Armed clashes erupted overnight between the Palestinian Fatah Movement and the Bilal Badr armed group in the Ain el-Hilweh refugee camp near the southern city of Sidon. The sound of intermittent gunfire resonated until morning, the National News Agency reported Wednesday.

NNA said the clash erupted at midnight when two suspects on a motorcycle drove beside a Fatah position in the al-Fawqani neighborhood and started shooting gunfire into the air drawing suspicion of a Fatah Movement security member.

A dozen Lebanese women, dressed as brides in white wedding dresses stained with fake blood and bandages, gathered Tuesday outside government buildings in the capital Beirut to protest a law that allows a rapist to get away with his crime if he marries the survivor.

The law, in place since the late 1940s in Lebanon, is currently being discussed in parliament after a lawmaker called for it to be repealed.

Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi called on the political parties on Tuesday to form the new government before Christmas.

Al-Mustaqbal parliamentary bloc on Tuesday called on the political parties to facilitate the formation of the new government, warning that any further delay would impede the momentum that started after the election of President Michel Aoun.

President Michel Aoun announced Tuesday that he is not concerned over the ongoing delay in the cabinet formation process as he pledged anew to fight the rampant corruption in state institutions.

Free Patriotic Movement chief Jebran Bassil stressed Tuesday that the alliance between the FPM and Hizbullah is still “firm,” as he voiced rejection of a new extension of the parliament's term or the adoption of the 1960 electoral law.

A man, likely Lebanese, was arrested Tuesday by Ivory Coast's authorities at Abidjan's airport after a large haul of cocaine was found in his luggage, Lebanon's National News Agency reported.

Top cellphone dealer Kamel Ahmaz who was detained in November on charges of smuggling mobile cellphone was released Tuesday on a LL15 million bail, media reports said.

Amhaz was arrested following the detention of a number of airport security personnel on charges of turning a blind eye to suitcases containing smuggled cellphones in return for bribes.

Lebanese Forces MP Antoine Zahra said on Tuesday no body has the right to determine the share to be allotted to the LF in the new cabinet or stage a veto against its representation.

“Nobody is allowed to identify the Lebanese Forces share in the cabinet and stage a veto against it,” said Zahra in an interview on Tele Liban.

Prime Minister-designate Saad Hariri assured on Tuesday that the Lebanese will stay united behind the army in its confrontation against aggression following an attack at an army position in north Lebanon that killed one soldier and wounded another.

“We will remain united to face any assault on our army and security forces,” said Hariri via Twitter.