Revered Lebanese spiritual leader Moussa al-Sadr, who went missing in Libya in 1978, died in the prison that he was detained at, al-Liwaa newspaper reported on Tuesday.

The report said that al-Sadr died of natural causes in the summer of 1998, while he was detained at Libya’s capital central prison in an underground cell.

A delegation from the eastern border town of Arsal visited Premier Najib Miqati on Tuesday to condemn accusations that the village is harboring al-Qaida militants.

The delegation to the Grand Serail, led by Municipal Council chief Ali al-Hujairi, urged Miqati to deploy troops near the town along the border with Syria.

The crisis on the wage hike was in a standstill on Tuesday amid speculation about the decision of the Shura Council that is expected to be issued ahead of a cabinet session scheduled to be held at Baabda palace on Wednesday.

Ministerial sources told An Nahar newspaper that if the decision of the Shura Council was in favor of the cabinet’s latest approval of the salary boost, then the problem would exacerbate amid the rejection of the Economic Committees of the wage increase which they said would lead to layoffs and closures of businesses.

Speaker Nabih Berri threatened on Tuesday the government against failing to issue the decrees concerning the implementation of decisions reached on oil exploration.

As Safir newspaper reported that Berri warned to call on the parliament to convene to question the cabinet over its performance if it didn’t issue the decrees during a session scheduled to be held at Baabda palace on Wednesday.

Former premier Saad Hariri on Monday said the Arab League should seek a “no-fly zone” over revolt-hit Syria, stressing that “everything must be done” to stop what he called a “massacre.”

“The Arab League should go to the U.N. and (seek) a no-fly zone (over Syria) and if Russia vetoes (the resolution) then a joint force should be formed with Turkey,” Hariri said on the social networking website Twitter.

Phalange Party leader Amin Gemayel on Monday said the remarks voiced by Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi in his Christmas sermon were “in line with the principles Bkirki has endorsed since the year 2000 concerning the need to accomplish national sovereignty.”

Sovereignty “can only be achieved if power is in the hand of the state,” Gemayel said in an interview on MTV.

Progressive Socialist Party leader MP Walid Jumblat condemned Monday what he called “the twin terrorist bombings” in Damascus, stressing the need for a “political solution” in revolt-hit Syria.

“Although the timing of the two bombings in Damascus raises several question marks given that it coincided with the arrival of the Arab team of observers, that does not mean that the PSP will not strongly deplore and condemn these terrorist bombings,” Jumblat said in his weekly column in his party’s mouthpiece Al-Anbaa.

Defense Minister Fayez Ghosn condemned on Monday the sides that criticized his recent statements that al-Qaida members had infiltrated the Bekaa town of Arsal, accusing them of attempting to question the loyalties of the Arsal residents.

He said in a statement: “My declarations last week were not a product of speculation, but they were based on information we received, which we thought was prudent to reveal to the public.”

Internal security forces at the Rafik Hariri International Airport in Beirut arrested a 24-year-old Egyptian national after seizing two kilograms of narcotic pills from his bag, the National News Agency reported on Monday.

NNA said that the ISF found the pills after searching the traveler’s bag, who was identified as A.M.

Lebanese government officials should exert more efforts to distance Lebanon from the twin Damascus bombings that took place in the Syrian capital on Friday, otherwise the cabinet would appear to be adopting a lax approach in combating terrorism, reported the Kuwaiti al-Rai newspaper on Monday.

Widely informed sources told the newspaper that President Michel Suleiman’s statements on Lebanon’s rejection of terrorism was the first attempt to ease the government “embarrassment” in this issue.