Speaker Nabih Berri confirmed during Wednesday’s parliamentary meeting a list of politicians and figures targeted by extremist groups, describing the threat as serious and dangerous.

According to NBN, Berri called on security agencies to follow up the issue.

The cabinet on Wednesday failed to reach an agreement over the controversial issue of extra-budgetary spending, but agreed on an exit for urgent spending.

Briefing reporters after the session, Information Minister Walid al-Daouq said the cabinet “approved contingency funds to cover urgent spending under extraordinary circumstances for each of: the army (L.L. 15 billion), the Internal Security Forces (L.L. 7.5 billion) and the education ministry’s official exams (L.L. 1.25 billion).”

Speaker Nabih Berri described on Wednesday the army’s deployment in the northern city of Tripoli as relieving, noting that all the facilitations were provided to prevent sedition.

“We are required to help the army in maintaining security and preventing sedition,” Berri told An Nahar newspaper.

Free Patriotic Movement leader MP Michel Aoun on Tuesday accused President Michel Suleiman, Prime Minister Najib Miqati and Progressive Socialist Party leader MP Walid Jumblat of “practicing obstruction” and “pushing the country to a harmful course.”

“They deprived us of the majority that allows us to take decisions. Suleiman is obstructing the L.L.8,900 billion decree and saying there are obstacles,” said Aoun during an interview on his movement’s mouthpiece OTV.

General Security chief Maj. Gen. Abbas Ibrahim on Tuesday confirmed media reports that the arrest of Salafist activist Shadi al-Mawlawi was coordinated with a Western security agency, noting that al-Qaida exists in Lebanon and hinting that Mawlawi is a Qaida member.

Speaking to the correspondents of Arab newspapers in Lebanon, Ibrahim said: “As to Mawlawi’s case, I believe that the issue is thorny and weighty, and we have been following up on the case since 13 days without informing anyone in Lebanon because confidentiality is an essential part of our job. This case has major repercussions and local and international aspects.”

Al-Mustaqbal parliamentary bloc on Tuesday called for “removing illegal arms” from Tripoli, which has witnessed three days of deadly clashes, holding the government responsible for “any negligence or procrastination in implementing the necessary measures to protect the city.”

“The residents of Bab al-Tabbaneh and Jabal Mohsen belong to one city and they reject fighting and infiltrators,” the bloc said in a statement recited by ex-PM Fouad Saniora, following an emergency meeting in Tripoli’s Quality Inn Hotel.

A fierce armed clash erupted on Tuesday between the families of al-Nashar, Hrash and al-Naanai in al-Rifaiyeh in central Tripoli, leaving three people wounded and raising tensions in the city which is still reeling from three days of deadly sectarian clashes.

“The army has managed to contain the clashes in al-Rifaiyeh, which had nothing to do with the Bab al-Tabbaneh-Jabal Mohsen clashes,” Radio Voice of Lebanon (93.3) reported.

Lebanese national Ali Abu Bakr was killed and several other citizens were hurt on Tuesday when a mortar round fell inside Syrian territory facing the Bekaa border town of Hawsh al-Sayyed Ali, state-run National News Agency reported.

Abu Bakr, a farmer, was cultivating his grove inside Syrian territory when the deadly shell fell during clashes between Syrian forces and rebels.

Prime Minister Najib Miqati on Tuesday announced that calm has been restored in the northern city of Tripoli following a ceasefire, noting that the army took the necessary precautions to preserve the truce and that it had deployed in four hotspots.

"Hostilities have ceased in Tripoli," Miqati told reporters in a press briefing held in Beirut, adding that "the past 48 hours have been difficult."

Phalange MPs Samer Saadeh and Sami Gemayel presented on Tuesday a draft law on turning the Syrian withdrawal from Lebanon into a national holiday.

The first article of the law called for dedicating April 26 of every year as the day of “resistance and liberation from the Syrian occupation.”