Al-Jamaa al-Islamiya in the North and Tripoli has two reservations about the nomination of founder of the Free Patriotic Movement MP Michel Aoun for the post of presidency, As Safir daily reported on Monday.

The Fateh al-Sham Front -- formerly al-Qaida's Syria affiliate al-Nusra Front – has taken the decision to eradicate the presence of the Islamic State group in the northeastern border town of Arsal and in the Qalamoun area, al-Akhbar daily reported on Monday.

The daily pointed out to the assassination of extremist IS official Abu Bakr al-Reqqawi a day earlier in Arsal, and said that his killing was part of the plan that has been put into implementation.

Russian Ambassador to Lebanon Alexander Zasypkin assessed the latest meeting between al-Mustaqbal Movement chief ex-PM Saad Hariri and Russian Foreign Minister Alexander Zaspikin as positive and friendly, and emphasized that the presidential file in Lebanon is an internal affair, As Safir daily reported on Monday.

Discussions between the two men focused on the file of the Lebanese presidency and the repercussions of the Syrian crisis on Lebanon, added the daily.

Head of the Delegation of the European Union to Lebanon, Ambassador Christina Lassen, called on Lebanon on Sunday to abolish the death penalty, on the occasion of the European and World Day against the Death Penalty that will be marked on Monday.

Arab Tawhid Party chief Wiam Wahhab announced Sunday that an apparently paramilitary group affiliated with his party will “soon” start operating in “all Lebanese regions.”

An altercation erupted Sunday in the Sidon suburb of Haret Saida between the Internal Security Forces and a number of young men over the closure of a key road leading to a Shiite mosque during a Ashoura ceremony, Voice of Lebanon radio (93.3) reported.

An army sergeant was seriously wounded on Sunday when he came under gunfire in the northern city of Tripoli, state-run National News Agency reported.

Hizbullah deputy chief Sheikh Naim Qassem has stressed that his party's ties with its two allies the AMAL Movement and the Free Patriotic Movement are “firm” and “strategic.”

Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi on Sunday reiterated his rejection of imposing any “preconditions” on any presidential candidate or the president-elect, as he urged the parliamentary blocs to “clearly announce” their stances on the nominations.

The Muslim Scholar Committee, a grouping of Sunni Muslim clerics, staged a sit-in Sunday outside the Military Court in Beirut in protest at the rearrest of Sheikh Bassam Tarras.