A U.S. defense attorney said Thursday that a Marine accused of deserting his unit a decade ago in Iraq was kept in Lebanon for eight years while he faced a military trial there.

The Marine officer presiding over the hearing for Cpl. Wassef Hassoun adjourned the proceeding for at least a week to allow defense attorneys to translate Lebanese documents they say support his case.

Hizbullah deplored on Thursday the killing of U.S. journalist James Foley, describing it as a "brutal crime."

"James Foley was brutally murdered by terrorist gangs," a statement issued by Hizbullah's press office said.

The Lebanese army has arrested an Arab-Israeli civilian who cut through barbed wire to cross the border into Lebanon, a security official said on Thursday.

"Ibrahim Zaydat entered Lebanon on Wednesday afternoon after cutting through a small section of barbed wire at the southeastern border, and was arrested by the army," the official told Agence France Presse.

The government announced on Thursday a measure aimed at “encouraging” Syrian refugees to leave Lebanon.

Information Minister Ramzi Jreij revealed after a cabinet session that the government agreed to “relieve Syrians seeking to leave Lebanon of residency taxes.”

One of the gunmen arrested for his links to the clashes in the northern city of Tripoli has been released from Roumieh Prison.

LBCI television reported that Abou Taymour al-Dandashi was released after a short detention period.

Change and Reform bloc lawmakers proposed on Thursday a draft-law for a constitutional amendment to have direct presidential elections in Lebanon.

Voice of Lebanon radio (100.5) said MP Ibrahim Kanaan, who proposed the draft-law on behalf of the bloc's members, is scheduled to hold a press conference on Friday to inform the public opinion about it.

The Syndicate Coordination Committee vowed on Thursday to stay in its battle until the approval of the public sector wage scale, but its call for a general strike failed to paralyze all public institutions in Lebanon.

“We are protesting today to stress that we will remain in our battle for the approval of the pay hike,” said SCC official Mahmoud Haidar at a sit-in held near the Economy Ministry in Beirut.

An Israeli infantry unit combed on Thursday the heights near the tiny village of Wazzani and the occupied town of Ghajar in southern Lebanon, the state-run National News Agency reported.

NNA said that the unit was backed by a Humvee and an Israeli drone that overflew al-Abbasiyeh and the occupied Shebaa Farms area.

Progressive Socialist Party leader MP Walid Jumblat voiced his consent to a “technical” extension of the parliament's tenure, calling on the political arch-foes to “learn from the past.”

“I will agree on a technical extension for a year, which should be accompanied by the election of a new head of state,” Jumblat said in comments published in al-Mustaqbal newspaper on Thursday.

Hizbullah doesn't oppose any meeting with Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi as the party stressed that contacts with Bkirki are ongoing.

“We don't mind to hold a meeting (with al-Rahi) at any time,” Hizbullah circles said in comments published in al-Joumhouria newspaper.