A Lebanese parliamentary committee has forced a vote on scrapping a controversial law that allows rapists to escape punishment by marrying their victims, an NGO said Thursday.

The United States has issued a new Lebanon travel warning to its citizens, saying it “supersedes the Travel Warning issued on July 29, 2016.”

The Change and Reform parliamentary bloc on Thursday defended the latest stances of President Michel Aoun regarding Hizbullah's arms, while revealing that it is “awaiting answers” on an “advanced” electoral law proposal.

Hizbullah chief Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah on Thursday called on Israel to “dismantle the Dimona nuclear reactor,” warning that it poses a threat to Israel's existence if hit by Hizbullah's missiles in any confrontation.

Kataeb Party leader MP Sami Gemayel stressed from the Grand Serail on Thursday, that Lebanon faces unfavorable options if political parties fail to agree on a new electoral law for the upcoming parliamentary polls before the deadline on February 21 to call the electorate bodies.

“If a new electoral law is not agreed before Feb. 21 it would mean that we are heading towards bad options,” said Gemayel, noting that shall elections be staged based on the controversial 1960 law it would call for an automated extension of the parliament term.

Lebanon's electricity outage will be decreased three hours per day by the end of February, to be paralleled by a “slight” increase in electricity tariffs, al-Joumhouria daily reported on Thursday.

Sources well-informed on Lebanon's longtime problematic electricity file, told the daily that a new supply program will increase power supply by 3 hours per day, starting at the end of February.

Lebanon's judiciary charged ten suspected Palestinian and Lebanese militants with involvement with the Islamic State terror group, the National News Agency reported on Thursday.

Military Prosecutor Judge Saqr Saqr charged the ten suspects, three of whom are already in detention, on charges of involvement with the IS terror group, executing terror operations in Syria, planning to carry out terror assaults in Lebanon and assassination attempts of Lebanese officials, NNA added.

As endeavors to endorse a new electoral law for the upcoming parliamentary polls stutter, Progressive Socialist Party leader MP Walid Jumblat recently submitted to Speaker Nabih Berri a new draft law proposal that was kept away from media spotlight, media reports said on Thursday.

“Jumblat has submitted some general ideas about an electoral law that involves specific acceptable proportionality, agreeable for him, and very much unlike other formats that tend to marginalize some political components,” unnamed sources following up on electoral law discussions told al-Joumhouria daily.

Following his tour that included several Arab countries, President Michel Aoun prepares to kick start a trip that will involves the Vatican and Kuwait, media reports said on Thursday.

A specific date has not been set as yet, but reports said it will be some time soon.

An Israeli court Wednesday postponed the deadline for a container in Haifa capable of holding 12,000 tons of ammonia to be emptied of its toxic content, judicial sources said.