The employees of the Directorate General of Antiquities on Wednesday found remnants of a corpse dating to more than 30 years ago while conducting maintenance works at Beaufort Castle (al-Shaqif Fortress) near the southern town of Arnoun, state-run National News Agency reported.

“At once, army intelligence agents from the Nabatiyeh department and members of the Internal Security Forces headed to the location accompanied by Nabatiyeh's forensic doctor Jamal Ello, who examined the remnants that turned out to be consisted of a leg bone and foot bones,” NNA said.

The March 14 General Secretariat condemned on Wednesday the recent clashes in the southern city of Sidon, refuting accusations that the alliance was supporting Salafist movements in Lebanon.

It said in a statement after its weekly meeting: “We stand against such groups … Sidon has been an example of Muslim-Christian coexistence.”

The Maronite Bishops council condemned on Wednesday the spread of illegal arms in Lebanon, saying that it will only create chaos in the country.

They said in a statement: “All armed groups must lay down their weapons in favor of official security forces.”

Two charred bodies found in the southern city of Sidon in the aftermath of deadly gunbattles are not those of Sheikh Ahmed al-Asir and Fadel Shaker, a onetime prominent singer-turned Salafist, the state commissioner to the military court said Wednesday.

Judge Saqr Saqr confirmed that DNA tests of al-Asir's and Shaker's families revealed that the bodies were neither of the Salafist cleric, nor of Shaker or his brother.

The Free Patriotic Movement and Hizbullah have been keen to rule out any rift amid media reports highlighting sharp differences between the close allies over several issues including the extension of Army Chief Gen. Jean Qahwaji's tenure.

Sources close to Hizbullah told As Safir newspaper published on Wednesday that the ties with FPM chief MP Michel Aoun are “normal.”

Prime Minister-designate Tammam Salam froze his attempts to form the new government, which he launched after the extension of parliament's mandate end of May, his sources said Wednesday.

The freeze came against the backdrop of a dispute between Speaker Nabih Berri and caretaker Premier Najib Miqati, who has refused to attend a parliamentary session amid a resigned cabinet.

Speaker Nabih Berri has denied that he was seeking to infringe on the powers of the executive authority by calling for a parliamentary session amid a resigned cabinet.

In remarks to several local dailies published Wednesday, Berri said: “I regret such accusations.”

Hizbullah Secretary-General Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah considered that the recent security incidents across Lebanon aim at curbing the movement of the resistance and plunging it in the local political disputes.

Nasrallah stressed, according to al-Joumhouria newspaper published on Wednesday, that the extremist phenomenon that Lebanon has been witnessing lately are backed and funded by known Arab countries.

Al-Mustaqbal parliamentary bloc stated on Tuesday that Hizbullah is the “only party to be held responsible for what Lebanon is going through” because of its involvement in the Syrian conflict.

"Hizbullah, its weapons and its militia's involvement in the Syrian war are responsible for what Lebanon is going through,” the lawmakers said in a released statement after their weekly meeting at the Center House.

Progressive Socialist Party leader MP Walid Jumblat slammed on Tuesday the international community's ongoing failure to properly address the Syrian crisis, noting its disregard of the developments in the city of Homs, which he predicted would be critical in determining the fate of the crisis.

He added: “The destruction of real-estate records in city and their replacement with others of different sects is an attempt to alter the political and sectarian identity of the regions stretching from Damascus to the Syrian coast.”