The Maronite patriarchate’s secretary, Monsignor Youssef Toq passed away and will be buried at his hometown of Besharri in northern Lebanon on Saturday, media reports said.

Voice of Lebanon radio station (93.3) said Toq seems to have died from a heart attack. His body was found in his bed on Friday morning after he failed to appear for breakfast.

Four security forces members were injured on Friday as they were attempting to remove a construction violation at the airport road, reported the National News Agency.

It said that as the Internal Security Forces were trying to remove the violation by the Awad family, a number of women and youths from the Awad and Kheireddine families intervened to stop them by burning tires and pelting them with rocks.

Iraq's Justice Ministry said Friday that plans to transfer a top Hizbullah commander who's being held in Baghdad from U.S. to Iraqi custody have been put on hold.

The turnabout comes as 20 U.S. senators ask the Pentagon to take "whatever steps you can" to prevent the transfer out of fear that the militant, Ali Mussa Daqduq, will escape or be released by Iraq's government.

Interior Minister Marwan Charbel revealed on Friday that he has not yet presented any suggestions in the security appointments file.

He therefore denied to LBC television that he is not concerned with any media reports on the matter, hoping that he would reach a conclusion that would “satisfy my conscience.”

President Michel Suleiman has expressed satisfaction with the cabinet’s performance saying it was the duty of all parties to support it in its efforts to meet the people’s demands.

Suleiman has told his visitors that the government was in harmony and was not witnessing clashes between the different parties. The cabinet should be described as centrist although it expresses a one-sided viewpoint.

The U.S. donated to the Internal Security Forces (ISF) facilities, equipment, and supplies valued at over $1.7 million in July, said a U.S. embassy statement on Friday.

The donation includes a new police station in the area adjacent to the Nahr al-Bared Palestinian refugee camp in the north fully furnished and equipped per ISF specifications. The value of this donation is $1,134,570.

The recent dispute between Lebanon and Israel will be a top priority for the Lebanese parliament when it meets on Aug. 3 and 4 and a main concern for the government in its effort to prevent the Jewish state from launching an aggression on Lebanon’s oil and gas fields.

As Safir newspaper said Friday that MPs from major parliamentary blocs could be tasked with preparing a draft-law that confirms Lebanon’s rights on the fields in the contested areas.

U.S. official Frederic Hof is making routine visits to Beirut to follow up the dispute between Lebanon and Israel on their maritime borders, Western diplomatic sources in Beirut said Friday.

The sources told As Safir daily that Hof is visiting Lebanon along with cartographers in an expression of Washington’s interest in solving the feud over oil and natural fields and setting the stage for possible U.S. investments in the sector in the future.

Progressive Socialist Party leader Walid Jumblat has unveiled that he held a telephone conversation with former Premier Saad Hariri thanking him for his latest stance on Jumblat.

The Druze leader told An Nahar daily published Friday that he heard “moving words” from Hariri but refused to give further details.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said that he hopes the Arab Spring will result in democracies in the Arab world, warning that an “Iranian-style dictatorship” would harm revolutions in the region.

"If there's genuine democracy in the Arab world, in the Arab countries, then there will be genuine peace. Because a genuine democracy reflects the desires of the people, and most people Arabs, Jews, anyone they don't want their sons and daughters dying on battlefields," Netanyahu told al-Arabiya satellite channel in an interview aired Thursday evening.