The Internal Security Forces said that a Syrian woman was put under arrest on prostitution charges in the southern suburb of Mreijeh, an ISF statement said on Saturday.

ISF said that the Mreijeh police “obtained information from unknown sources about a woman, Z. B., who was practicing prostitutions while leaving her three children in an “inappropriate place” where they were subject to humiliation and beating.”

Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi visited Mount Lebanon on Sunday where he marked the 15th anniversary of the mountain reconciliation between the Christians and Druze and to inaugurate a church in the Shouf town of al-Moukhtara.

Progressive Socialist Party leader MP Walid Jumblat and Lebanese Democratic Party leader Talal Arslan received the Patriarch in the presence of former President Amin Gemayel, Michel Suleiman, former minister Walid Daouk representing ex-PM Najib Miqati, Papal Ambassador to Lebanon Gabriel Caccia, MP Ali Fayyad, Army Commander General Jean Qahwaji and a number of bishops and priests.

Speaker Nabih Berri expressed fears that the country is approaching the “verge of the abyss” if the deadlock in Lebanon’s political work prolongs and a vacuum at the presidential post lingers, al-Joumhouria daily reported on Sunday.

“The country can no longer tolerate. What do I do to make everyone believe that we are in danger and approaching the abyss?” Berri told the daily.

The telecommunications sector file and demands to replace OGERO Telecom chief Abdul Menhem Youssef over corruption claims consumed much of the cabinet session that was held on Thursday.

“The cabinet continued discussing the situations of the Telecom Ministry and the telecom minister answered the questions that some ministers had asked during the previous session and the ministers expressed their viewpoints over these answers,” said the cabinet in a statement recited by Information Minister Ramzi Jreij after the meeting.

The national dialogue sessions between heads of the parliamentary blocs kicked off on Tuesday at Speaker Nabih Berri's residence in Ain el-Tineh to address a number of thorny issues that include the election of a president, the formation of a new government and a new voting system.

Berri inaugurated the session by “reiterating the need to agree on a package deal that begins with the election of a president.”

A man who was briefly abducted has been freed early on Tuesday in the outskirts of the eastern town of Barqa in the Bekaa valley, the National News Agency reported.

Late on Monday, four armed men in a Mercedes abducted Ibrahim Qozhaya Rabah on a road between the towns of Safra and Deir al-Ahmar, NNA said.

Security sources said on Tuesday that contacts between the Lebanese state and the abductors of the servicemen to negotiate their release have been cut for a long time, al-Akhbar daily reported.

The contacts between the government and the leadership of the Islamic State group have been cut off for a long time after the IS refused to hand the party, mediating a release, any clue of the destiny of the abducted soldiers, said the daily.

The Lebanese army carried out raids in Dar al-Wasaa neighborhood in the Bekaa region where one person was reportedly wounded, the National News Agency said on Monday.

One man was wounded in raids that the army carried out early Monday on the houses of fugitives from the Jafaar family in Dar al-Wasaa.

Army Commander General Jean Qahwaji marked Lebanon's Army Day Monday and reassured that efforts to free the soldiers abducted by the Islamic State group will continue, as he renewed oath to defend Lebanon and protect its borders and wealth, the National News Agency reported.

“On your behalf, I renew our oath to defend Lebanon and protect its borders and wealth. I hereby vow before the families of your hero fellows who were taken hostage by terrorist groups that we shall pursue our endeavors with persistence to uncover their destiny and liberate them to ensure their safe return back to their loved ones and to the institution they belong to,” said Qahwaji in his Order of the Day.

Al-Mustaqbal Movement chief ex-PM Saad Hariri refused to participate personally in the national dialogue sessions with Hizbullah, and assured that he would change his mind if Hizbullah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah engaged personally in the dialogue as well, al-Akhbar daily reported on Monday.

“Speaker Nabih Berri has suggested that Hariri raises the representation levels of the Mustaqbal bloc at the dialogue table by attending the sessions in person,” reported the daily.