The Lebanese army intelligence has arrested a group of Syrian and Lebanese men at a checkpoint that lies between Akkar and Hermel, MP Moeen al-Merehbi told Naharnet on Wednesday.

The Akkar lawmaker said the arrest was made at al-Rouwayma checkpoint on Tuesday as the men were heading to Syria through the eastern border town of Arsal following their hospitalization in northern Lebanon.

The Beirut MPs stressed on Wednesday that establishing an arms-free capital does not only include administrative area of the city, but Greater Beirut.

It said after a meeting at parliament: “After holding talks with the president, premier, and speaker over an arms-free capital, it is now time to hold talks with the various political powers.”

The Internal Security Forces have so far confiscated more than 1,200 unlicensed motorbikes and fined more than 400 car drivers for having tinted windows, the ISF General Command said in a communique on Wednesday.

On the first day of the campaign that was launched on Tuesday, the ISF confiscated 1,252 unlicensed motorcycles and fined 435 drivers whose vehicles had tinted windows, the communique said.

Foreign Minister Adnan Mansour said Wednesday he was visiting Libya to receive information on the investigations into the fate of Imam Moussa al-Sadr and to turn the black page of the past in the Lebanese-Libyan ties.

In remarks to As Safir daily published Wednesday, Mansour said: “We are not going there for exploration but to get the final result of the case of Imam Moussa al-Sadr and his companions.”

Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu and the former head of the Arab League, Amr Moussa, are among the high-level dignitaries who would attend a U.N. conference on democracy in the Arab world over the weekend, al-Liwaa daily reported.

The newspaper said Wednesday that Davutoglu and Moussa will address the "Reform and Transitions to Democracy" conference which will also see U.N. chief Ban Ki-moon as a keynote speaker.

Cabinet ministers engaged in a long debate on Tuesday over public spending amid a report that spending based on the 2005 budget was not enough in paying the salaries of civil servants.

A $5.9 billion 2011 spending bill hasn’t been approved by the parliament yet. But if approved, it would legalize spending by the government above 2005 levels.

Progressive Socialist Party leader MP Walid Jumblat stressed that Lebanon can “overcome instability,” voicing his support to the cabinet that was able to prevent civil “strife and vacuum.”

“Maybe the developments need some time” to be resolved, Jumblat told al-Akhbar newspaper on Wednesday.

The Mustaqbal bloc condemned on Tuesday Hizbullah senior official Mohammed Yazbek’s statements that United Nations chief Ban Ki-moon is not welcome in Lebanon, noting that they may increase the party’s isolation

It said in a statement after its weekly meeting: “Such remarks may negatively affect the country.”

Change and Reform bloc MP Ibrahim Kanaan said on Tuesday that the bloc’s primary goal is to rectify the functioning of the country’s state institutions according to legal means and not by forcing the people to succumb to its political interests.

He stated after the bloc’s weekly meeting: “Completing the state budget is the government’s most important task.”

Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea criticized on Tuesday Syrian President Bashar Assad’s speech earlier in the day, saying that he addressed everything but the country’s crisis.

He said before reporters in Maarab: “Assad depicted a status quo that has nothing to do with the reality on the ground.”