Six candidates will fight the by-elections in the northern district of Koura after the deadline for the announcement of candidacies for the vacated Greek Orthodox post ended, the interior ministry announced on Saturday.

The ministry said the deadline for candidates to announce that they are running in the July 15 by-elections ended after midnight Friday.

The advisor of Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu reiterated that 11 Lebanese pilgrims kidnapped in Syria last month haven’t crossed the border to Turkey.

In remarks to An Nahar newspaper published Saturday, the advisor said: “Turkey has nothing to do with the issue and the kidnapping didn’t take place on our territories.”

U.S. Senator John McCain is expected to visit Beirut next week as part of his tour to the region, U.S. sources told al-Akhbar newspaper published Saturday.

McCain will meet with President Michel Suleiman, Speaker Nabih Berri, Premier Najib Miqati and other officials, the report said.

Interior Minister Marwan Charbel said Saturday he was personally taking charge of negotiations with Salafist cleric Sheikh Ahmed al-Asir to persuade him into ending the sit-in that he launched in the southern city of Sidon earlier in the week.

In remarks to Voice of Lebanon radio (93.3) and As Safir daily, Charbel said he was personally negotiating with the Imam of Sidon's Bilal bin Rabah mosque to end the sit-it after al-Asir defied calls by the leaders of the city to reopen the highway and said he will keep his supporters on the road pending a solution to Hizbullah’s arms.

Progressive Socialist Party leader Walid Jumblat criticized on Saturday the sit-in launched by Salafist cleric Sheikh Ahmed al-Asir in the southern city of Sidon, saying mistakes are not resolved by committing more blunders.

“We have agreed that the issue of arms cannot be resolved except at the dialogue table and in calm and positive atmospheres,” Jumblat said in remarks to An Nahar daily after al-Asir vowed to keep his sit-in open-ended pending a solution to non-state arms, including Hizbullah’s arsenal.

Hizbullah is committed to the month-long security plan that is being implemented by the state security agencies after it found itself “unable to control its supporters and started suffering the symptoms that affected the Palestinian resistance.”

Arab Movement leader Shaker al-Berjawi said Friday that security forces should curb the “blocking of roads or we will be forced to take action.”

Speaking to MTV, Berjawi said that Sheikh Ahmed al-Asir’s rhetoric is provocative, adding that the state should curb such actions before his supporters “take the appropriate actions.”

Lebanese shepherd Youssef Mohamed Zahra was abducted Friday by the Israeli army near the Southern area of Shebaa Farms, while he was grazing his flock in the Shahel region, state-run National News Agency reported.

The farmer was ambushed by Israeli troops who crossed 20 meters into the Lebanese territory.

The Turkish Parliament voted Friday to extend its troops' mission in Lebanon under U.N. peacekeeping mission UNIFIL by one year.

The extension is the sixth since Turkey initially approved the mission in September 2006. It takes effect from September this year.

Personalities from the southern city of Sidon rejected on Friday Imam of Bilal bin Rabah mosque Salafist cleric Ahmed al-Asir’s open-ended sit-in that is demanding the elimination of the “hegemony of illegitimate arms.”

Mustaqbal bloc leader MP Fouad Saniora said after the meeting: “We oppose the blocking of roads because it allows others to create instability.”