The Military Court on Wednesday sentenced former minister Michel Samaha to four and a half years of hard labor and stripped him of his civil rights, state-run National News Agency reported.

Samaha had been charged with transporting explosives in his car from Syria into Lebanon with the aim of staging bombings and assassinating Lebanese officials and religious figures at the behest of Syrian security services chief Ali Mamluk.

The Lebanese army said on Wednesday it has arrested more than 150 fugitives and suspects during raids it carried out in Beirut, the eastern Bekaa Valley and the northern district of Akkar.

In a communique, the army said a unit raided the houses of several individuals in the areas of Haret Hreik and the airport road in Beirut's southern suburbs, arresting two people wanted for using firearms and driving a stolen vehicle.

At least 11 people were injured, including Lebanese and Syrian women and children, when a bus rammed into several cars near the Bekaa border crossing of al-Masnaa on Wednesday.

Three Lebanese Red Cross units rushed to the scene as medics tried to aid those who were wounded.

Speaker Nabih Berri postponed on Wednesday the 23rd presidential electoral session after MPs boycotted it, causing lack of quorum.

The session was adjourned to June 3.

Head of al-Mustaqbal Movement and Former Prime Minister Saad Hariri kicked off his two-day official visit to Moscow on Wednesday by meeting with Russian FM Sergei Lavrov.

Talks underlined the latest developments in Lebanon and the region, a statement issued by Hariri's press office read.

Fierce battles erupted on Wednesday on the outskirts of the northeastern border town of Arsal between al-Nusra Front-affiliate Jaish al-Fatah and the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL).

The state-run National News Agency reported that clashes reached the outskirts of Arsal and Wadi Hmeid crossing, four kilometers from a Lebanese army checkpoint.

Israel warned of a new conflict with Hizbullah, vowing to strike the party's strongholds which could result in a large number of civilian casualties.

“The civilians are living in a military compound,” The New York Times quoted a senior Israeli military official as saying.

Finance Minister Ali Hassan Khalil warned on Wednesday that more than 200,000 civil servants would not receive their salaries if the government failed to approve this year's state budget.

In remarks to As Safir daily, Khalil said: “The wages of around 225,000 civilian and military employees in the public sector are under threat starting next September if the 2015 state budget was not approved.”

Negotiations regarding a prisoners swap deal between the Lebanese state and al-Qaida-affiliate al-Nusra Front reached the final stages as discussions are currently focusing on the timing and the place of the release.

Al-Mustaqbal newspaper quoted a concerned source as saying that the exchange of captives and prisoners could be either carried out in Turkey or on the outskirts of Lebanon's Eastern Mountain range.

The security plan, which has so far led to the arrest of several fugitives in Beirut's southern suburbs since it was implemented late last month, has entered a new stage, informed security officials said.

The officials, who were not named, told al-Joumhouria newspaper on Wednesday that the joint security force, comprised of the army, the Internal Security Forces and General Security, has completed its final deployment in the area and took positions in several strategic locations.