The Internal Security Forces completed on Tuesday the destruction of cannabis crops in the central Bekaa.

The operations, held at the field of the town of al-Allaq in the Baalbek province, took place under the supervision of the Lebanese army given the attack the ISF came under on Monday as it was destroying other cannabis fields.

United Nations Special Coordinator for Lebanon Derek Plumbly voiced on Tuesday the U.N. Security Council’s appreciation for the “determination of Lebanon’s leaders to protect their country from the effects of the crisis in neighboring Syria and other regional developments.”

He said after holding talks with Prime Minister Najib Miqati: “Security Council members were concerned, and so naturally am I, very concerned, at the border incidents that have been taking place in the north and the Bekaa.”

Hizbullah denied on Tuesday that it had anything to do with accusations that it was responsible for the assassination attempt against MP Butros Harb.

“The party, its officials and members had nothing to do with the so-called assassination attempt against MP Harb,” said a statement issued by Hizbullah's media relations department.

U.S. Ambassador to Lebanon Maura Connelly praised on Tuesday the generosity of the Lebanese and people and government in providing humanitarian assistance to Syrians fleeing violence, said the U.S. Embassy in a statement.

She stressed “the importance of protecting all refugees in Lebanon, including dissenters and deserters who have rejected violence, in keeping with Lebanon’s international humanitarian obligations.”

Three Syrian men, who were abducted in al-Bzaliyeh town in Baalbek, were released at 11:00 p.m. Monday, the National News Agency reported on Tuesday.

Phalange leader Amin Gemayel criticized hopes by some opposition officials that Hizbullah’s power in Lebanon would fade with the collapse of Syrian President Bashar Assad’s regime.

“The analysis and the betting on the collapse of Syria and the weakening of Hizbullah or its surrender are naïve and irresponsible,” Gemayel told As Safir newspaper in an interview published on Tuesday.

Tawhid Movement leader Wiam Wahhab denied on Tuesday that a Lebanese man was behind an alleged assassination attempt against him.

“I will not accuse anyone until I make sure,” Wahhab told al-Jadeed channel.

The Syndicate Coordination Committee held sit-ins on Tuesday near several ministries and state institutions across Lebanon to protest the cabinet’s failure to approve the new wages scale.

“The cabinet wants us to suspend our protests without approving the new wages scale for public employees… But we will not back down,” head of Association of Public Secondary School Education Teachers Hanna Gharib told LBC.

The March 14 opposition alliance hailed President Michel Suleiman on Tuesday over his “courageous” request to deliver a letter of protest to the Syrian ambassador over Syria’s repeated violations of Lebanese sovereignty.

“This courageous stance is part of the sovereign positions that the Lebanese people have been missing,” Phalange party leader Amin Gemayel told An Nahar daily.

A previously unheard of group calling itself "The Brigade of al-Mukhtar al-Thaqafi" has claimed responsibility for kidnapping Syrian opposition members in Lebanon with the aim of swapping them for 11 Lebanese Shiite pilgrims abducted in Syria on May 22, al-Mayadeen television reported on Monday.

The Beirut-based, pan-Arab TV network did not mention how many Syrian activists were nabbed or the Lebanese area they were allegedly kidnapped from.