Free Patriotic Movement leader MP Michel Aoun hoped on Tuesday that the government would exert efforts to complete the state budget.

He hoped that Finance Minister Mohammed al-Safadi would cater to some of the “confusion” at his ministry in order to complete accounts, which would pave the way for the completion of the budget.

Cabinet approved on Tuesday a parliamentary electoral law based on proportional representation.

The draft law was subject to a vote at cabinet, enjoying the support of all ministers except those of the National Struggle Front, announced acting Information Minister Wael Abou Faour after the session, which was held at the Baabda Palace and headed by President Michel Suleiman.

Twelve people were wounded in a huge fire that broke out on Tuesday at the Justice Ministry building, trapping several employees in their offices, reported Voice of Lebanon radio.

The blaze erupted in the fourth and fifth floors of the building located in Beirut’s Mathaf area and firefighting teams have succeeded in extinguishing most of it, said the National News Agency.

Several Syrian shells hit the northern Wadi Khaled region at dawn Tuesday, damaging several houses and causing panic among residents, the National News Agency reported.

NNA said the shells struck houses in the Bqaiaa-Mqaibleh area near the legal Bqaiaa-Jisr al-Qmar crossing, damaging the houses and forcing residents to flee to safer areas.

Eleven Lebanese pilgrims kidnapped in Syria appeared in good health on Tuesday after an LBC news team was able to interview them, but the men lashed out at the government for not doing enough to set them free.

“I won’t urge our state because I don’t consider myself that I have a state and I am no longer proud of being Lebanese,” said one of the pilgrims Abbas Shoaib.

A ministerial committee set up to resolve the problem of cannabis farmers in the eastern Bekaa valley will hold its first meeting on Tuesday, Interior Minister Marwan Charbel said.

Charbel told An Nahar daily that a solution to the cannabis fields mainly in Bekaa’s north is now in the hands of the committee that will discuss a development plan for the Baalbek-Hermel area during its meeting under Prime Minister Najib Miqati at the Grand Serail.

Senior Israeli security officials are warning that the biggest threat to Israel is not Iran’s missiles in case of a military strike by the Jewish state but a deadly response from Hizbullah, Israeli Ynet news reported.

A government source said that "Hizbullah is the long arm of Iran," adding that "this terrorist organization will undoubtedly barrage Israel with thousands of missiles. It won't begin with Kiryat Shmona and end in Haifa, but will reach further into Israel.

Hizbullah Secretary-General Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah on Monday hoped the rival March 14 camp will be “allowed” to return to the national dialogue table, warning that the alternative to dialogue would be “chaos.”

“Only dialogue is possible and no one wants to eliminate the other. We hope they will be allowed to return to dialogue and we hope dialogue will resume. Dialogue is prohibited in Syria because the Americans, the West and Israel are not allowing the Syrian opposition to engage in dialogue,” Nasrallah said in a televised address during an iftar banquet held by the women’s activities department of the Islamic Resistance Support Organization.

The families of the 11 Lebanese Shiite pilgrims who were abducted in Syria on Monday blocked the airport road to protest the Lebanese state's failure to secure their release.

State-run National News Agency said the protesters used their cars and motorcycles to block the highway in both directions.

Former prime minister Saad Hariri said a visit on Monday to Lebanon by Saeed Jalili, head of Iran's Supreme National Security Council, was “unwelcome in this critical period during which the Syrian people are suffering the most horrible types of massacres and destruction at the hands of Bashar Assad’s regime and its foreign protectors.”

“This visit also contradicts with the interest of the Lebanese people who cannot dissociate themselves from showing solidarity with their brothers in Syria or from the unified Arab stance demanding the resignation of Bashar Assad and an end to the Iranian regime’s interference in the Arab affairs in general and the Syrian and Lebanese affairs in particular,” Hariri added in a statement.