The Permanent Military Court on Wednesday sentenced Charbel Qazzi, the head of the maintenance department at the state-owned mobile phone firm Alfa, to seven years hard labor on charges of collaborating with Israel, state-run National News Agency reported.

Qazzi was arrested in June 2010 and charged with passing on information to Israeli spies that aided the Jewish state in its 2006 war against Hizbullah.

Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea welcomed on Wednesday Beirut lawmakers’ calls for the establishment of an arms-free capital, noting that Lebanon would be living in “very flawed” circumstances if such a goal is not achieved.

He told Free Lebanon radio: “The whole of Lebanon, not just Beirut, should be stripped of weapons and armed groups.”

President Michel Suleiman discussed on Wednesday with lawmakers representing Beirut their project to establish an arms-free capital, according to the National News Agency.

They tackled the security situation in Beirut and the MPs’ project to remove “illegal arms” from the capital in order to fortify civil peace.

A Syria correspondent for Lebanese daily As Safir, considered supportive of Bashar Assad's regime was detained in Damascus, an editor at the newspaper told Agence France Presse on Wednesday.

"We lost contact with our correspondent Ahmed Dahnoun yesterday (Tuesday) during a protest at Midan Square in the Syrian capital," the editor said, requesting anonymity.

The mayors and the municipal council of the town of Arsal slammed on Wednesday the statement of Defense Minister Fayez Ghosn, who warned that al-Qaida members have entered the country through the town.

This information “should motivate (the authorities) to deploy the Lebanese army along the border with Syria to halt the continuous Syrian violations of Lebanese sovereignty,” they said in a statement.

Former Prime Minister Saad Hariri stressed on Wednesday the need for the whole of Lebanon to come under the control of the state and army.

He said: “No one in Lebanon can eliminate the other and we are all Lebanese and bound to work together.”

Three security officers were injured on Tuesday night when residents near the Palestinian refugee camp of Sabra in Beirut pelted them with stones while they were seeking to curb the construction of an illegal building.

The National News Agency said Wednesday that an Internal Security Forces patrol was seeking to end the violation with the help of the Army when scores of young men and women pelted them with stones.

Lebanon decided to join a team of observers to monitor a plan aimed at ending a nine-month revolt against Syrian President Bashar Assad’s regime in response to a request by Arab League chief Nabil al-Arabi, An Nahar newspaper reported on Wednesday.

Foreign Minister Adnan Mansour received a written request from al-Arabi inviting Lebanon to join the observer mission, the daily said.

Prime Minister Najib Miqati held talks on Wednesday with Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi and extended his greetings to him on the occasion of the holidays.

LBC TV said Miqati discussed with al-Rahi the electoral draft law and appointments of civil servants.

Opposition leaders have held talks to discuss the approval of both pro-March 8 and 14 Maronite leaders of a proposal by the Orthodox Gathering for each sect to choose its own representatives in the 2013 parliamentary elections, An Nahar daily reported on Wednesday.

The newspaper said that the March 14 leaders stressed the importance of discussing the proposal while taking into consideration the Taef Accord of 1989 which has called for the establishment of two parliaments: A non-sectarian legislature and a senate that elects its members along sectarian lines.