The presidential vacuum entered its third week on Monday as a large number of lawmakers failed to attend an electoral session, which met the fate of its predecessors over differences between the rival parties on a compromise candidate.

Speaker Nabih Berri adjourned the session to elect a new president to June 18 after MPs once again did not guarantee the needed two-thirds quorum.

A 17-year-old teenager on Sunday raped a Syrian child, 5, before murdering him and throwing his body in a garbage dumpster in the Akkar town of Halba.

“The Halba police station received a phone call from Mahmoud Aa., who reported that his son N. Aa., 17, had confessed to him that he had killed a child and thrown his corpse in a garbage dumpster near the Halba vocational institute,” said a statement issued by the Internal Security Forces in the afternoon.

Hizbullah and the Free Patriotic Movement snapped back Sunday at March 14 General Secretariat Coordinator ex-MP Fares Soaid over the land row in Lassa, with Change and Reform bloc MP Simon Abi Ramia describing him as one of the politicians “who cannot survive unless they see blood.”

“Disputes in the area started in 1992 and there had been disagreements over land since 1936. Back then there was no FPM, General (Michel) Aoun or (Hizbullah chief) Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah,” Abi Ramia said at a press conference.

Progressive Socialist Party leader MP Walid Jumblat has stressed that he will not pull out MP Henri Helou of the presidential race even if an agreement was reached between al-Mustaqbal movement leader MP Saad Hariri and Free Patriotic Movement chief MP Michel Aoun.

“I'm not one of those who wait for external factors. I won't pull out Henri Helou even if Hariri reaches an agreement with Aoun,” Jumblat said in an interview with The Associated Press.

The Syndicate Coordination Committee warned on Sunday Education Minister Elias Bou Saab against holding official exams without teachers and proper monitors, renewing its call on parliament to approve the new wage scale draft-law.

But the minister hit back later in the day, announcing that "there is a very high probability that the official exams will be held on Thursday."

Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi criticized on Sunday lawmakers for their failure to elect a new president following five rounds of the elections.

He warned during Sunday mass: “The failure to elect a new president is a dangerous violation of the constitution and will lead to the crippling of the state.”

Speaker Nabih Berri has launched a number of contacts with various concerned political sides over the new wage scale, reported the Kuwaiti daily Al-Anba on Sunday.

March 8 camp sources told the daily that the speaker is seeking an agreement between the political powers ahead of Tuesday's parliament session that is aimed at discussing the wage hike.

Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi will renew next week his demands on political parties to exert greater efforts to hold the presidential polls and elect a new head of state, reported the daily An Nahar on Sunday.

Sources close to Bkirki said that the patriarch will adopt a stronger tone in urging the officials to stage the elections.

Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea is expected to launch an initiative next week to end the deadlock over the presidential elections, reported the daily An Nahar on Sunday.

It said that his initiative will likely include “extending the hand to the March 8 alliance.”

The Internal Security Forces said Saturday that it arrested a robber after catching him red-handed at a house in Beirut, but his accomplice was still on the run.

An ISF Intelligence Branch patrol apprehended M.Q. while he was robbing the home in the Ramlet al-Bayda district, claiming he was a satellite dish worker.