The army took strict security measures on Friday in the Akkar region in general and al-Qubayyat in particular in a bid to reassure the residents after threatening leaflets were found inside a church in the northern town, state-run National News Agency reported.

The army is “conducting investigations in the area with the aim of identifying those behind the leaflets,” said NNA.

A Lebanese man accused of helping to plot an attack on Israeli tourists in Cyprus will go on trial before a criminal court on the resort island on September 12, state media reported on Friday.

His case was committed to trial after he appeared before a district court in the island's second city Limassol under tight security on Friday.

Residents of the southern city of Sidon staged rival protests on Friday as MP Bahia Hariri rejected "all forms of violence," a day after tension between the supporters of Salafist cleric Sheikh Ahmed al-Asir and members of the Popular Nasserite Movement threatened to spiral out of control.

“Sidon was abandoned and the government did not do anything to address the problem. We are keen to preserve all the components of the city in order to prevent strife,” Hariri said at a press conference she held at the headquarters of the Jamaa Islamiya in Sidon following talks with the group’s officials.

Tashnag Secretary-General Hovig Mekhitarian denied on Friday that an armed dispute in the Bourj Hammoud-Nabaa area between the party’s supporters and Hizbullah and Amal had political reasons.

In remarks to Voice of Lebanon radio (93.3), Mekhitarian said a fight that erupted around midnight Thursday was over a personal dispute and not linked to political issues.

Security reasons have been behind Speaker Nabih Berri’s absence from any public appearance, Ad-Diyar newspaper reported on Friday.

According to the daily, security agencies have been able to reveal new data regarding the assassination plot against Berri.

The thorny issue of the new wages scale for Syndicate Coordination Committee is heading towards settlement with the cabinet as the ministerial committee tasked with studying the demands of the public sector is expected to meet on Tuesday.

According to An Nahar newspaper published on Friday, the cabinet will approve the new salaries scale for all the public sector during its session next Thursday at the Grand Serail gradually in order to avoid inflation.

Hizbullah fighters have lately crossed the area of Hawsh al-Sayyed Ali in Hermel to Syria to help Syrian government troops in their fight against rebels, security sources said.

The sources told An Nahar daily published on Friday that the militants from the 910 unit of Hizbullah’s Jihad Council are fighting alongside the Syrian forces in the areas of al-Qussair, Homs and al-Rastan.

The four major Christian political parties have neared an agreement on the division of districts in a new electoral law based on proportional representation, Interior Minister Marwan Charbel said.

The minister told al-Liwaa daily published on Friday that he has information that the Free Patriotic Movement, the Phalange party, the Lebanese Forces and Marada movement have almost completed their proposal on Charbel’s draft-law.

British Foreign Secretary William Hague on Thursday stressed to Prime Minister Najib Miqati his country’s support for Lebanon and inquired about the efforts that are being made by the Lebanese government to aid the Syrian refugees, the premier’s office said.

Miqati is in London to attend the opening ceremony of the 2012 Olympic Games. He is accompanied by Youth and Sports Minister Faisal Karami.

Members of the Internal Security Forces beat an Agence France Presse photographer on Thursday while he covered a clash that erupted during a sit-in organized by Salafist cleric Sheikh Ahmed al-Asir on Sidon’s seaside road.

"When the protesters cut off Sidon's main road, a skirmish broke out between those participating in the sit-in and passers-by," said the photographer, Mahmoud Zayat.