Saudi King Abdullah has been praised by top Lebanese leaders for supporting Lebanon at times of crises. Many of them described him as Lebanon's “Key Backer.”

One of his latest grants to Lebanon was in December 2013 when he pledged three billion dollars for the purchase of arms from France for the benefit of the Lebanese army.

The foreign policies of Saudi King Abdullah, who passed away on Thursday, translated into a powerful assertion of Saudi Arabia's influence around the Middle East.

He floated the idea of the Arab Peace Initiative when he was crown prince at the 2002 Arab League summit that was held in Beirut.

World leaders paid tribute to Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah on Friday, praising the late monarch as   a key mediator between Muslims and the West.

U.S. President Barack Obama said he and Abdullah, whose country has for decades been a strategic ally of Washington, had enjoyed a "genuine and warm friendship". 

Militants were plotting to target Casino du Liban in Jounieh on New Year's Eve, Le Royal hotel and other major facilities, investigations with detained suspects revealed.

Local dailies said on Friday that al-Qaida-linked al-Nusra Front was plotting to attack the casino with a car bomb loaded with explosives and driven by Elie Warraq, who has been recently arrested.

A U.N. official said on Tuesday that the flow of Syrian refugees into Lebanon has dropped sharply due to restrictions recently imposed by Lebanese authorities.

Although Lebanese border officials began informally restricting the entry of Syrians last October, the country officially imposed visa regulations earlier this month on their neighbors. The move was the first such in decades.

Speaker Nabih Berri warned on Tuesday offenders in the Bekaa valley that they will eventually have no choice but to hand themselves over to security forces, flee the country or face death ahead of the implementation of a security plan in the area.

The speaker stressed that the implementation of the security plan this time will not be like its predecessors, stressing that the security forces will remain deployed in the area until all violators are apprehended.

The army announced on Sunday the arrest of four suspects in Beirut wanted on terrorism charges.

The communique said that Lebanese Mohammed Ali Shukr was arrested on Saturday night in Beirut's Haret Hreik neighborhood for carrying out terrorist activity.

The Lebanese army said a suspect was injured in a clash after attacking a patrol in the northern city of Tripoli on Thursday night as the military announced a series of arrests it has made.

The army said in its communique that the patrol came under fire by Khaled Zakaria al-Khaled when it interfered to disperse gunmen involved in a family fight in the area of al-Beddawi.

A meeting held at MP Walid Jumblat's residence in Clemenceau failed Wednesday to convince activists to call off planned protests aimed at securing the closure of the controversial Naameh landfill on January 17, as organizers called on Environment Minister Mohammed al-Mashnouq to step down.

During a rally for the Campaign for the Closure of the Naameh Landfill, a spokesman called on al-Mashnouq to “resign immediately after his failure to find an alternative solution for the landfill,” urging “a popular rally at the landfill's entrance on January 17.”

The March 14 general-secretariat congratulated on Wednesday Interior Minister Nouhad al-Mashnouq and security forces on the closure of the notorious block B of Roumieh prison that lies east of Beirut.

“Al-Mashnouq took a brave decision to end the chaos at Roumieh prison,” said the general-secretariat following its weekly meeting.