Chairman of Iranian Parliament's National Security and Foreign Policy Committee Alaeddin Boroujerdi concluded on Saturday a visit to Lebanon during which he met with various Lebanese officials, including Speaker Nabih Berri, Prime Minister Tammam Salam, and Hizbullah chief Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah.

Salam had hoped during his talks with the Iranian official that Tehran would exert efforts that would help end the presidential deadlock in Lebanon, reported the pan-Arab daily al-Hayat on Sunday.

Director of the Department of the Middle East and North Africa at the French Foreign Ministry Jean-François Girault is expected to return to Beirut on Monday to continue his efforts to achieve a breakthrough in the ongoing deadlock over the presidential elections, reported the daily An Nahar on Sunday.

Observers ruled out the possibility that the French official would be able to create a breakthrough in his talks with local figures.

Fugitive Islamist Shadi al-Mawlawi is still hiding in the Palestinian refugee camp of Ain el-Hilweh in southern Lebanon, reported the pan-Arab daily al-Hayat on Sunday.

Judicial sources told the daily that his wife visited him on Friday with their four-year-old son Adam.

The March 14 alliance is preparing to launch a workshop aimed at “rewriting its political roadmap” to keep abreast local and regional developments, reported the Kuwaiti daily al-Anba on Sunday.

It said that the workshop will kick off on the tenth anniversary of the assassination of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri on February 14.

The board of directors of crisis-hit Casino du Liban on Saturday decided to form a committee to reevaluate the file of the 191 contract employees it had recently dismissed, as the touristic facility remained closed for a fifth day due to an open-ended sit-in.

“The casino's administration has formed a committee to reevaluate the file of the sacked employees,” OTV reported in the evening.

Progressive Socialist Party leader MP Walid Jumblat on Saturday poured cold water on reports claiming that his resignation from parliament has become imminent.

“I will resign from my parliamentary post at the appropriate time,” Jumblat announced on his Twitter account.

A woman in need of medical treatment died on Saturday evening after she was denied admission by three hospitals, the Ministry of Health said in a statement.

“Amira al-Akkoumi arrived deceased this evening to the al-Salam Hospital in al-Qoubaiyat” in the northern Akkar district, the ministry announced.

A pharmacy in the Bekaa region of Baalbek was ordered temporarily shut on Saturday while a farm containing expired foods and sick cows was raided by security forces, as part of the ongoing anti-corruption campaign that was launched by Health Minister Wael Abou Faour.

“The army raided a farm owned by the Syrian A. Gh. In the western Bekaa town of al-Rawda, seizing quantities of expired canned foods and sick cows,” state-run National News Agency reported.

Head of al-Mustaqbal Parliamentary bloc MP Fouad Saniora lashed out on Saturday Hizbullah chief Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, describing his remarks on shattering rules of engagement with Israel as “hasty and individual.”

“His speech deletes the will of the Lebanese people as no side is allowed to make decisions on behalf of the the state authority and the citizens,” Saniora stressed.

The CIA and Israel's spy agency Mossad were behind an elaborate plot to kill Hizbullah commander Jihad Mughniyeh in a 2008 car bomb attack in Syria, the Washington Post reported Friday.

Citing former intelligence officials, the newspaper reported that U.S. and Israeli spy agencies worked together to target Mughniyeh on February 12, 2008 as he left a restaurant in the Syrian capital Damascus.