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.”

The plan of two masked gunmen to rob a bank in Beirut’s southern suburbs went down the drain on Tuesday after the manager and employees set off the alarm, the National News Agency reported.

NNA said that the armed thieves entered the Fransabank branch of Burj al-Barajneh in broad daylight and ordered the staff to hand them the cash.

British Prime Minister David Cameron expressed on Monday his support to PM Najib Miqati, revealing that in addition to other things London will double the training programs to the Lebanese armed forces.

British Ambassador to Lebanon Tom Fletcher held a meeting with Miqati at the Grand Serail and handed him a letter from Cameron.

The Audit Bureau’s general prosecutor, Bassam Wehbe, is expected to review an investigation report on the red diesel scandal and issue his decision within the next two days, An Nahar daily reported Tuesday.

According to the daily, head of the Bureau Judge Aouni Ramadan referred on Monday the report to Wehbe, including the investigation carried out by two inspectors who visited the Deir Ammar and Zahrani refineries.

Prime Minister Najib Miqati is expected to head to Paris in February with a packed agenda as he will meet with President Nicolas Sarkozy and PM Francois Fillon during his three-day visit.

“France has always played a centrist role concerning Arab issues, because it understands the region through its relations with Lebanon… we should remain a key knot between the Arabs and France,” sources following up the visit told As Safir newspaper on Tuesday.

The cabinet session on Tuesday is expected to be jammed with heated issues topped with the telecom data dispute which has stirred political controversy over the legality of providing the Internal Security Forces Intelligence Branch with the telecommunications records.

According to newspapers published Tuesday, the issue will be discussed out of the cabinet’s agenda during the session at the Baabda Palace.