United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon was seeking to launch efforts on the international scene to push Lebanese powers to stage the presidential elections, reported the daily An Nahar on Saturday.

It said that Ban was aiming to kick off an initiative to that end, but he postponed his efforts in light of the recent offensive of the jihadist Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant in Iraq.

A clash erupted Friday between an armed group and a number of residents in the al-Nabaa area in Northern Metn, prompting the intervention of security forces.

“A person was injured as a dispute between an armed group belonging to the Fakhreddine family and residents of al-Nabaa-Sin el-Fil erupted into shooting in the air,” state-run National News Agency reported.

A Syrian national was kidnapped on Friday evening while he was en route to the Bekaa's city of Baalbek coming from Zahle.

"Four gunmen in a Black Cherokee kidnapped Syrian national Khalil Aslan Areej while he was on his way to Baalbek,” the state-run National News Agency reported.

Former Prime Minister and head of al-Mustaqbal Movement Saad Hariri telephoned Progressive Socialist Party leader MP Walid Jumblat on Friday evening during a meeting with Health Minister Wael Abou Faour in the Moroccan city of Casablanca.

Both leaders agreed during the conversation to hold a meeting in the near future, a statement released by Hariri's media office said.

A judicial source on Friday confirmed Beirut had extradited an ally of Italy's former prime minister Silvio Berlusconi.

"Senator Marcello Dell'Utri was handed over to an Italian security delegation and left the country on board an Alitalia aircraft at 4:00 am (0100 GMT) following a presidential decree," the source told Agence France Presse.

Free Patriotic Movement leader MP Michel telephoned Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi on Friday and both men discussed the vacuum in the state's top post.

The state-run National New Agency said Aoun and Rahi tackled the latest developments in Lebanon, particularly the presidential juncture.

The situation along the Lebanese-Syrian border, especially near the outskirts of the Bekaa town of Arsal, has taken a dangerous turn in light of the Syrian regime's waging of an attack on the area of Rankous and the militant al-Nusra Front's imposing of Islamic courts.

A reliable source told Egypt's Middle East News Agency that the security situation in Arsal has become dangerous as “armed groups have gone so far as to set up these courts and carry out the death penalty against convicts.”

Television cable providers in Lebanon criticized on Friday the state for failing to address the issue of broadcasting the 2014 FIFA World Cup, which has left several households unable to view the tournament that kicked off on Thursday.

General coordinator of the network of cable providers in Lebanon Mahmoud Khaled said during a press conference: “The state shied away from its responsibilities regarding this issue.”

Israel’s Ambassador to the U.N. Ron Prosor has accused Hizbullah and Iran of launching a campaign of terror against the Jewish State, urging the international community to find an “antidote” to eradicate the virus of terrorism.

“Israelis are the targets of a terror campaign directed by the Iranian Revolutionary Guards and Hizbullah,” Prosor told the 94th plenary meeting of the U.N. General Assembly on Thursday.

Less than six months are left for Lebanon's parliamentary elections, and for that purpose the Lebanese Association for Democratic Elections launched the first elections monitoring mobile phone application which allows all citizens to monitor the polls and register violations in the framework of their national shared responsibility, LADE said in a press conference on Thursday.

The organization said that it is now ready to monitor the elections with the help of unprecedented new technical tools used for the first time in the world. It has launched the field preparations in districts, and its central office to be ready to monitor the polls.