The parliament failed again Thursday to elect a successor to former President Michel Suleiman, leaving the country's top Christian post vacant since May.

Speaker Nabih Berri has set a new session for October 29.

The parents of one of the soldiers taken captive by jihadists in August have allegedly received a phone call from an Islamic State militant giving the authorities a three-day ultimatum to meet their demands.

The father of captive Mohammed Youssef said he received the phone call from the IS fighter at 10:00 am Thursday.

Grand Mufti Sheikh Abdel Latif Daryan stressed on Thursday the importance of cooperation between the Grand Serail and Dar al-Fatwa, calling on the abductors of soldiers and policemen to make an initiative and release them.

“They are precious and you should safeguard them... I am waiting for an initiative from you to release them,” Daryan said after talks with Prime Minister Tammam Salam at the Grand Serail.

Foreign Minister Jebran Bassil accused on Thursday Israel of “manipulating stability and using the takfiri attacks to change the balance of powers,” considering that the resistance's operation in the Shebaa Farms occurred on Lebanese soil.

“The ministerial statement states the liberation of the Shebaa Farms and the occupied Lebanese territories with all the possible means,” Bassil said in an interview with al-Akhbar newspaper.

A 27-year-old Lebanese student accused of marrying and having a sexual relationship with a 12-year-old girl in Australia has pleaded guilty to the crime, Australian dailies reported Thursday.

The man, who was not named, was visiting Australia on a student visa when he married the girl during an Islamic ceremony in the Hunter Valley in the state of New South Wales in January, they aid.

The transfer of the protest by the families of the so-called Arsal hostages from Dahr al-Baidar to downtown Beirut was deeply frowned on by the Lebanese authorities with one cabinet minister describing their move as “unacceptable.”

The minister, who was not identified, told As Safir daily in remarks published on Thursday that the protest of the relatives of the soldiers and policemen taken captive by jihadists in August is legal as long as they are not harming anyone.

The cabinet will meet on Thursday afternoon to discuss the tenuous security situation in eastern and southern Lebanon with 50 articles on its agenda.

Ministers will discuss the political impasse in Lebanon, in addition to the security chaos, the fate of the abducted Lebanese soldiers and policemen, and the Syrian refugee crisis.

The Secretary-General of the United Nations, Ban Ki-moon, expressed grave concern over the activities of al-Qaida-affiliated al-Nusra Front and the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) in the mountainous areas surrounding the northeastern border town of Arsal.

The U.N. official warned of the tremendous impact of such acts on Lebanon's stability and security, in particular, Hizbullah's and other Lebanese groups involvement in the battles ongoing in the neighboring country Syria.

Masked gunmen shot dead a Fatah Movement member on Wednesday evening in the Ain el-Hilweh Palestinian refugee camp, in an incident that also left three other people wounded.

State-run National News Agency said Fatah member Walid Yassine “was seriously wounded when gunmen opened fire at his bird shop in the Ain el-Hilweh camp.”

Hizbullah on Wednesday seized control of the so-called Umm Khorj post, from which militants launched their Sunday attack on the party's Ain Saa post in Brital's outskirts, amid reports that a Hizbullah fighter was “captured” in the Bqal al-Assal area in Syria's Qalamun.

In remarks to al-Jadeed TV, a Hizbullah source confirmed that his group had taken Umm Khorj, noting that “it was the launchpad for al-Nusra (Front's) gunmen on Sunday and it strategically overlooks Assal al-Ward's mountains.”