Several people were injured on Saturday as a personal dispute erupted into gunfire in the town of Haret al-Naameh, south of Beirut.

The clash between young men from the town also involved the use of sharp objects, state-run National News Agency reported.

A man was arrested Saturday in the southern city of Sidon on charges of blackmailing a number of young men on the Internet.

“The South investigation department arrested Jaafar A. on charges of blackmailing a number of individuals after deceiving them,” state-run National News Agency reported.

Friends and former colleagues of a U.S. aid worker whom the Islamic State group (IS) group has threatened to execute appealed Saturday for his release, during a news conference they held in the northern city of Tripoli.

Twenty-six-year-old Peter Kassig, who converted to Islam and took the Muslim name Abdel Rahman, has been an IS captive since 2013.

Police guards at the Tyre prison on Saturday thwarted an attempt to smuggle a quantity of hashish that was hidden in a number of potatoes.

“Palestinian national M. A., 22, was arrested after he tried to smuggle a quantity of hashish that was stuffed into 16 potatoes in a crafty manner,” the Internal Security Forces said in a statement.

A soldier who defected the army in October and joined the al-Qaida-linked al-Nusra Front reportedly handed himself over to the Army Intelligence.

The state-run National News Agency reported that Omar Khaled Shamtiyeh turned himself over to the Army Intelligence in North Lebanon.

Masked gunmen opened fire at dawn on Saturday at the guards of Hariri clinic in the northeastern border town of Arsal.

The state-run National News Agency reported that unknown assailants on a motorcycle opened fire at the Hariri clinic in the town, causing material damage.

Only one voter arrived at the Lebanese embassy in Kuwait to vote in the parliamentary elections, despite the extension of the legislature's tenure until 2017.

Foreign Minister Jebran Bassil was determined to hold the elections in Kuwait and Australia as the parliament extension law wouldn't come in force until Tuesday.

General Security chief Maj. Gen. Abbas Ibrahim stated on Saturday that freeing the abducted soldiers and policemen is a thorny file that needs patience and a long time to work out, assuring that he will not negotiate the kidnappers on corpses.

“Serious negotiations are about to begin with a list of three choices that have been set by al-Nusra in preparation for the swap,” said Ibrahim in an interview to the al-Akhbar daily.

Prime Minister Tammam Salam used an undetailed financial process to pay Lebanon’s full share of funds to the Special Tribunal for Lebanon, al-Joumhouria newspaper reported on Saturday.

The daily reported that the March 8 alliance ministers informed Salam that they reject to fund the STL, urging him to allocate the money to fund the tribunal from sources other than the state's treasury.

Speaker Nabih Berri stressed on Saturday that the presidential deadlock should end swiftly after the parliament tenure extension became a de-facto.

“Now it's time for us to discuss the presidential elections,” Berri said in comments published in al-Mustaqbal newspaper.