Progressive Socialist Party leader Walid Jumblat slammed on Wednesday the negligence and decay at state facilities, vowing that the food safety campaign will continue.

“The scandal that hit food storage areas at the Rafik Hariri International Airport shows that decay and negligence is affecting all state facilities,” Jumblat said a day after his aide, Health Minister Wael Abou Faour, lashed out at the “barn” and “death chambers for the citizens' health” at the facility.

Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi called in his Christmas message on Wednesday for the election of a wise head of state who prioritizes the nation's interest and hoped that Lebanon would have competent politicians.

Al-Rahi slammed the lack of loyalty to the nation that led to the violation of the constitution and the failure to elect a president.

A teenage girl, who had been missing for the past two days, was handed over to security forces in northern Lebanon, the state-run News Agency reported Wednesday.

A man identified as Mashhour D., who was kidnapped by the girl's family in retaliation, was also in the custody of the Internal Security Forces Intelligence Branch, it said.

The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant reportedly expressed willingness to release several soldiers and policemen in its captivity in return for freeing three women held in Lebanese prisons along with their children.

According to the relatives of the captive soldiers and policemen, who were taken hostage when ISIL and the al-Qaida-affiliate al-Nusra Front overran the northeastern border town of Arsal in August, Ahmed Fleiti recently visited the outskirts of the town and met with ISIL officials.

The French foreign ministry's director for North Africa and the Middle East affairs is expected to travel to Riyadh, Tehran and the Vatican in an attempt to resolve the Lebanese presidential deadlock, pan-Arab daily Asharq al-Awsat reported on Wednesday.

The newspaper said Jean-François Girault will travel to Saudi Arabia on January 5. He is then scheduled to make a trip to Iran and later head to the Vatican for talks with top officials on Lebanon's presidential crisis.

The families of the servicemen held hostage by jihadist groups decided Tuesday to reopen the vital Riad al-Solh road in central Beirut as a “holiday gift” for the Lebanese, as Arsal municipal chief Ali al-Hujeiri revealed that the coming days will carry positive developments in the case.

Army Commander General Jean Qahwaji on Tuesday signed a detailed agreement for equipping the army as part of the Saudi military grant to Lebanon.

Al-Mustaqbal movement and Hizbullah held their first, long-awaited meeting in Ain al-Tineh on Tuesday evening under the auspices of Speaker Nabih Berri, in an attempt to devise a “roadmap” and a “mechanism” for the coming dialogue sessions between the two parties.

The government on Tuesday failed anew to find a solution to the problem of solid waste management, postponing debate over the file to 2015.

A defected Syrian soldier was arrested Tuesday by State Security agents in the northern region of Akkar on suspicion of plotting “acts of sabotage” inside Lebanon.