President Michel Suleiman on Wednesday called on all parties to guarantee the appropriate atmosphere to avoid vacuum as parliament is expected to convene next week to elect a new head of state.

During a cabinet session held at Baabda Palace, Suleiman said: “Vacuum is unacceptable. Laws haven't been put in place so that we fall in vacuum.”

Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea announced on Wednesday his presidential program that focused on restoring the authority of the state against the proliferation of weapons during a time of regional unrest.

He declared: “No country in the world would accept that its authority be subject to armed groups that exist outside of the state.”

Speaker Nabih Berri called on Wednesday for a parliamentary session to elect a new president on April 23.

The session is scheduled to be held at 12:00 pm.

The Syndicate Coordination Committee held on Wednesday a protest near the education ministry in Beirut's UNESCO area to pressure MPs into approving the pay hike, as Minister of Education Elias Bou Saab warned that the academic year is “in danger.”

“Official exams are at risk and the academic year is at risk,” Bou Saab said after meeting with a SCC delegation in the afternoon.

Firefighters battled on Wednesday a fire that erupted in a depot at the Master Chips Factory in the Bekaa town of Ferzol.

Seven Civil Defense vehicles accompanied by an ambulance rushed to the scene to extinguish the fire.

State Commissioner to the Military Court Judge Saqr Saqr charged on Wednesday Syrian national Mohammed Abdul Hamid Qassem with belonging to a terrorist organization.

State-run National News Agency reported that Qassem and several others were charged with belonging to the Syrian al-Nusra Front, an al-Qaida-linked rebel movement, carrying out terrorist attacks, the possession of arms, and booby-trapping vehicles.

Palestinian officials have warned that the refugee camp of Ain el-Hilweh could witness assassinations to avenge the murder of the head of the Association of Islamic Charitable Projects.

A political official was quoted by al-Akhbar daily as saying on Wednesday that “the situation in Ain el-Hilweh is tense.”

A majority of MPs on Tuesday evening voted to form a parliamentary panel to study the new wage scale draft once again, prompting the Syndicate Coordination Committee to call for a general strike on Wednesday.

"The parliament voted in favor of a suggestion to form a committee tasked with studying the draft wage scale another time in the coming 15 days,” the state-run National News Agency said, noting that Lebanese Forces MP George Adwan was the legislator who came forward with this proposal.

The northern Bekaa town of Shaath, al-Manar TV and Hizbullah bid farewell Tuesday to slain reporter Hamza al-Hajj Hassan, in an emotional funeral that was attended by thousands of mourners.

The reporter's coffin, draped in a yellow Hizbullah flag, moved slowly from the Dar al-Hikma Hospital in Baalbek to the cemetery of the town. Some mourners fired their machineguns in the air, despite calls to the contrary from organizers and the journalist's uncle.

Interior Minister Nouhad al-Mashnouq said Tuesday that Syrian refugees are “our guests and our people,” but noted that the government “does not have the assets or infrastructure to cope with these numbers.”

“Syrian refugees represent 27% of Lebanon's population, while in Jordan they number 10% of the population and in Turkey 4%,” Mashnouq said during a meeting with the representatives of several municipalities, lamenting the fact that Amman and Ankara are receiving greater international aid.