Speaker Nabih Berri has not yet launched efforts to end the political deadlock in Lebanon, however the recent meeting between his envoy Minister Ali Hassan Khalil and Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi may be the beginning of such efforts, reported the Kuwaiti al-Anbaa newspaper on Sunday.

It also pointed out to the rapprochement between the Mustaqbal Movement and Berri’s AMAL party, adding that direct talks between the two sides will be held after the February 14 ceremony marking the anniversary of the assassination of former Premier Rafik Hariri.

Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi urged on Saturday the Christians to hold onto their land no matter how small the properties are.

“The Christians should hold onto their land in Lebanon,” al-Rahi said in his pastoral visit to Beirut.

The Lebanese army deployed on Saturday in the northern village of Wadi Khaled after media outlets reported that members of the Free Syrian Army were present in the area.

“On Saturday morning the military carried out three airdrops in al-Rami village near Wadi Khaled and searched the area for hours,” a military source told LBC.

An Internal Security Forces sergeant and officer were injured at dawn Saturday when seeking to clamp down on a building violation in Beirut’s southern suburbs.

The two were injured when a group of women, youth and children pelted the patrol with stones in the area of Hay al-Sellom as they sought to end the violation of the building owned by a member from the Fakhreddine family.

The United Nations Special Coordinator for Lebanon, Derek Plumbly, arrived in Beirut on Saturday to officially take up his new responsibilities, his office said in a press release.

U.N. chief Ban Ki-moon appointed Plumbly, a British diplomat, as his Special Coordinator last month, succeeding Michael Williams of the United Kingdom.

The funeral procession for the head of the Democratic Renewal Movement, ex-MP Nassib Lahoud, was held at the St. George Cathedral in downtown Beirut in the presence of top officials, diplomats, dignitaries and family members.

Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi, who on Saturday kicked off a five-day tour of Beirut parishes, presided over the memorial service.

A Lebanese man killed his wife and then tried to commit suicide in the al-Koura district of northern Lebanon on Friday night, local media reported.

The reports said Saturday that Ahmed Khodr Salibi shot his wife, Giselle Hanna, with a Kalashnikov rifle in her head and chest in the town of Kfarqahel.

Phalange party leader Amin Gemayel slammed Interior Minister Marwan Charbel on Saturday for denying that an assassination attempt against his son MP Sami Gemayel had been thwarted.

In remarks to Voice of Lebanon radio station (100.5), Gemayel said: “I was shocked when I heard the remarks of the interior minister.”

Speaker Nabih Berri is not likely to make any mediation attempts between Premier Najib Miqati and Free Patriotic Movement leader Michel Aoun before the PM’s visit to Paris next week.

Al-Liwaa daily on Saturday quoted a Berri visitor as saying that a solution to the dispute between the two sides is not imminent.

Energy Minister Jebran Bassil stressed on Saturday that Premier Najib Miqati’s suggestion of candidates for posts reserved for Christians in state institutions during a cabinet session earlier in the week was “unconstitutional” and warned of reciprocity.

“We haven’t changed our stance in terms of the unconstitutionality of Miqati’s behavior either by holding onto the names that he suggested or by suspending the work of the government,” Bassil told An Nahar daily.