The army on Thursday raided several neighborhoods in the northern city of Tripoli in search of fugitives, as part of the security plan that troops started implementing earlier this week to end the state unrest and instability in the North.

The Internal Security Forces Intelligence Bureau also carried out raids in the northern Akkar town of Halba, and succeeded in arresting Sheikh Musheer Khodr, who is linked to radical cleric Omar Bakri, radio Voice of Lebanon (93.3) said.

The parliament on Thursday wrapped up a plenary legislative session that spanned three days, after approving several key bills and postponing a host of draft laws, amid a heated exchange between MPs Sami Gemayel and Assem Qansou.

The legislature also decided to refer to parliamentary committees a number of urgent bills after determining that they need further debate.

A crocodile was captured in Beirut River several months after more than one reptile were spotted in the area.

The state-run National News Agency reported that the crocodile was caught by a hunter and weighs around 20 kilograms.

The Trial Chamber of the Special Tribunal for Lebanon will hold a Status Conference in the Ayyash et al. case on April 10, announced the STL in a statement on Thursday.

The hearing, which is the second Status Conference since the Trial Chamber temporarily adjourned trial, will cover preparations of the counsel for Hassan Habib Merhi for the resumption of the trial, including filing of their Defense pre-trial brief and the date of resumption of the trial.

Change and Reform MP Ibrahim Kanaan demanded on Thursday a parliamentary session to grant Civil Defense volunteers full-time employment, considering that any attempt to block the matter “will not pass.”

“Next week will be a landmark concerning the credibility of all parliamentary blocs regarding the Civil Defense demands,” Kanaan said during a press conference from the parliament.

A Syrian was killed and two others were wounded on Thursday by the army in the Bekaa region of Arsal, said the Army Command in a statement.

It said that the army was forced to open fire at the Syrians, who were riding a motorcycle, after they fled from an army checkpoint in the Wadi Hmayyed area.

More than a million people fleeing Syria's war have registered as refugees in Lebanon, the U.N. said Thursday, with many now living in misery in a tiny country overstretched by the crisis.

And the number is swelling by the day. At a crowded UNHCR center in Tripoli, Lebanon's second city, hundreds of Syrian refugees were seen on Thursday queuing to register.

Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea stated that the situation in Lebanon is “difficult and bleak”, which is why the time is right for him to run for president, reported the pan-Arab daily Asharq al-Awsat on Thursday.

He told the daily: “We must introduce radical change over how to solve Lebanon's problems.”

Gunmen cheerfully shared coffee and cigarettes with men they have tried to kill with assault rifles, grenades and mortars. Women on balconies hurled rice to celebrate. Men chanted giddily to welcome soldiers deploying to the streets of the northern city of Tripoli.

In a day as joyful as it was unlikely, weary residents of two Tripoli neighborhoods on Wednesday celebrated as hundreds of Lebanese soldiers deployed in the most determined plan yet by the government to stabilize an area that for the past year has been increasingly drawn into the civil war in neighboring Syria.

The military institution announced on Wednesday arresting 33 people in the northern city of Tripoli, as troops continued to implement the security plan in the North.

"The army has arrested 33 people, including 14 Syrians,” the military institution said in an evening communique.