Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Bogdanov called Friday for endorsing the principles of the Baabda Declaration in all countries in the Middle East, as he declined to reveal whether or not he discussed the issue of the stalled presidential vote with the Lebanese officials.

“We encourage holding the presidential election and we laud the role of the Lebanese army and security forces in the fight against terrorism,” Bogdanov said after meeting former president Michel Suleiman.

The army shelled on Friday positions of Islamist gunmen on the outskirts of the northeastern border town of Arsal, reported al-Manar television.

It said that the attacks targeted Islamic State and al-Nusra Front groups.

Health Ministry inspectors on Friday shut down a farm in the Bekaa region that was slaughtering “dead cows” and selling their meat, as the ministry announced that the Tanmia chicken firm has improved its mortadella section to meet the proper standards.

“A team of health inspectors from the Zahle district department raided a cow farm in the Bekaa area of Kfarzabad after suspecting that its owner was slaughtering dead cows there and selling their meat at his butchery that is located in Deir Zannoun, as well as to several other butcheries in the region,” the ministry said in a statement.

A Lebanese army expert dismantled on Friday a hand grenade and a home-made bomb in the northern city of Tripoli, the military announced.

The grenade and bomb were discovered by an army patrol in a empty water bottle in Tripoli's al-Amercan neighborhood, it said in a communique.

General Security chief Major General Abbas Ibrahim stressed that the security agencies in the country are seeking to avert crises despite the complicated and difficult situation.

“The role played by security forces prevented Lebanon from falling into civil war and terrorism,” Ibrahim said in his editorial in General Security magazine that hit stands on Friday.

Security forces closed the motor vehicle registration facility in the southern city of Sidon on Friday after a fistfight between two people, said the state-run National News Agency.

NNA said police closed the premises after a dispute between an employee and a person tasked with following up transactions triggered the fight.

An almost three-year crisis at Electiricte du Liban ended on Friday under an initiative sponsored by Speaker Nabih Berri and Progressive Socialist Party leader MP Walid Jumblat.

Energy Minister Arthur Nazarian announced that the ministry agreed with the EDL contract workers, who have been occupying the company's headquarters in Beirut's Mar Mikhael area for the past four months, to end the crisis based on an accord that respects the law.

Social Affairs Minister Rashid Derbas sounded the alarm on Friday after the United Nations decided to suspend food aid to 1.7 million refugees due to lack of funds, fearing that Lebanon would have to combat famine that includes thousands of refugees.

Derbas told An Nahar newspaper published on Friday that the Syrian refugee in Lebanon relies on the monthly $30 to cover food expenses.

The alleged divorcee of the Islamic State leader, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, is reportedly pregnant in her third week and her main role was to fund al-Nusra Front group by sending donations to militants in the neighboring country Syria.

According to As Safir newspaper published on Friday, Iraqi national Saja Hamid al-Dulaimi, who was detained around 15 days ago at an army checkpoint at al-Madfoun Bridge in the North, received money transfers from foreign sides, in particular Qatar, to fund terrorists.

Around 20 Lebanese fighters from the city of Tripoli and other areas in the North have lately traveled to Syria to join the extremist Islamic State group, highly-informed security officials said.

The officials, who were not identified, told As Safir daily that the fighters headed to Syria via Turkey in the past weeks.