The United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon marked on Monday the International Day for Mine Awareness and Assistance in Mine Action.

At a ceremony at UNIFIL Sector West headquarters in Shamaa, Force Commander Major General Alberto Asarta Cuevas highlighted UNIFIL’s contribution to the effort of de-mining and its impact on helping ensure safer and more prosperous lives for the people of southern Lebanon.

Progressive Socialist Party leader MP Walid Jumblat stressed on Monday the need to adopt a new approach in tackling the prisons file in Lebanon given the weekend’s unrest in the Roumieh prison.

He said in his weekly editorial in the PSP-affiliated al-Anbaa magazine that new prisons should be constructed and the old ones should be renovated, noting that such matters “have never been a priority for any of the past governments despite our repeated demands that they be given the attention they deserve.”

Phalange Party leader Amin Gemayel criticized on Monday the ongoing governmental vacuum in Lebanon, saying that the country is in desperate need of a national salvation government to revive the state and restore contacts among the Lebanese.

He said during a press conference: “We are getting distracted with pointless debates and we have no right to ignore the reality of the situation in the country.”

Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi held talks on Monday with Prime Minister-designate Najib Miqati at his house in Verdun.

The meeting was also attended by a number of spiritual leaders, including Grand Mufti Mohammad Rashid Qabbani, the Vice President of the Higher Shiite Islamic Council Abdel Amir Qabalan, and Druze spiritual leader Sheikh Naim Hassan.

CMA CGM, the third largest shipping container company worldwide, denied on Monday recent media reports that it was involved in shipping weapons to and from Iran.

It said in a statement: “CMA CGM is responsible for the shipment of some 9 million containers around the world each year.”

Lebanon’s ambassador to the U.N. Nawaf Salam will ask Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon to deploy more U.N. troops in cities in the Ivory Coast where most Lebanese are concentrated and help them overcome the difficult conditions in the violence-torn country.

Salam told Speaker Nabih Berri during a telephone conversation that he would meet with Ban on Monday.

The Internal Security Forces leadership is investigating the involvement of wardens in the smuggling of drugs and mobile phones to inmates at Roumieh prison and would take “disciplinary measures” against them, ISF chief Maj. Gen. Ashraf Rifi said.

An Nahar newspaper said Monday a “scandal” erupted after several prisoners made phone calls to television stations from inside their cells during the two-day mutiny over the weekend.

Hizbullah has advised Premier-designate Najib Miqati to “exercise more patience” and promised him to exert all efforts to help achieve common grounds over Free Patriotic Movement leader Michel Aoun’s demands of shares in the new cabinet, high-ranking political sources told An Nahar daily on Monday.

The sources also denied reports that Miqati had agreed to give 10 portfolios to Aoun’s Change and Reform bloc, another 10 to Hizbullah, Amal and some other March 8 parties and finally the last 10 ministers for President Michel Suleiman, the premier-designate and National Struggle Front leader MP Walid Jumblat.

Speaker Nabih Berri said that Premier-designate Najib Miqati is continuing his efforts to form the new government, in remarks to An-Nahar and As-Safir newspapers.

“There’s no excuse to delay the government formation,” Berri said, rejecting to talk about so-called sovereign portfolios and non-sovereign portfolios.

Al-Qaida operatives and Hizbullah members are in Brazil planning attacks, raising money and recruiting followers, a leading Brazilian news magazine reported over the weekend.

Veja magazine said that at least 20 people affiliated with the al-Qaida terrorist network as well as Hizbullah and Hamas have been hiding out in the south American country.