Customs agents at the Rafik Hariri International Airport thwarted on Wednesday an attempt to smuggle 500 iPhones from Australia, reported the National News Agency.

The iPhones were discovered in the luggages of three Australians of Lebanese origin, who arrived in Lebanon from Australia through Dubai.

The Council of Maronite Bishops urged politicians on Wednesday to safeguard Lebanon amid the swift developments in the region that can have negative repercussions on the country, expressing fears over the continuing land sales to foreigners for financial gains.

Following their monthly meeting headed by Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi in Bkirki, the bishops called for unity among the Lebanese people.

The fate of a protest that the Free Patriotic Movement had called for against severe power rationing was not known on Wednesday although the telecom minister, who is loyal to FPM chief Michel Aoun, said the Lebanese should be ready for a demonstration at any time.

“The citizens should be ready to demonstrate at any moment,” Telecommunications Minister Nicolas Sehnaoui told Voice of Mada without specifying if the FPM would still go ahead with its plans despite the cabinet’s approval on Tuesday of decisions linked to the electricity sector.

President Michel Suleiman said Wednesday that the ball of appointments of civil servants to positions in state institutions was in the court of the cabinet.

“The ball of appointments is in the court of ministers and I disagree with the justice minister on the head of the Higher Judicial Council,” Suleiman said on twitter.

The cabinet agreed on Tuesday to renew the contracts of the two mobile operating companies hours before they expired at midnight, according to newspapers.

Ministers loyal to Progressive Socialist Party leader MP Walid Jumblat and Economy Minister Nicolas Nahhas expressed reservations on the renewal of the contract without referring it to the Audit Bureau.

The Council of Development and Reconstruction began on Wednesday dismantling the metal bridge on the Jal el-Dib highway that links Beirut with the North after warnings the structure could collapse.

Engineer Elie Helou expected the process to take a month, the National News Agency said.

A verbal clash between MP Nabil Nicolas and the head of the parliamentary energy committee, MP Mohammed Qabbani, showed the rising tension between the Free Patriotic Movement and the opposition al-Mustaqbal movement.

Nicolas, an MP representing FPM leader Michel Aoun’s Change and Reform bloc, accused Qabbani on Tuesday of evading the payment of over LL16 million in electricity bills.

President Michel Suleiman and Social Affairs Minister Wael Abou Faour, who are among the centrist forces in the government, have chided Energy Minister Jebran Bassil for accusations made by the Free Patriotic Movement of corruption and embezzlement.

During a heated cabinet session held at Baabda palace on Tuesday, Bassil reiterated his claims that technical, financial and administrative obstacles were preventing the implementation of his project aimed at resolving the electricity crisis in the country and hinted that Suleiman was obstructing the appointment of a new board of directors for the state-run power company, Electricite du Liban.

The Mustaqbal bloc noted on Tuesday that Telecommunications Minister Nicolas Sehnaoui’s withholding of telecom data from the security authorities exposes the people to several dangers.

It said after its weekly meeting: “We hold Sehnaoui, his political backer Free Patriotic Movement leader MP Michel Aoun, and the government accountable for the current situation in Lebanon where the state’s sovereignty has been compromised.”

Free Patriotic Movement leader MP Michel Aoun stressed on Tuesday that Lebanon is not a broken country, but it has been robbed.

He said after the Change and Reform bloc’s weekly meeting: “Those who plundered it will meet us in court.”