Central Bank Governor Riad Salameh stressed on Tuesday that Lebanon's banking and financial situation is “good.”

“Our currency is stable and we're witnessing growth in banks budgets and deposits,” Salameh told reporters at Beirut's Rafik Hariri International Airport before heading to Geneva.

Syrian Ambassador Ali Abdul Karim Ali denied on Tuesday that there was a change in the balance of power after the resignation of the cabinet that was led by Hizbullah.

Following a visit to former Prime Minister Salim Hoss at his office in the Beirut neighborhood of Aisha Bakkar, Ali said: “We don't see any change in the balance of power.”

The families of the abducted pilgrims in the Syrian town of Aazaz, who vowed to prevent Syrians from working in their neighborhoods, went ahead with their escalatory measures on Tuesday for the third day in a row.

The families of the remaining 9 men prevented Syrian nationals from practicing their professions in the areas of Burj al-Barajneh, Tehwitat al-Ghadir and Hay al-Sellom in Beirut's southern suburbs.

Al-Qaida in Iraq said for the first time on Tuesday that Al-Nusra Front, a jihadist group battling President Bashar Assad's regime, was part of its network and fighting for an Islamic state in Syria.

The remarks by the leader of al-Qaida's front group in Iraq, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, were made in an audio message posted on jihadist forums and confirm widespread suspicions of links between the two groups.

Three mortar shells hit the town al-Dbabiyeh in the northern district of Akkar Monday overnight, injuring a boy and causing damages to two houses.

The state-run National News Agency reported on Tuesday that the shells hit Lebanese territories due to the intense fighting along the border with Syria.

Syria will not accept a chemical weapons team, as proposed by U.N. chief Ban Ki-moon, to probe the alleged use of chemical weapons in the country's conflict, the foreign ministry said on Monday.

Ban has "suggested a supplementary mission allowing the mission to deploy throughout Syrian territory, which is contrary to the demand Syria made to the United Nations," a ministry official said, cited by state news agency SANA.

Two Hizbullah members fighting alongside Syrian government forces in the Qusayr area near the border with Lebanon were killed on Monday, a source close to the party said.

"Two members of Hizbullah who went to Syria to fight against armed groups in the Qusayr sector have been killed," the source said.

A U.N. inspection team is in Cyprus and ready to deploy to nearby Syria to probe the alleged use of chemical weapons in the conflict there, U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said on Monday.

"I can announce today that an advance team is now in Cyprus for the final stage" before the mission heads to Syria, Ban said in The Hague. "We are ready."

A massive suicide car bomb ripped through the heart of Damascus on Monday, killing at least 15 people and littering a central street with dead bodies and the carcasses of charred cars.

"Terrorists detonate car bomb between Sabaa Bahrat Square and Shahbander Street," state television reported, adding that initial information suggested it had been a suicide attack.

An experts committee, tasked with probing the fraud case at al-Madina Bank, handed over on Monday General Prosecutor Judge Hatem Madi a report that includes the names of the suspects that received suspicious funds.

The state-run National News Agency reported that the preliminary report cites the names of 411 identified suspects, who received fishy funds from al-Madina Bank.