An envoy from Qatar was in Beirut on Thursday to mediate in the case of the Lebanese servicemen taken hostage by jihadists last year, al-Mustaqbal daily reported.

Government sources told the newspaper the mediator's arrival in the Lebanese capital was a sign that the negotiations on the captives have made a serious development.

Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea revealed Wednesday that “major progress” has been made regarding the so-called declaration of intent paper that would pave the way for full-throttle dialogue with the Free Patriotic Movement, without setting a date for its release.

“The person who can resolve the presidential deadlock is (FPM chief) General (Michel) Aoun. He is the only one who can change the picture and he must take a decision and end the obstruction of elections,” said Geagea in an interview on MTV.

The U.N.-backed Special Tribunal for Lebanon disclosed Wednesday during a televised session an audio recording for a 2005 meeting that took place at the Qureitem Palace between ex-PM Rafik Hariri and then-chief of Syrian intelligence in Lebanon Rustom Ghazali.

The meeting -- which was also attended by Ad Diyar newspaper editor-in-chief Charles Ayoub -- focused on the electoral law that was being debated for the 2005 parliamentary vote.

Iran's top general said Wednesday his country has reached "a new chapter" towards its declared aim of exporting revolution, in reference to Tehran's growing regional influence, while hailing the role of Hizbullah in resisting Israel.

Major General Mohammad Ali Jafari, commander of the nation's powerful Revolutionary Guards Corps, said: “Hizbullah and its resistance against one of the armies in the world -- that is to say the army of the Zionist regime.. is one of the Islamic revolution's miracles," he said.

Speaker Nabih Berri held talks on Wednesday with Education Minister Elias Bou Saab and a delegation from the Syndicate Coordination Committee on the new wage scale.

Bou Saab stated after the talks that Berri requested the concerned officials to call for a joint parliamentary committees meeting on Tuesday to address the hike.

North Governor Ramzi Nohra on Wednesday made a sudden inspection visit to the Motor Vehicle Inspection center in Tripoli, the second time in less than two weeks.

While at the facility, Nohra ordered security forces accompanying him to arrest a number of so-called “brokers”, who are illegal intermediaries who pass on bribes from motorists to the center's employees in return for facilitating inspection procedures.

Lebanese authorities should recognize a union for domestic workers, who are excluded from the protection of the Lebanese labor code, more than 100 nongovernmental organizations, including Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch, said in a public statement on Wednesday.

Ensuring the right to freedom of association for domestic workers would help to strengthen the legal protection mechanisms for domestic workers, many of whom experience abuse in Lebanon, the NGOs stated.

The financial general prosecution rejected on Wednesday a request to replace the financial bail of detained former Higher Relief Council chief Ibrahim Bashir with a real estate bail, reported the National News Agency.

Judge Ali Ibrahim rejected a request that Bashir's bail of L.L.1 billion be replaced with real estate property.

Speaker Nabih Berri postponed anew a parliamentary session set to elect a new head of state after he expressed pessimism over the near end of the crisis.

The 20th session was adjourned to April 2 over lack of quorum.

Health Ministry inspectors raided several supermarkets, restaurants and food chains in the southern port city of Sidon on Wednesday, the state-run National News Agency reported.

NNA said that the inspectors destroyed 10 kilograms of “baladi” cheese at Spinneys, which is reportedly coming from Farm House dairy factory, and five kilograms of smoked turkey, from Center Hazem Mohammed.