A ministerial committee tasked with following up the case of the kidnapped Lebanese in Syria held a meeting on Tuesday without issuing a statement.

Labor Minister Salim Jreissati said after the talks that the next session will be held at Interior Minister Marwan Charbel’s office on Friday.

Al-Jadeed TV denied on Tuesday that its reporter Youmna Fawwaz was kidnapped in the northern Syrian province of Aleppo while covering the severe fighting between government troops and armed rebels.

Fawwaz headed from Syria towards the Turkish territories on Monday night, al-Jadeed said. “She contacted us at 7:00 am from Turkish territories where she is being interrogated by security authorities on how she entered Syria.”

U.S. authorities on Monday announced the seizure of $150 million allegedly linked to a scheme by Hizbullah to launder proceeds from drug trafficking and other crimes.

The money came from an American bank account used by the Beirut-based Lebanese Canadian Bank (LCB) to conduct U.S. currency transactions, U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara and Drug Enforcement Administration chief Michele Leonhart said.

The Syrian judiciary has issued arrest warrants for Lebanese figures "on charges of backing and financing armed groups," Sky News Arabia reported on Monday.

Earlier in the day, Damascus' First Attorney-General Mohammed Marwan al-Loji said in an interview with al-Manar television that “the Syrian judicial authorities are preparing arrest warrants for several Lebanese political figures, including lawmakers, on charges of providing all sorts of support to the armed terrorist groups in Syria, such as the trafficking of weapons and gunmen.”

Armed clashes erupted on Monday between the rival Tripoli districts of Jabal Mohsen and Bab al-Tabbaneh “over the launching of fireworks,” LBCI television reported.

Half an hour later, LBCI said the army managed to contain the situation.

Pope Benedict XVI's visit to Lebanon next month will go ahead as scheduled, the Vatican said on Monday, despite tensions in the country linked to the raging conflict in Syria.

"The preparations for the visit are going ahead without any uncertainty on the part of the Vatican," Vatican spokesman Federico Lombardi told reporters.

Grand Mufti Sheikh Mohammed Rashid Qabbani hoped on Monday that the Lebanese are aware of the impending dangers of divisions among them.

Qabbani hoped that all Lebanese would become aware of the looming dangers resulting from their divisions because division is the cause of strife, the National News Agency said.

Security forces arrested two teenagers trying to steal the contents of a vehicle in Zouk Mosbeh, north of Beirut, the National News Agency reported on Monday.

J.Sh., 15, and 16-year-old A.M. were arrested on Sunday night as they were opening the door of the car, NNA said.

A woman told police that four masked men kidnapped her Syrian husband near the eastern city of Baalbek at midnight, the National News Agency reported Monday.

Rahaf Hassan Mashhadani told security forces at the Beit Shama police station that the four men riding a silver four-wheeler kidnapped her 30-year-old husband Khaled Mohammed Mashhadani near his house that lies close to the Bednayel intersection.

Al-Meqdad clan’s spokesman Maher al-Meqdad warned that the family’s military wing could resume the kidnapping of Syrians after the Eid al-Fitr holiday if Hassan al-Meqdad was not released by Syrian rebels.

In remarks to a TV station, the spokesman said Monday: “The family took the decision to relieve people during the Eid but we will relaunch our movement after the holidays.”