The Free Sunnis of Baalbek Brigade said on Friday that it has taken three Hizbullah members as hostage on the outskirts of the eastern city of Baalbek.

The terrorist group claimed on its twitter account that the three hostages are from Hizbullah's elite force.

President Michel Suleiman on Friday appealed for the election of a “made in Lebanon” head of state, rejected foreign interference in the presidential elections and called the boycott of the polls “undemocratic.”

“The presidential and parliamentary elections should be held on time and vacuum avoided,” Suleiman told Lebanese diplomats at Baabda Palace.

The March 8 alliance is divided on the candidacy of Free Patriotic Movement chief Michel Aoun for the presidency, the Kuwaiti al-Anba daily reported on Friday.

The newspaper quoted sources as saying that some March 8 members, including Hizbullah, are hoping Aoun would decide to give up his bid for the presidency.

Tourism Minister Michel Pharaon said he would accompany Prime Minister Tammam Salam in his tour to lure back Arab tourists to Lebanon after a steady decline in their numbers in the past years.

The tourism “sector lately witnessed a sort of movement after Turkish and Egyptian and even Kuwaiti citizens visited Lebanon during the Easter holidays,” Pharaon said.

Progressive Socialist Party leader MP Walid Jumblat on Thursday announced his support for legalizing the cultivation of cannabis in Lebanon, especially in the Bekaa region.

“There should not be any concerns over legalizing and organizing the cultivation of cannabis for medical purposes, as it would not pose a health risk unless it is turned into an addiction," Jumblat said during an interview on al-Jadeed TV.

Telecommunications Minister Butros Harb announced Thursday that he has agreed with Progressive Socialist Party leader MP Walid Jumblat to seek “new ideas” in approaching the presidential vote.

“The meeting was an occasion to exchange ideas on the means to confront the coming period, after the (parliament's) failure to hold the presidential vote” on Wednesday, Harb told reporters after meeting Jumblat in Clemenceau.

Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea said Thursday that the rival March 8 camp does not want a “real state” in Lebanon, accusing it of “obstructing” parliamentary sessions aimed at electing a new president in order to “maintain the state of chaos” in the country.

“We will not accept the persistence of the artificial, paralyzed and usurped state in Lebanon. We will struggle to restore the real and strong state,” Geagea said at a ceremony titled Day of the Republic that was organized by the LF's Student Department in Maarab.

Mansour Labaki's lawyer denied on Thursday that Vatican authorities ruled that the monsignor was innocent of the child abuse accusations against him.

"The case is now in the hands of Pope Francis only, and we are sure of Labaki's innocence according to the documents we have,” attorney Antoine Akl said in released statement.

The army announced on Thursday the arrest of five wanted suspects in Beirut's southern suburbs of Dahieh.

Mohammed Mazloum and his sons Ali and Hassan were arrested after the discovery of military equipment at their residence.

An Israeli force inspected an orchard in the South on Thursday morning in search of a “suspicious object” in the area.

The force, which comprised more than 20 soldiers, was examining a region facing the border town of Kfarkila, MTV reported.