Information Minister Ramzi Jreij asserted on Friday that the contract to export Lebanon's garbage will be signed next week as soon as the Council for Development and Reconstruction receives an original copy of the Russian consent.

“The contract to export the waste will be signed next week either on Tuesday or Wednesday after the CDR receives the original copy of the Russian approval,” Jreij told the Voice of Lebanon Radio (100.5).

Speaker Nabih Berri stated on Thursday that a solution to the controversial file of the presidency is no longer in the hands of the Lebanese and that a Saudi-Iranian dialogue could be the secret “potion” for this hurdle.

“The antidote to elect a president of the republic is no longer a Lebanese decision. It seems that the only chance we have now lies in a Saudi-Iranian dialogue. It apparently seems to be the only potion,” Berri told al-Akhbar daily in an interview.

Humorous remarks by Health Minister Wael Abou Faour about abstention from kissing as a precaution against swine flu have triggered a sarcastic campaign on social networking websites.

"The solution would be to decrease kissing, unless extremely necessary," Abu Faour said jokingly to journalists during a press conference on Wednesday.

Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea held on Wednesday the international community responsible for the prolongation of the war in Syria, labeling the developments in the country as a “major humanitarian tragedy.”

He urged via Twitter the international community to “intervene quickly in Syria to halt the massacres taking place there.”

Telecommunications Minister Butros Harb stated on Wednesday that Hizbullah and its ally the Change and Reform bloc head MP Michel Aoun are doing each other mutual favors with regard to the presidency and the party's weapons.

“Lebanon is in a stage of paying bills between Aoun and Hizbullah. The first insists to cover the illegal weapons of Hizbullah in return for the latter's continued backing for Aoun to help him make it to the presidential post,” said Harb via Twitter.

Hizbullah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah will likely make a televised appearance which reports predicted will take place on February 16, two days after the commemoration of the assassination of former PM Rafik Hariri, al-Joumhouria daily reported on Saturday.

“Nasrallah will make a televised appearance soon to mark Hizbullah's Martyrs Day,” said the daily.

Hizbullah official Hussein Khalil said on Saturday that the party's lawmakers will only attend the parliament session aimed at electing a president next week if an agreement is reached to elect its candidate the founder of the Free Patriotic Movement MP Michel Aoun for the post.

“When an agreement is reached on the election of Gen. Aoun as president, then we will be the first to arrive at the parliament to elect him,” said Khalil after a meeting with Aoun.

Military sources slammed media reports claiming that the situation in the northeastern border town of Arsal is deteriorating and assured that the situation is fully under control, al-Joumhouria daily reported on Saturday.

“The army is closely watching the security situation inside the town of Arsal and its outskirts. It is carrying out preemptive operations to counter sources of danger,” the source told the daily on condition of anonymity.

The Consultative Gathering bloc urged Lebanon's lawmakers to attend the parliament's session next week aimed at ending the vacuum at presidential post, and reiterated rejection to conditions set during the donors conference on Syria that Lebanon opens its labor market for the refugees in return for assistance.

“The Consultative Gathering calls on all MPs to take part in the February 8 session,which is going to be different from all its predecessors after the disclosure of the vast majority of MPs about their electoral inclinations which should facilitate the presidential election process,” said the statement recited by information Minister Ramzi Jreij.

The Czech defense minister said Friday that a military spy who was among five Czechs returned from Lebanon was seeking information about a fellow countryman kidnapped in Libya last year.

The minister, Martin Stropnicky, was quoted in the Hospodarske Noviny daily as saying the military agent, Martin Psik, went to Lebanon in an effort "to help our cook in Libya."