The army arrested on Wednesday an Egyptian national in Beirut's Shiyyah neighborhood on charges of spying for Israel.

"The man owns Gina Cell mobile phone store in Shiyyah,” al-Jadeed television detailed.

Hizbullah Secretary-General Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah on Wednesday called for endorsing an electoral law based on proportional representation and a single electoral district, warning that some parties are seeking sectarian strife between Sunnis and Shiites in Lebanon.

“There is an alternative that addresses all the reservations voiced over the Orthodox Gathering law and we will work in a very serious manner for this alternative choice, although the Orthodox law will remain on the table,” said Nasrallah in a televised address he made to comment on the latest developments.

Iraq's prime minister warned Wednesday that a victory for Syria's rebels will spark sectarian wars in Lebanon and Iraq and will create a new haven for al-Qaida that would destabilize the region.

The comments by Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki in an interview with The Associated Press marked one of his strongest warnings yet about the turmoil that toppling Syrian President Bashar Assad could create in the Middle East.

The March 14 General Secretariat accused the cabinet on Wednesday of “disassociating itself from the people and the workers' interests”, urging President Michel Suleiman to deploy army forces on the border with Syria.

"The internal security crises and the situation on the border will transform Lebanon into a failed state,” the secretariat said in a released statement after its weekly meeting.

A man identified as Sayed Karam was killed on Wednesday in an avalanche in the Cedar's Qornet al-Sawda region in the north, which also left three other people wounded.

The Civil Defense Forces rescued Joseph al-Batoulani, Mohsen Iskandar and Andre Nadira and transferred them to the north's hospitals for treatment.

Prime Minister Najib Miqati stated on Wednesday that the Syndicate Coordination Committee's movements are “futile and useless”, urging the protesters to refrain from escalation as “it will not lead anywhere”.

"No one is against the new wage scale,” Miqati expressed during Wednesday's cabinet session, adding that he had explained his point of view to the SCC in this regard.

Speaker Nabih Berri on Wednesday hinted that he might withdraw the hybrid draft electoral law he has proposed, as a Progressive Socialist Party delegation that visited him stressed that the parliament speaker will not allow any step that harms coexistence among religious communities in the country.

“It is known that the joint (parliamentary) committees had set a final 15-day deadline for consensus over the electoral law, and if no consensus is reached, it will immediately start discussing the Orthodox Gathering electoral law,” Berri said during his weekly meeting with MPs.

The Transportation Drivers Union suspended its strike on Thursday to pave way for further consultations with the government, the state-run National News Agency reported.

“Prime Minister Najib Miqati vowed to discuss our demands with officials,” Fadi Abou Shaqra, advisor to the Gas Station Owners Association told Voice of Lebanon radio (93.3) on Wednesday.

Judge Walid al-Qadi succeeded on Wednesday head of the criminal court of cassation Judge Joseph Samaha to study the file of ex-Minister Michel Samaha's case.

Head of the Higher Judicial Council Judge Jean Fahd appointed al-Qadi after Judge Samaha stepped down on Monday over kinship.

A Lebanese woman died on Wednesday after setting herself on fire at her house near the southern city of Tyre, the state-run National News Agency reported.

NNA said that B.Z., 38, was killed when she self-immolated at her home in the area of al-Marj in Jwayya.