Progressive Socialist Party leader MP Walid Jumblat stated on Saturday that he does not oppose the election of MP Michel Aoun for the top state post if his March 8 ally MP Suleiman Franjieh withdraws from the race.

“I don't oppose the election of Aoun for the presidency if the national interest requires, and if Franjieh withdraws from the race. The most important thing is to elect a president,” Jumblat told news website elaph in an interview.

Tripoli police arrested on Saturday four individuals said to have been hacking online accounts and involved in cyber heist, the Internal Security Forces said via its Twitter account.

“The police in the northern city of Tripoli arrested four professional hackers on charges of stealing money,” the tweet said.

The United Stated provided Lebanon with sophisticated reconnaissance airplanes that enabled its army to closely monitor the mobility of militants on the outskirts of Lebanese regions, the Voice of Lebanon radio (93.3) said on Saturday.

The planes enable the army to prevent the militants from infiltrating the porous Lebanese border with Syria, reports said.

The Lebanese army arrested a fugitive on Saturday during raids that it carried out in the area of al-Sharawneh in Baalbek, the National News Agency reported.

Al-Mustaqbal movement chief MP Saad Hariri voiced calls on founder of the Free Patriotic Movement MP Michel Aoun to find a middle ground on the issue of the presidential election in a bid to cross the difficult stage that Lebanon is witnessing and help end the vacuum at the top state post, al-Joumhouria daily reported on Saturday.

Hariri has conveyed a message to Aoun early this week, urging him “not to depend on some changes that have been frequently circulated by his friends because they are unfounded,” informed sources told the daily on condition of anonymity.

Lebanon's court rejected on Friday an appeal requesting the release of ex-MP Hassan Yaacoub who was arrested on alleged links to the December kidnapping of Hannibal Gadhafi, the state-run National News Agency reported.

South Lebanon's Public Prosecutor Judge Afif al-Qadi has rejected the appeals request by Yaacoub's defense team, NNA added.

The Electricity of Lebanon has completed a plan that would increase energy production after raising the capabilities of two Turkish power generating vessels that supply Lebanon with power, al-Joumhouria daily reported on Friday.

“EDL concluded a plan that would increase power supply by about 100 megawatts after raising the production capacities of the two ships that lie off the Zahrani and Zouk power plants from 280 megawatts to 380 megawatts,” an informed source to the daily on condition of anonymity.

Central Bank Governor Riad Salameh has said Lebanese banks will not be able to circumvent a U.S. law that imposes sanctions on banks, which knowingly do business with Hizbullah.

Salameh told LBCI’s Kalam al-Nass talk show on Thursday night that the Central Bank will issue two circulars that urge Lebanese banks to implement the law and inform it about the closure and opening of accounts.

Iran asked the United Nations on Thursday to intervene with the U.S. government over a Supreme Court ruling that allows nearly $2 billion in frozen Iranian assets to be paid to victims of terrorist attacks, including the 1983 bombing of the U.S. Marine barracks in Beirut, for which the Middle Eastern country has been blamed.

In a letter to Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon on Thursday, Iran's Foreign Minister Javid Zarif argues that the U.S. court decision will have "catastrophic implications" and "will cause systematic erosion" of the principal of state immunity.

The Syrian encampments are costing Lebanon some $400 million dollars in electricity expenses, ministerial sources told An Nahar daily on Thursday.

The cabinet discussed on Wednesday a suggestion that was brought up by the Energy Ministry to install electricity meters in the Syrian encampments in a bid to trim down illegal connection on power cables which is burdening the Lebanese treasury with significant costs, the sources said.