The Lebanese Army staged wide security raids at dawn on Saturday in the northeastern region of Masharih al-Qaa and arrested tens of suspects, the National News Agency reported Saturday.

The Airborne Regiment, a Land Border Regiment unit and the Army Intelligence staged the raids in the Syrian refugee encampments in Masharih al-Qaa in search of fugitives, NNA added.

The body of a man who has been reported missing 40 days ago was found in the southern city of Sidon with a driver's license next to him carrying his name and place of residence, the National News Agency reported Friday.

The body which carried clear signs of torture, belongs to citizen Haitham Ali Raad (from Bednayel, born in 1965) residing in Beirut's southern suburbs, NNA added.

Hizbullah has slammed as “baseless” reports alleging that the party has pledged not to retaliate against Israeli strikes that hit inside Syria, LBCI reported Friday.

“Media reports quoted Israeli enemy alleging that Hizbullah made a pledge to Russia not to respond to Israeli airstrikes inside Syria...are baseless and unfounded,” Hizbullah media office said in a statement on Friday.

In light of stalled efforts to line-up a new cabinet, Speaker Nabih Berri warned that Lebanon is behind time as for the preparations needed to hold the parliamentary elections as scheduled in June 2017, An Nahar daily reported Friday.

“The tenure of the current parliament ends on June 20, 2017, and the elections must be staged two months ahead. The door closes on the nominations three months before the parliament's tenure ends. The commission overlooking the elections must be formed six months in advance, that is at the beginning of the year,” Berri told his visitors.

Change and Reform bloc MP Ibrahim Kanaan said on Thursday that proportional representation together with the reforms proposed to the election law, are the serious solution for the regime's problems.

A Detroit-area man accused of trying to travel to the Middle East to fight in Syria's civil war has been sentenced to five years in prison.

Mohammad Hamdan has been in custody for nearly three years and will get credit for that time. He was sentenced Wednesday, about four months after pleading guilty to making false statements to agents.

The Administration and Justice Parliamentary Committee repealed on Wednesday article 522 in the Lebanese law that allows a rapist to get away with his crime if he marries the survivor.

The decision came following protests that called for the law annulment.

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.

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.

The Directorate of General Security arrested a Syrian national suspected of having links to a terror group, the directorate said in a statement on Tuesday.

“In line with efforts to track the activities of terror groups and sleeper cells, the General Security detained Syrian national Aa.M. against the backdrop of having links to terror groups,” said a General Security statement.