The Change and Reform bloc of MP Michel Aoun is preparing a detailed response to al-Mustaqbal bloc leader Fouad Saniora who stressed on Friday that the $11 billion extra-budgetary spending made between 2006 and 2009 had all the required documents and accounting of public finances.

Change and Reform bloc MP Ibrahim Kanaan told As Safir daily on Saturday that a press conference held by Saniora and other March 14 MPs a day earlier was “a dangerous scandal at the constitutional and parliamentary levels that cannot be covered by the media play organized by Saniora.”

President Michel Suleiman noted on Friday that Lebanon is witnessing a period of stability despite the unrest in the region, hoping that any action regarding oil exploration in the eastern Mediterranean would not take place against the country’s interests.

He said: “Any violation of our petroleum rights will lead to war.”

Phalange Party leader Amin Gemayel called on Friday for producing a new national pact in Lebanon that would place the Lebanese people’s interests above all else.

He said during his ongoing trip to Italy: “A new pact based on the Taef accord should be established.”

An unknown group hacked on Friday several Lebanese government websites.

The hackers posted a caricature on the home page of the websites depicting a skinny man, representing the people, feeding a fat man described as the government.

Two French journalists evacuated from Syria's battered city Homs arrived Friday at a military airport near Paris after escaping the besieged protest hub where two of their colleagues were killed.

A plane transporting wounded reporter Edith Bouvier, 31, and photographer William Daniels, 34, flew in from Beirut, arriving at Villacoublay airport where they were met by relatives and French President Nicolas Sarkozy.

Special Tribunal for Lebanon Pre-Trial Judge Daniel Fransen has requested the Appeals Chamber to define the crime of “criminal association” following the Prosecution’s recent request to amend the indictment, announced the STL in a statement.

“On February 8, 2012 the Prosecution requested to amend the indictment in a confidential filing only to the pre-trial judge,” it revealed.

An American advocacy group has urged Lebanon’s Central Bank governor Riyad Salameh not to conspire with Hizbullah in helping Iran evade the international financial sanctions imposed on it.

Al-Akhbar newspaper on Friday reported that the president of United against Nuclear Iran, Mark Wallace, sent Salameh a letter on Feb. 21 inquiring about the Central Bank’s efforts in preventing Iran from using the Lebanese financial sector to avoid the international economic sanctions.

The government commissioner to the military court charged on Friday two employees at the state-owned Ogero telecom company with collaborating with Israel.

Shawqi Z. and 42-year-old Walid Q. were arrested by the Lebanese army intelligence in southern Lebanon on suspicion of spying for Israel, As Safir daily said.

General Prosecutor Saeed Mirza denied on Friday that he received a copy of a new indictment in the attacks on the three officials that have been linked to ex-Premier Rafik Hariri’s murder.

Mirza stressed to As Safir newspaper that “once he receives anything (new), he will announce it immediately.”

Change and Reform bloc MP Ibrahim Kanaan reiterated on Friday his rejection of attempts made by the opposition March 14 forces and mainly al-Mustaqbal movement to find a comprehensive solution to extra-budgetary spending made by previous governments since 2006.

Al-Mustaqbal bloc lawmakers Jamal al-Jarrah and Ghazi Youssef proposed an urgent draft-law to parliament to legitimize the extra-budgetary spending made by the cabinets of ex-PMs Fouad Saniora and Saad Hariri between 2006 and 2010 and the government of Premier Najib Miqati in 2011 after the current cabinet referred its $5.9 billion bill to the legislature for approval.