A Beirut judge issued a one year prison sentence against a businessman for trading in expired meat, the state-run National News Agency reported on Friday.

Judge Bassem Taqieddine also imposed a LL50 million fine on Ahmed Mohammed Yassine, NNA said.

The U.S. Department of Defense and the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) are engaged in direct and indirect contacts with Hizbullah, al-Joumhouria newspaper reported on Friday.

According to the report, the talks focus on several aspects and include the Islamist movement Hamas.

A residential building, whose owner had violated construction regulations in the northern city of Tripoli, was evacuated on Friday over fears it would collapse, municipal chief Nader Ghazal said.

The state-run National News Agency said the building, which is located in Abi Samra district, was evacuated after cracks began appearing in its walls and foundations.

Progressive Socialist Party leader MP Walid Jumblat has said that he would visit Syria only if the regime of Syrian President Bashar Assad collapses and the country is “liberated.”

In remarks to French-language daily L'Orient Le Jour, Jumblat said: “Neither I nor my son have planned for a single moment to go to Damascus.”

President Michel Suleiman is seeking to form a neutral cabinet ahead of the end of his term in May 2014, al-Akhbar newspaper reported on Friday.

Ministerial sources told the daily that Suleiman might adopt this option in coordination with Prime Minister-designate Tammam Salam if he believed that the rival parties won't extend his presidential term.

Caretaker Interior Minister Marwan Charbel is expected to visit Roumieh Prison next week to inspect the conditions of the inmates and the facility, As Safir newspaper reported on Friday.

According to the report, Charbel will meet with several Islamist inmates, who will brief him on their demands.

President Michel Suleiman prefers to renew his mandate rather than extend it, well-informed diplomatic sources told As Safir newspaper published on Friday.

The sources quoted Suleiman as telling his French counterpart Francois Hollande in September that he rejects the extension of his term, even for a day.

Italian Prime Minister Enrico Letta is expected to arrive in Beirut on Friday to hold talks with senior officials and to prepare for an international conference to provide the Lebanese army with the help it needs to boost its performance.

Local newspaper reported on Friday that the Italian Premier will hold talks with President Michel Suleiman, Speaker Nabih Berri and his Lebanese counterpart Najib Miqati.

Speaker Nabih Berri has warned that holding cabinet sessions would renew clashes in the resigned government of Prime Minister Najib Miqati, hindering the process of coming up with a new line-up.

“The revival of government sessions would open the appetite over controversial issues that a resigned cabinet should not discuss because they would push aside the efforts to form the government,” he said.

Residents of some Akkar towns fled the area on Thursday to escape the fallout from clashes on the Syrian side of the border.

“Shelling targeted the outskirts of their towns, forcing them to flee their homes to safer places,” state-run National News Agency reported.