The United Nations Security Council held a meeting to discuss the implementation of resolution 1701 that ended the 2006 war between Israel and Hizbullah and the upcoming presidential elections in Lebanon.

The meeting, which was held in the form of closed-door consultations, stressed the need to stage the upcoming presidential elections, An Nahar newspaper reported on Thursday.

Speaker Nabih Berri denied that a three-member committee from his parliamentary bloc will inquire the political parties on their presidential candidate, saying he did not have any preferred candidate so far.

In remarks to al-Akhbar newspaper published on Thursday, Berri said the committee, which is made up of MPs Ali Osseiran, Michel Moussa and Yassine Jaber, will discuss with the representatives of parties the appropriate atmosphere to have a quorum in the parliamentary session to elect a new president.

The internal and regional conditions are “suitable” for holding the presidential elections, president Michel Suleiman assured on Wednesday.

"The rotation of power is a sign of stability,” Suleiman told the Egyptian state news agency MENA, after holding talks with Egypt's Coptic pope Tawadros II at the Baabda Palace.

Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea announced that he is a “natural” candidate for presidency, vowing to withdraw Hizbullah's forces from neighboring Syria if he was elected the next head of state.

"I am naturally a candidate for presidency since I am the head of the most popular Christian party in Lebanon according to polls,” Geagea said in an interview on Al-Arabiya television that aired on Wednesday.

The General Prosecution charged on Wednesday a number of National Social Security Fund (NSSF) employees with the embezzlement of funds, reported the National News Agency.

Employees tasked with operations at the Fund and others from its inspection bureau were charged by deputy General Prosecutor Judge Ali Ibrahim.

State Commissioner to the Military Court Judge Saqr Saqr on Wednesday ordered convicting 21 people in the case of the double blast that targeted two mosques in the northern city of Tripoli last summer.

Among the convicted were Arab Democratic Party leader Ali Eid and the head of the pro-Syria Islamic Tawhid Movement-Command Council, Sheikh Hashem Minkara.

An 11-year-old boy was killed on Wednesday afternoon as intense sniper activity was recorded in the northern city of Tripoli.

The clashes renewed after a resident from the Jabal Mohsen neighborhood was killed when unknown assailants opened fire at him near al-Ridani bakery in the northern city, according to the state-run National News Agency.

Telecommunications Minister Butros Harb lamented on Wednesday that the ministry had not been abiding by legal procedures before he took his post, promising to implement a law on the liberalization of the telecom sector.

During a press conference he held to announce his program during the short term of Premier Tammam Salam's cabinet, Harb said he was surprised that law 431, which had been adopted in 2002, was “placed in the drawers” of the ministry.

Education Minister Elias Bou Saab condemned on Wednesday the school beating incident that was reported on Tuesday, saying that such actions are forbidden at schools.

He said during a press conference: “We will take the harshest punishments against anyone beating a student.”

Speaker Nabih Berri called on Wednesday for a three-day parliamentary session next week to tackle a jammed agenda.

The three-day session will also address the new wage scale “if the joint parliamentary committees wrapped up its discussions on the matter ahead of the general assembly meeting.