Lawmakers convened in a Parliament session on Wednesday dedicated to discussing and approving the 2018 state budget.

Speaker Nabih Berri has called for two consecutive sessions, Wednesday and Thursday, for budget discussions.

Progressive Socialist Party leader MP Walid Jumbalt criticized on Wednesday the government’s failure to help the country's ailing electricity sector, one day after the cabinet highlighted the crisis and decided to hold a special ministerial session to address the issue.

“The file of Turkish power generating ships strongly resurfaces because the coalition of the central authority does not want to take the opinion of the Tenders Department,” said Jumblat in a tweet.

Cypriot Foreign Minister Nikos Christodoulidess is expected to arrive in Beirut on Tuesday to announce his country's first military aid for the Lebanese army and security services, al-Joumhouria daily reported.

He will meet with senior Lebanese officials including President Michel Aoun, Speaker Nabih Berri, PM Saad Hariri and his Lebanese counterpart Jebran Bassil.

‎Hizbullah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah reiterated that he will “personally” motivate people on election day into casting their ballots in Hizbullah's stronghold of Baalbek-Hermel district shall he sees a low turnout, An Nahar daily reported on Tuesday.

Registration of electoral lists has closed at midnight and the interior ministry said a total of 77 lists, the largest in the history of parliamentary elections, and 917 candidates will run in the upcoming legislative elections.

The United States joined Britain's allies in Europe and around the world Monday in expelling scores of suspected Russian spies in an unprecedented response to a nerve agent attack.

At least 113 alleged agents working under diplomatic cover were ordered out by 21 governments, dwarfing similar measures in even the most notorious Cold War spying disputes, and marking a British diplomatic victory. 

President Michel Aoun said during a meeting with Johannes Hahn, the Commissioner for European Neighborhood Policy and Enlargement Negotiations, that aid promises made by the international community “must be put into practical steps,” the Presidency media office said.

The Lebanese Democratic Party announced on Monday the withdrawal of its Druze candidate from the electoral race in Beirut's second electoral district, it said in a statement.

With the registration deadline looming at midnight on Monday, political parties and Parliament hopefuls have rushed over the weekend to announce their electoral lists in various Lebanese districts to begin a countdown for the May 6 parliamentary elections.

Various “mosaic” electoral lists will be “fiercely” competing in Lebanon's 15 electoral districts, where once-rival parties are joining unified lists in order to garner winnings in the polls, al-Joumhouria daily reported.

Speaker Nabih Berri is expected to invite the Parliament to session this week to discuss the 2018 governmnet budget, before the country's delegation heads to France for the Cedre Conference (Paris IV) aimed at boosting investments and economic finances in Lebanon, media reports said on Monday.