Army Commander General Jean Qahwaji declared on Friday that the military will remain prepared to face the threat of extremists along Lebanon's eastern mountain range.

He said before a delegation from the Editors Syndicate: “The army is prepared for all scenarios in the spring season.”

Customs agents at Beirut's Rafik Hariri International Airport seized on Friday a number of crates of sanitary pads that contained radioactive material.

The Finance Ministry announced that 30 crates were confiscated, while Minister Ali Hassan Khalil had ordered that samples be referred to the Lebanese Atomic Energy Commission for testing.

Onlookers were gazing at the skies Friday as Lebanon and other Arab states witnessed a two-hour partial eclipse that was not clearly visible to sight in much of Lebanon's regions because of the cloudy weather that prevailed.

The eclipse started at around 10:45 a.m. Beirut time and lasted for a couple of hours.

Education Minister Elias Bou Saab stressed on Friday that there is no official decision in the United Arab Emirates to deport Lebanese expatriates, denying reports about new lists.

“The names of the Lebanese who were extradited are on a list that includes 5,000 expats from different nationalities,” Bou Saab told al-Akhbar newspaper.

Grand Mufti Sheikh Abdul Latif Daryan warned that the world is facing a crisis caused by terrorism and extremism, stressing that the Islamic State group gas committed crimes not linked to Islam.

“The world is now in a real crisis as a result of the spread of terrorism and extremism in the name of Islam, which tarnished the image of Islam and Muslims,” Daryan told pan-Arab daily Asharq al-Awsat in remarks published Friday.

Lebanon reportedly rejects to include Arab inmates in a prisoners swap deal with al-Qaida-affiliate al-Nusra Front in exchange for the release of servicemen taken hostage by the group.

Diplomatic sources told As Safir newspaper published on Friday that al-Nusra Front, which handed over a list that include 40 inmates, is open to negotiations.

Speaker Nabih Berri has said the presidential crisis has become an obsession, stressing that his repeated calls for parliamentary sessions to elect a new head of state are aimed at pushing MPs into assuming their responsibilities.

Berri's visitors quoted him as saying that the presidential crisis has not only become a “national obsession but it is his daily concern.”

A high-ranking French military delegation is expected to arrive in Beirut on Friday to commence training of Lebanese army personnel on the use of weapons to be delivered by Paris under $3 billion Saudi grant.

According to al-Joumhouria newspaper, the delegation will stay in Lebanon for a long time as the “deal requires a specialized follow up by France.”

Foreign Minister Jebran Bassil and Nader Hariri, the adviser of the Mustaqbal Movement leader, have met away from the media spotlight to discuss the fate of Commando Regiment chief Brig. Gen. Chamel Roukoz, As Safir daily reported on Friday.

The newspaper said that Bassil, who is a Free Patriotic Movement official, and Hariri held talks on Thursday night.

Al-Qobbeh prison in Tripoli was on Thursday the scene of a new bizarre attempt to smuggle narcotics to one of the inmates.

Prison guards seized “50 narcotic pills hidden in a lemon,” the Internal Security Forces said in a statement.