Pope Benedict XVI held talks with Maronite Patriarch Nasrallah Sfeir at the Vatican on Friday, a day after meeting with President Michel Suleiman.

The pope and Sfeir discussed the political situation in Lebanon and the region and the condition of Christians in the Middle East.

The Internal Security Forces have arrested a dentist in the Marjayoun town of Mais al-Jabal on suspicion of collaborating with Israel.

Media reports said 55-year-old Farouq Shouqeir was taken into custody on Thursday after the ISF received tips about his alleged collaboration.

Central Bank Governor Riyad Salameh has said U.S. officials confirmed to him that no other Lebanese bank would be targeted by the Treasury Department.

Salameh, who is currently in Washington, told Marcel Ghanem’s Kalam al-Nass talk show on Thursday that the U.S. “isn’t targeting Lebanon’s banking sector.”

A powerful explosion at a Spanish military academy killed five soldiers and wounded three others on Thursday when a bomb disposal drill went awry, the Defense Ministry said.

Soldiers getting ready to deploy as peacekeepers with the U.N. mission in south Lebanon were carrying out an exercise involving a controlled detonation of anti-tank mines when the ordnance exploded before the soldiers could move a safe distance away, a ministry official.

Paraguay extradited three Lebanese men to the United States on Thursday — two on drug trafficking charges and another who faces trial in Philadelphia for allegedly selling stolen cell phones and used cars to raise funds for Hizbullah.

Paraguayan anti-drug trafficking agent Maria Mercedes Castineira told The Associated Press that the three men were put on a U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration plane after being held for months in Paraguayan jails.

Progressive Socialist Party leader MP Walid Jumblat on Thursday revealed that he has advised Free Patriotic Movement leader MP Michel Aoun against trying to eliminate President Michel Suleiman's role in the Lebanese political life.

"I told General Aoun when he approached me concerning his demand to get the interior portfolio (in the new cabinet) that there is a president who has played a good role and who cannot be eliminated," Jumblat said in an interview on LBC TV network.

Middle East Airlines announced on Thursday that it has prepared one of its planes to head to Libya on Friday once it receives permission from Libyan authorities to evacuate Lebanese citizens from the country.

The Lebanese foreign ministry is conducting the necessary contacts with friendly nations and the Lebanese mission in Libya in order to evacuate the citizens who have been trapped in Libya after the eruption of anti-regime protests.

President Michel Suleiman and Pope Benedict XVI on Thursday expressed hope that a new government in Lebanon would bring "longed-for stability to the country, as it faced major internal and international challenges", the Vatican said.

The pontiff and Suleiman during their half-hour meeting also "stressed the importance of involving religious and civil authorities to make people aware of peace and reconciliation," the Vatican said in a statement.

MP Marwan Hamadeh revealed on Thursday that Progressive Socialist Party leader MP Walid Jumblat was not under any threat when he voted for Najib Miqati to assume the position of prime minister-designate.

He told al-Balad French that Miqati is facing several hardships in the process of forming a new government, advising him to establish a technocratic Cabinet.

Lebanon First MP Oqab Saqr stressed on Thursday the need to establish an international tribunal to look into the case of Imam Moussa al-Sadr in light of claims that he was assassinated.

The popular revolts in the Arab world will stand as a lesson for Lebanon that dictatorship and a single governing party will have a worse end than that suffered by Libyan President Moammar Gadhafi and ousted Tunisian President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, Saqr added.