Electricite du Liban’s contract workers on Saturday blocked the entrances to the state-run company’s main building in Mar Mikhael, warning they would take escalatory measures next week if their demands are not met.

The National News Agency said the workers prevented the employees that have contracts with service providers from receiving bills to collect them from people who haven’t been paying for the past 3 months.

Change and Reform bloc ministers are thinking over whether to participate in a cabinet session that is scheduled to be held at Baabda palace on Monday, following their boycott of two other meetings over a dispute on the full-time employment of Electricite du Liban’s contract workers.

By Saturday, the 10 ministers loyal to Free Patriotic Movement leader Michel Aoun hadn’t announced their participation in the session that Premier Najib Miqati called for to discuss the latest security incidents, the murder attempt against MP Butros Harb, including the telecom data, and the 2012 draft state budget.

Opposition MP Butros Harb confirmed Saturday that Telecommunications Minister Nicolas Sehnaoui informed him that the security agencies were delivered the so-called telecom data in the investigation into the assassination attempt against him.

In remarks to An Nahar daily, Harb described as an “achievement” the handing over of the data although security forces said the information was incomplete over the failure of delivering the security agencies what is known as the international mobile subscriber identity (IMSI).

A U.S. federal judge has ordered Iran to pay more than $813 million in damages and interest to the families of 241 U.S. soldiers killed in the 1983 bombing of a Marine barracks in Lebanon.

"After this opinion, this court will have issued over $8.8 billion in judgments against Iran as a result of the 1983 Beirut bombing," Judge Royce Lamberth wrote in a ruling this week, a copy of which was seen Friday by Agence France Presse.

Three people were killed and another seven injured on Saturday as shells and Rocket Propelled Grenades landed on the northern area of Wadi Khaled from the Syrian side of the border, the National News Agency reported.

NNA said gunfire erupted near the northern and northeastern border with Lebanon between Syrian troops and gunmen at dawn and was followed by intense shelling.

Saudi Ambassador to Lebanon Ali Awadh Asiri on Friday revealed that Saudi citizens were recently kidnapped and robbed in Lebanon, decrying the fact that the perpetrators remained at large although they are “well-known.”

“Some Saudis were kidnapped and robbed in Lebanon and the perpetrators were identified but have not been arrested until the moment,” Asiri said in an interview on MTV.

Republican U.S. Senator John McCain, Ranking Member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, on Friday held talks with Progressive Socialist Party leader MP Walid Jumblat, wrapping up a two-day visit to Lebanon.

After the meeting, McCain clarified that he was not referring to Lebanon when he mentioned Thursday the need to create a safe zone for the Syrian opposition, noting that Turkey or Jordan could provide such a haven.

President Michel Suleiman slammed on Friday the assassination attempt against MP Butros Harb, condemning the return of “such incidents that only serve to create instability in Lebanon.”

He said after meeting the lawmaker at the Baabda Palace: “The security and legal authorities have received strict orders to work on uncovering the details of the case in order to reveal the perpetrators.”

Israel is preparing to launch a devastating attack against Lebanon as the developments in Syria are one of the factors that could upset the calm, Israeli newspaper Haaretz reported on Friday.

“This means carrying out a very strong attack against Lebanon, and the damage will be enormous," said a senior officer in the Northern Command of the 91st Division, which is responsible for the front with Lebanon.

Prime Minister Najib Miqati noted on Friday that the March 14 camp’s demand for the resignation of the government is not new, saying that they have been making this demand since its formation in 2011.

He said: “There are constitutional means to topple the government and we will continue our work until they are provided.”