The presidential election session was postponed for the sixteenth time on Wednesday following a lack of quorum at parliament as Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea reiterated his accusation that the Change and Reform bloc was obstructing the polls.

Speaker Nabih Berri scheduled the new electoral session for December 10.

The Islamic State group announced on Wednesday its readiness to release the Lebanese soldiers and policemen, who were taken captive by the jihadist group along with al-Qaida-linked al-Nusra Front in August, if the Lebanese state sets free five Islamist inmates in return for each captive.

MTV quoted a Syrian source in Syria's al-Qalamoun area as saying: “The IS agrees to kick off negotiations with the Lebanese side as soon as possible.”

MP Marwan Hamadeh told the Special Tribunal for Lebanon on Wednesday how relations between slain ex-PM Rafik Hariri and Syrian President Bashar Assad broke down over the extension of President Emile Lahoud's term in 2004.

Hamadeh, on his third day of testimony, said he met with Hariri at the residence of Progressive Socialist Party chief MP Walid Jumblat in Beirut's Clemenceau area in August 2004 upon the former premier's return to the Lebanese capital from a meeting with Assad.

The United Arab Emirates is expected to reappoint an ambassador in Lebanon two years after keeping a low diplomatic representation in Beirut.

According to the pan-Arab daily al-Hayat published on Wednesday, Prime Minister and Dubai ruler Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashed al-Maktoum informed PM Tammam Salam, who returned on Tuesday night from a two-day official visit to UAE, that his country will raise its diplomatic representation in Lebanon.

Speaker Nabih Berri has expressed regret that the parliament will once again Wednesday fail to elect a new president despite the “positive signs” that had emerged on the crisis.

Parliament is scheduled to convene to elect a successor to President Michel Suleiman whose six-year term ended in May.

Interior Minister Nouhad al-Mashnouq stressed on Wednesday that the upcoming year in Iraq and Syria will witness tough security developments, which will have severe repercussions on Lebanon.

“We are ready to face all the possible scenarios and the security forces are on full alert,” Mashnouq said in comments to As Safir newspaper.

Not long ago chef Abu Wassim saw himself as king of the shawarma in Damascus with students, businessmen and even actors queuing outside his stand for a bite of his succulent wraps.

Today, he is a refugee in Beirut trying to make ends meet and bringing a taste of home to fellow Syrians who sought safety in Lebanon.

Al-Mustaqbal parliamentary bloc on Tuesday called for implementing a “strict” security plan in the northern Bekaa region, condemning the latest incident in the town of Btedei which left a man and his wife dead and their son injured.

“The bloc strongly condemns the heinous crime and warns of its dangerous and negative repercussions on civil peace in the country,” Mustaqbal said in a statement issued after its weekly meeting.

Militants from the extremist Islamic State group abducted Tuesday a retired Lebanese army soldier from the Wadi Hmeid area in the outskirts of the northeastern border town of Arsal.

He was released a few hours later after the gunmen "robbed him of his pickup truck," state-run National News Agency reported.

Hizbullah Secretary-General Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah held talks Tuesday with Defense Minister Samir Moqbel.

Nasrallah met Moqbel in the presence of Wafiq Safa, head of the party's Liaison and Coordination Unit, according to a Hizbullah statement.