Ahmad Harb opened his perfume shop on the main street of Beirut's commercial Hamra district 35 years ago, and his business has weathered security and political crises in this volatile country, including a civil war.

He says this year has been the worst he's seen: sales dropped by 90 percent and after the landlord raised the rent, he was finally forced to close the shop and move to a smaller, less expensive location nearby.

General Security Directorate chief Maj. Gen. Abbas Ibrahim stressed to al-Akhbar daily in an interview on Friday that the goal of the directorate “during the next five years” is to shift to an online operating system.

The Free Patriotic Movement and its chief Jebran Bassil snapped back Thursday at Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea over remarks he made about President Michel Aoun's share of seats in the new government.

“Personal and collective political suicide is when a person harms himself, his brother and his community for the sake of political ministerial gains and a transient political moment,” Bassil tweeted.

President Michel Aoun on Thursday told a visiting U.S. official that he is determined to call for national dialogue over a national defense strategy for the country.

Thanking the U.S. for the assistance it is offering to the Lebanese Army, Aoun reiterated his announcement that he is “determined to call for national dialogue over a defense strategy after the formation of the new government.”

Prime Minister-designate Saad Hariri stressed Thursday that he cannot “forget” that two Syrian officers are accused of involvement in the deadly 2013 bombings that hit two mosques in the northern city of Tripoli.

“On the fifth anniversary of the bombing of the al-Taqwa and al-Salam mosques, we all stand by Tripoli. We won't forget its martyrs and we won't forget that two Syrian regime intelligence officers took part in the crime and are being tried in absentia before the Judicial Council,” Hariri tweeted.

President Michel Aoun is keen on the presidential settlement that led to his election and on Saad Hariri in the latter's capacity as Prime Minister-designate, an MP of the Strong Lebanon bloc has said.

“Aoun's announcement that he will only wait until the beginning of September for the formation of the government is aimed at urging PM-designate Saad Hariri to form the government and not at creating a problem or dispute with him,” MP Salim Aoun told Asharq al-Awsat daily in remarks published Thursday.

Hizbullah has informed concerned parties that it is not in favor of forming a so-called “majority government,” sources informed on Hizbullah's stances have said.

“The party in interfering to certain limits in order to balance the stances. Its secretary general Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah has stood against Foreign Minister Jebran Bassil's threat to resort to street protests two weeks ago, urging him to engage in dialogue with others and to take the initiative of visiting Speaker Nabih Berri,” the sources told al-Hayat newspaper in remarks published Thursday.

Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea has stressed that Prime Minister-designate Saad Hariri will not step down from the mission of forming a new government, as he lamented a reported phone call between President Michel Aoun and Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

“PM-designate Saad Hariri will not be cornered and will not step down. If some believe that they can press him to step down they are mistaken,” Geagea said in an interview with MTV.

Peter Dutton, the government lawmaker who has challenged Australia's prime minister for his job, is publicly perceived as a hard man and a leading hard-right conservative. His face is associated with turning back asylum seekers boats, stripping citizenship from extremists and striving to increase the English-language standards for migrants who want to gain citizenship.

As part of health campaigns to ensure food safety, the Ministry of Health closed a restaurant, a supermarket and a slaughterhouse in the northern Batroun area for health violations.