not benefit any side as the capital belongs to all Lebanese and it harbors all political views.”

General Prosecutor Saeed Mirza has reportedly informed Special Tribunal for Lebanon Prosecutor Daniel Bellemare that the Internal Security Forces weren’t able to find the four suspects named in the indictment in ex-Premier Rafik Hariri’s murder case.

Pan-Arab daily al-Hayat quoted informed sources as saying on Wednesday that Mirza handed to a delegation from Bellemare’s office in Beirut the response of the Lebanese judiciary.

A unit from the Drug Enforcement Bureau seized 53 kilograms of cocaine worth an estimated $8 Million from two vehicles driven by foreigners in the coastal town of Kaslik, the National News Agency reported Tuesday.

NNA said that the unit seized the drugs from a Range Rover and a Mercedes. Two of its occupants were Palestinians and the other two were Irish and Dutch.

Lebanon's few remaining Arabic calligraphers, whose elegant script and interweaving words transport one to another era, are working to preserve an art form struggling to compete with new technology.

"The computer is a wonderful tool but in no way can it replace an artist or produce masterpieces," says Mahmoud Bayoun, one of the country's best-known calligraphers, whose works have been displayed in the United States and Iran.

Premier Najib Miqati returns to Beirut from his family trip abroad on Friday night as the cabinet readies itself to hold a meeting next week to discuss the bombing that targeted a UNIFIL patrol in the south and a series of administrative issues.

The agenda of Tuesday’s cabinet meeting has 161 items linked to financial, real estate, electricity and water projects. The agenda also includes the transfer of teachers at the Lebanese University.

U.S. Ambassador Maura Connelly has reportedly asked Speaker Nabih Berri why Lebanon would not strike deals with companies to start oil exploration in its territorial waters as Israel did pending a solution to its conflict with the Jewish state on the Exclusive Economic Zone.

Media reports quoted Berri as answering Connelly that the maritime border line between Lebanon and Israel should be drawn. “If someone is seeking or working to reach a peace agreement between Lebanon and Israel to settle the oil issue, then this didn’t and won’t happen.”