Security forces on Wednesday ended a scuffle that erupted between OGERO employees over controversial political slogans they raised during a sit-in against unpaid salaries.

The sit-in, which was aimed at showing solidarity against a delay to transfer funds to OGERO, turned ugly after the split between the employees caused a clash.

OGERO snapped back at Free Patriotic Movement leader Michel Aoun on Wednesday, saying that the telecommunications minister doesn’t have the right to give certain tasks to the state-own company.

Aoun said Tuesday that OGERO was initially placed under the management of Radio Orient and it was later placed under the telecom ministry and therefore its functioning falls under the ministry’s authority.

The Lebanese army thwarted an attempt to launch a rocket from southern Lebanon towards Israel several days ago and arrested a man involved in the operation, As Safir newspaper reported Wednesday.

The newspaper quoted military sources as saying that the man had transported the rockets and set their launch pad.

Progressive Socialist Party leader MP Walid Jumblat said Wednesday that amending the Taef accord is something that the country does not “tolerate.”

“It took us from 1975 till 1989 to agree on the Taef accord. I don’t think we’ll enter this vortex again if we take into consideration the importance of agreeing on the president’s authorities,” the PSP leader said.

The Maronite Bishops Council called on officials on Wednesday to adhere to the Lebanese state, starting with forming a new government.

It said after its weekly meeting headed by Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi: “They should respect democratic principles and restore the functioning of state institutions.”

Attention will be drawn to southern Lebanon on June 5 as a rally is expected to staged in commemoration of the day of the Naksa, reported As Safir on Wednesday.

High ranking military sources told the newspaper that the Lebanese army is taking the necessary precautions, stressing that the recent clashes that broke out on the Nakba Day at Maroun al-Ras will not be repeated.

Ziad Baroud, who relieved himself from his duties as caretaker interior minister, will not resume his duties, An Nahar newspaper reported on Wednesday.

The newspaper said that Baroud will not take back his decision as long as the current situation remains the same. It noted that caretaker defense minister Elias Murr will be the acting interior minister when he returns to the country during the weekend.

Ogero Telecom General Director Abdul Monem Youssef returned to Lebanon on Tuesday to a throng of photographers at Beirut international airport seeking to take his first photo after the incident at a Telecommunications Ministry building at al-Adliyeh, reported the daily al-Mustaqbal on Wednesday.

Airport security however prevented the photographers from taking any pictures.

President Michel Suleiman did not ask caretaker Justice Minister Ibrahim Najjar to take judicial measures against Internal Security Forces chief Maj. Gen. Ashraf Rifi, informed sources told An Nahar daily, claiming that the request to “study” the case was made “orally” and then interpreted by a memo released by the presidency’s general-directorate.

The sources told An Nahar daily on Wednesday that the oral request was based on article 49 of the constitution and did not have a reference for the referral of Rifi to the judiciary over his rejection to comply with caretaker Interior Minister Ziad Baroud’s order to pull members of the ISF’s Information Branch from a building affiliated with the telecommunications ministry.

The aides of the speaker and the Hizbullah leader visited the Free Patriotic Movement chief and the president on Tuesday after they resumed their mediation efforts to solve the cabinet impasse.

But An Nahar daily said Wednesday that the separate meetings that MP Ali Hassan Khalil and Hussein Khalil held with FPM chief Michel Aoun and President Michel Suleiman did not reach any results.