Speaker Nabih Berri presided on Wednesday over a national dialogue session that focused on efforts to revive the work of parliament and the “legislation of necessity.”

He proposed before the gatherers a solution to end the deadlock and he will wait until the end of the week before taking steps linked to the “legislation of necessity,” MP Ali Fayyad told reporters from Ain el-Tineh.

Lebanon ranked 98th out of 180 countries in the World Press Freedom Index that was released by advocacy group Reporters Without Borders (RSF) on Wednesday.

World press freedom deteriorated in 2015, said RSF after it released the index which ranks the countries on indicators such as media independence, self-censorship, the rule of law, transparency and abuses.

Progressive Socialist Party chief MP Walid Jumblat is at loggerheads with Interior Minister Nouhad al-Mashnouq, a member of al-Mustaqbal Movement, to pressure him into postponing the municipal elections, informed sources said Wednesday.

Jumblat has been accusing al-Mashnouq of corruption as a result of his anger for having two Druze officers, one of them an adviser, at the Interior Ministry who are not loyal to the PSP chief, the sources told al-Liwaa newspaper.

Christian cabinet ministers have given their consent to provide the controversial State Security agency with some of the funding it needs to allow it to function properly despite pessimism expressed by Economy Minister Alain Hakim on a possible solution.

An Nahar daily said on Wednesday that the Christian ministers are in favor of giving some appropriations to the security apparatus, which has been even lacking papers, photocopy machines and maintenance for its office work to function properly.

Analysis of a windfall of data from inside Islamic State shows fighters of more than 70 nationalities, including Lebanese, joined the ruthless jihadist group, researchers said after examining thousands of records.

The treasure trove came from an IS defector who handed over some 11,000 personnel files to US television network NBC, although more than half were found to be duplicates.

The Mustaqbal parliamentary bloc condemned on Tuesday the campaign directed against Interior Minister Nouhad al-Mashnouq, while also demanding that all those involved in the illegal internet file be held accountable for their actions.

“Investigations in this issue should continue to the end and it should not be pushed under the rug,” it demanded after its weekly meeting.

A parliamentary committee that witnessed a slight clash between Health Minister Wael Abou Faour and OGERO Telecom chief Abdul Menhem Youssef over the thorny file of the illegal internet network confirmed reports that the equipment had entered Lebanon through legal crossings.

MP Hassan Fadlallah, the head of the committee, confirmed that the equipment for the illegitimate internet networks had entered the country through legal crossings but via fake documents.

The General Security announced on Tuesday the arrest of a Lebanese national on suspicion of belonging to terrorist groups and for communicating with terrorists.

Y.M. confessed to selling weapons and explosives to these groups and smuggling them to Syria.

The Internal Security Forces Intelligence Branch and the judicial police of the Mount Lebanon town of Jdeideh have arrested an armed robbery gang, the ISF said in a communique released Tuesday.

Police said the members of the gang - two Lebanese nationals, five Syrians and a Palestinian - committed the robberies on April 16-17 in different areas of Mount Lebanon Governorate.

Speaker Nabih Berri has said that the parliamentary elections will be held on their due date based on the electoral law that would be available at time.

If the rival parliamentary blocs failed to strike an agreement, then the elections would be held based on the 1960 law, Berri told As Safir daily published on Tuesday.