Two missing Lebanese found dead

Lebanese police on Thursday found the bodies of two missing youths whose abduction have raised tension in strife-ridden Lebanon and sparked rumors of violence, Al-Arabiya TV channel reported.

The bodies of Ziad Qabalan, 25, and Ziad Ghandour, 12, were found in a field north of the port city of Sidon, 40km south of Beirut after a local television station received an anonymous phone tip, the report said.

Ghandour's father and Qabalan are members of the Progressive Socialist Party of pro-government Druze leader Walid Jumblatt.

Local media reports have tied the pair's disappearance to the killing of an opposition supporter in sectarian riots in the capital city of Beirut in January, but the family of the dead man denied responsibility.

Currently, Lebanon is facing its worst political crisis since the end of the 1975-1990 civil war.

Opposition ministers, including all Shiites, resigned from the government last November because of Prime Minister Fouad Seniora's refusal to give them 11 seats in the 30-member cabinet and effectively hand veto power to his opponents.