A Detroit-area man accused of trying to travel to the Middle East to fight in Syria's civil war has been sentenced to five years in prison.

Mohammad Hamdan has been in custody for nearly three years and will get credit for that time. He was sentenced Wednesday, about four months after pleading guilty to making false statements to agents.

The Administration and Justice Parliamentary Committee repealed on Wednesday article 522 in the Lebanese law that allows a rapist to get away with his crime if he marries the survivor.

The decision came following protests that called for the law annulment.

Armed clashes erupted overnight between the Palestinian Fatah Movement and the Bilal Badr armed group in the Ain el-Hilweh refugee camp near the southern city of Sidon. The sound of intermittent gunfire resonated until morning, the National News Agency reported Wednesday.

NNA said the clash erupted at midnight when two suspects on a motorcycle drove beside a Fatah position in the al-Fawqani neighborhood and started shooting gunfire into the air drawing suspicion of a Fatah Movement security member.

Top cellphone dealer Kamel Ahmaz who was detained in November on charges of smuggling mobile cellphone was released Tuesday on a LL15 million bail, media reports said.

Amhaz was arrested following the detention of a number of airport security personnel on charges of turning a blind eye to suitcases containing smuggled cellphones in return for bribes.

The Directorate of General Security arrested a Syrian national suspected of having links to a terror group, the directorate said in a statement on Tuesday.

“In line with efforts to track the activities of terror groups and sleeper cells, the General Security detained Syrian national Aa.M. against the backdrop of having links to terror groups,” said a General Security statement.

Lebanese army units carried out extensive raids in north Lebanon in search of perpetrators involved in the armed attack against an army checkpoint in the Dinniyeh town of Bqaa Sifrin that left one soldier killed and another wounded.

“The army is running investigations to uncover the circumstances and the end of the terrorist attack at this particular timing. We do not deal lightly with this aggression. We consider it dangerous. It puts the army in front of the duty to increase readiness to prevent terrorists from achieving their goals to spread chaos in Lebanon starting from the north area,” a military source told al-Joumhouria daily on condition of anonymity.

President Michel Aoun held a meeting at the Presidential Palace with Canadian Foreign Minister Stephane Dion where discussions touched on the Syrian refugees in Lebanon and highlighted the need for a political solution in Syria, the National News Agency reported Monday.

The issue of the displaced Syrians in Lebanon was discussed during talks between the two men, and Aoun focused on the “need for a political solution for the Syrian crisis which will reflect positively on the issue of displaced Syrians in Lebanon,” NNA added.

Two Palestinian security force members were critically injured when armed assailants opened gunfire at a security position in the southern refugee camp of Ain el-Hilweh, the National News Agency reported Monday.

Unknown assailants opened gunfire at the position of the Palestinian joint security forces in Ain el-Hilweh injuring Mohammed Abdullah aka al-Iraqi and another member from al-Jaber family, NNA added.

Speaker Nabih Berri stressed on Monday that he made many concessions to facilitate the formation of the cabinet, as he urged President Michel Aoun to “open up” to Marada chief MP Suleiman Franjieh to end the stalemate hampering the formation of the cabinet, As Safir daily reported Monday.

“Despite the apparent obstacles, the government could be formed any minute now,” Berri told the daily, as he described as “unrealistic” the reports blaming his for the delay.

After a late armed attack against an Infantry Brigade in north Lebanon killed a soldier, the Lebanese army staged raids early on Monday in the northern district of Dinniyeh in search for the assailants, media outlets reported on Monday.

One soldier, Amer Mustafa al-Mohammed, was killed and another was injured overnight when gunmen attacked the 10th Infantry Brigade in the northern town of Bqaa Safrine, they added.