Speaker Nabih Berri has expressed regret that Lebanese officials failed to resolve the presidential crisis without the mediation of countries that have influence on Lebanon.

“We the Lebanese are useless,” Berri told al-Mustaqbal daily in remarks published on Thursday.

Change and Reform bloc MP Alain Aoun confirmed on Thursday a Hizbullah initiative to bridge the gap between Speaker Nabih Berri and Free Patriotic Movement leader Michel Aoun.

Aoun told An Nahar daily that Hizbullah's attempt to end the rift between Berri and the FPM chief is aimed at limiting tension and discussing the speaker's call for opening an extraordinary legislative session.

One person was killed and three others were injured Wednesday as a personal dispute escalated into gunfire and knife-stabbing in the Aley district town of Qabrshmoun.

State-run National News Agency said the dispute broke out over “car drifting” in the area.

Supporters of MP Michel Aoun's Free Patriotic Movement staged a new motorized protest Wednesday evening that headed from the Baouchrieh area to Ashrafieh, a week after organizing a similar demo.

“Seventy cars carrying FPM supporters have headed in a convoy from the Mirna Chalouhi area to Ashrafieh,” state-run National News Agency reported.

The army on Wednesday announced seizing two cars filled with smuggled arms on the Riyaq-Baalbek road in the Bekaa Valley.

“An army intelligence patrol intercepted two cars filled with smuggled weapons in the town of Riyaq after clashing with the individuals who were in them,” state-run National News Agency reported, adding that a fugitive was wounded in the gunfight.

The Democratic Gathering bloc led by MP Walid Jumblat stressed Wednesday its rejection of any extension of a deadline to shut down the controversial landfill in the Naameh area, underlining that the Chouf, Iqlim al-Kharroub and Aley regions “will no longer be a garbage dumpster.”

“The Democratic Gathering declares its rejection of any extension of the deadline to close the Naameh landfill, after the previous timeframe announced by the government passed without any commitment or measure to shut down the landfill and put an end to the health and environmental hazards,” it said in a statement.

A man confessed to faking his own kidnapping to cover the funds he embezzled from the company he works for, announced the Internal Security Forces Intelligence Bureau in a statement on Wednesday.

It said that N.H., an accountant at a commercial establishment in the northern city of Tripoli, faked his abduction at the hands of alleged assailants.

The March 14 General Secretariat on Wednesday congratulated the Iranian people, especially the “reformist movement,” on the nuclear deal that was reached with world powers, hoping the agreement will lead to Hizbullah's “return to the Lebanese state.”

“The General Secretariat congratulates the friendly Iranian people, and the reformist movement, which has triumphed through managing to shift Iran from investing in the 'export of the revolution' and sponsoring violence and terrorism to investing in stability, economic prosperity and commercial competition,” it said in a statement issued after its weekly meeting.

The presidential elections were postponed on Wednesday for the 26th time following a lack of quorum at parliament.

Speaker Nabih Berri postponed the polls to August 12.

The kidnappers of a manager at al-Mawarid bank who was kidnapped early this week demanded $500 thousand ransom in order to free him, LBCI reported on Wednesday.

On Monday, Mohammed Abou Jakh, the manager of al-Mawarid bank branch in Chtaura was abducted at gunpoint by unknown assailants who were riding a black four-wheeler near the West Bekaa town of al-Rawda.