The results of the secondary school official exams for the Humanities (LH) section and the Sociology and Economics (SE) section were announced on Wednesday afternoon.

Middle school official exam results, Brevet (BR), are set to be announced next week according to Lebanese districts.

Two of the relatives of the 11 Lebanese pilgrims kidnapped in Syria on Wednesday managed to visit the abductees in the Aleppo town of Aazaz along with an LBCI TV crew.

Ali Zgheib’s son Adham and Awad Ibrahim’s brother Hussein appeared in the highly emotional video broadcast by LBCI, as tears and appeals dominated the scene.

Prime Minister Najib Miqati voiced on Wednesday his disappointment with some sides that were hasty in condemning the new parliamentary electoral law, saying that such stands “defeat the government’s purpose of devising the law.”

He said: “The current phase in Lebanon requires us to set aside political and personal interests in order to reach an agreement on the law in a calm atmosphere.”

An Israeli court charged on Wednesday several Israeli-Arab residents of Nazareth and Ghajar for allegedly helping Hizbullah transfer explosives to Israel, the Jerusalem post reported.

The Nazareth District Court charged the men with assisting in the infiltration of the 20 kilograms of C4 explosives on June 5, it said.

A percussion grenade was tossed near the house of al-Mustaqbal bloc MP Khaled al-Daher in the northern district of Akkar at dawn Wednesday, the National News Agency reported.

NNA said the grenade landed in an olive grove 30 meters away from the lawmaker’s house in the town of Tebnine.

A soldier was killed and two civilians were injured on Wednesday when financial differences turned into a gunbattle between residents of two towns in the eastern Bekaa valley, the National News Agency reported.

NNA said soldier Mohammed Jaafar Nasereddine and Ali Assaad Dabbous and Mohammed al-Fliti were wounded when the residents of the towns of al-Ain and Arsal in Bekaa’s north battled with guns.

The body that represents the Lebanese diaspora criticized the government on Wednesday for failing to allow millions of expatriates to have the right representation in parliament.

President of the World Lebanese Cultural Union Michel El Douaihy told An Nahar daily that there are around 12-15 million Lebanese expatriates, which means four or five times more than the number of Lebanese residing in the country.

A committee of representatives of four major Christian parties is expected to meet in the coming days to announce its stance from a new electoral draft-law approved by the government amid clear differences in the viewpoints of its members, An Nahar daily reported on Wednesday.

Bkirki sources refused to comment on the draft but stressed that it supports a law that represents all Lebanese sects in the best way and guarantees equality between all confessions and Lebanese parties.

Interior Minister Marwan Charbel revealed Wednesday that the families of 11 Lebanese pilgrims kidnapped in Syria have vowed not to block the Beirut airport road again.

In remarks to An Nahar daily, Charbel said: “The airport road will not be blocked.”

Progressive Socialist Party leader Walid Jumblat slammed on Wednesday the government’s adoption of a new electoral law in the absence of a single sovereign state that enjoys the decision of war and peace.

In remarks to several newspapers, Jumblat said: “The electoral law cannot be discussed calmly in a tense sectarian atmosphere and in the absence of a single authority and a single state.”