The Consultative Gathering bloc urged Lebanon's lawmakers to attend the parliament's session next week aimed at ending the vacuum at presidential post, and reiterated rejection to conditions set during the donors conference on Syria that Lebanon opens its labor market for the refugees in return for assistance.

“The Consultative Gathering calls on all MPs to take part in the February 8 session,which is going to be different from all its predecessors after the disclosure of the vast majority of MPs about their electoral inclinations which should facilitate the presidential election process,” said the statement recited by information Minister Ramzi Jreij.

The Czech defense minister said Friday that a military spy who was among five Czechs returned from Lebanon was seeking information about a fellow countryman kidnapped in Libya last year.

The minister, Martin Stropnicky, was quoted in the Hospodarske Noviny daily as saying the military agent, Martin Psik, went to Lebanon in an effort "to help our cook in Libya."

The Czech Republic's justice minister has decided that a Lebanese national cannot be extradited to the United States to face weapons charges, a Prague official said on Thursday.

Prague's Municipal Court allowed the extradition in September but the minister, Robert Pelikan, has the final say and said "no" Thursday.

The Lebanese army killed six terror fugitives on Wednesday and arrested 16 individuals in raids on Wadi al-Aranab and al-Joumrok neighborhoods in the northeastern town of Arsal, an army statement said.

The groups were said to have links to the latest clashes in Arsal.

Politicians have asserted the need to hold the municipal elections which are slated for later this year on time over concerns that they would face the same fate as the parliamentary elections.

Interior Minister Nouhad al-Mashnouq had therefore assured that the elections will be held on time and that the term of the current councils will not be extended.

The Kataeb Party on Monday accused some parties of seeking to impose a “sole presidential candidate” on the country.

Kataeb “condemns some parties' attempt to practice subjugation and confine the presidential elections to voting to a sole candidate out of the others,” said the party in a statement issued after its political bureau's weekly meeting.

Following reports claiming that Russia is another suggested destination after Sierra Leone to receive Lebanon's trash, Moscow has strongly denied the allegations bringing the months long file back to square one.

A Russian diplomatic source asserted on Monday that it is impossible for Russia to receive Lebanon's waste due to high costs it entails in addition to the fact that the decomposing trash has become out-of-date for recycling.

Israeli troops brought in military reinforcements in the two areas of Zebdine and Bastra that lie in the Shebaa farms, the National News Agency reported on Sunday.

The step came after residents of the region of Arqoub crossed 20 meters inside the border line in protest to Israel bulldozing acres of land in the said areas.

Immense material damages were reported when a fire razed a dormitory of employees of Roadster diner in the city of Jbeil.

A huge fire erupted at dawn in the living quarters of the employees at the entrance of the northern city of Jbeil, the National News Agency reported on Sunday.

Clashes have renewed overnight between extremist groups of al-Nusra Front and the Islamic State on the outskirts of the northeastern border town of Arsal and the Zamrani crossing in the outskirts of al-Jarajir in Qalamoun, the Voice of Lebanon radio (93.3) reported on Sunday.

The IS had launched an attack at the al-Malahi area in a bid to control the last bastion of al-Nusra.