The Free Syrian Army accused Hizbullah on Thursday of occupying eight border villages in the neighboring country, vowing “to regain control of these towns”.

“We will take back these villages at any cost,” FSA media official Fahd al-Masri told the Turkish state-run Anadolu agency.

Hizbullah deputy chief Sheikh Naim Qassem stressed on Thursday that the Shiite sect had played the most important role in reassuring Christians over their presence in Lebanon.

He said: “We have undoubtedly presented them with the most reassurances after they had once been fearful of us.”

The Army Command announced on Thursday that it had arrested a suspect who confessed to tossing explosives in the northern city of Tripoli.

It said in a statement that it had arrested Ahmed Bassam al-Jajatiyeh, who confessed to being tasked by Z.S. to toss hand grenades and dynamite sticks in the neighborhood of Bab al-Tabbaneh in order to create tensions.

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban highlighted on Thursday the importance of Lebanon's role in the Middle East, while hoping to bolster ties Lebanese-Hungarian ties.

He said after meeting Premier Najib Miqati at the Grand Serail: “There can be no stability in the region without a stable Lebanon.”

Former Prime Minister Saad Hariri reiterated Thursday in a phone call with Speaker Nabih Berri that al-Mustaqbal Movement is committed to hold the elections before their constitutional deadline, Hariri's press office said.

“Al-Mustaqbal was and is still committed to hold the elections on time despite all the organized campaigns claiming otherwise,” said Hariri from Riyadh.

Protesters demanding the government to refer the wage scale for the public sector to the parliament held another sit-in near a state institution in Beirut on Thursday.

The demonstrators, who gathered near the directorate of revenues of the finance ministry in the area of Beshara al-Khoury, reiterated their demands for a swift decision by the cabinet to refer the draft to the parliament.

A dispute between men from the southern city of Tyre and the town of Bazourieh to its east turned into a gunfight, terrorizing the residents, the state-run National News Agency reported Thursday.

NNA said that the “personal dispute” started between two men at midnight Wednesday but later expanded to include their relatives and friends.

Security forces defused at dawn Thursday a hand grenade found at the restroom of a restaurant in the eastern town of Chtaura, the National News Agency reported.

NNA said that the KFC branch received a call to its delivery call center informing the staff about the grenade.

Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea said Thursday that an international and Arab decision has been conveyed to Lebanese officials stressing the necessity to hold the parliamentary elections on time, al-Liwaa daily said.

Geagea revealed that the international and Arab decisions have pointed to the significance of holding the polls on time, adding that only technical reasons could compel a postponement but only for a few month, the daily added.

Lebanese Armed Forces have so far arrested 38 people suspected of involvement in the kidnapping of wealthy businessmen or their family members in return for ransom, a government source said Thursday.

The source told An Nahar daily that security agencies are questioning the 38 suspects who were arrested in the past two days.