Upon his return to Lebanon from a several-day visit to Saudi Arabia, Grand Mufti Sheikh Mohammed Rashid Qabbani on Thursday denied the presence of a “crisis” between the Mustaqbal Movement and Dar al-Fatwa, Lebanon’s highest Sunni Muslim authority.

“There is no crisis, this is a crisis of newspapers and articles and a crisis of gossips,” Qabbani said, when asked by reporters at the Beirut airport about the “deterioration” of his relation with the Mustaqbal Movement.

A smuggling operation attempting to bring in toxic pesticides into Lebanon was uncovered at Beirut port on Thursday.

Minister of Agriculture Hussein al-Hajj Hassan, in collaboration with the customs directorate, intelligence bureau, and port security, uncovered the smuggling of Methyl Bromide.

The head of the Mustaqbal bloc MP Fouad Saniora stated on Thursday that parliament’s approval of the electricity draft law is a “victory” for the Lebanese.

He said after the parliamentary session: “The agreement refuted all arguments that one political camp supports electricity in Lebanon and another opposes it.”

State commissioner to the military court Judge Saqr Saqr charged eight “devil worshippers” with blasphemy, the National News Agency reported on Thursday.

Four of them were also charged with drug abuse, NNA said.

The parliament approved on Thursday on granting public transportation drivers’ fuel subsidy payments for a three month period.

Last week, Prime Minister Najib Miqati held talks with representatives from the land transportation syndicate and public drivers to implement an arrangement that was agreed upon.

Unknown assailants opened fire on Thursday at the Sweiqa police station in the northern city of Tripoli, resulting in material damage to the building.

The assailants attacked the building at 3:30 am using machine guns.

Foreign Minister Adnan Mansour has said that instability in Syria affects negatively on the entire region’s security situation and called for assisting the Assad regime in carrying out reforms.

“The destabilization of the security (situation) in Syria will negatively affect the stability and security of the entire region and this can’t be compared to what happened in Libya when the international community was asking to topple its regime,” Mansour told his Portuguese counterpart on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly meeting.

The March 14-led opposition hinted on Thursday to have scored a victory against MP Michel Aoun’s Change and Reform bloc after a meeting of joint parliamentary committees approved an electricity draft law with some amendments rejected by Aoun.

March 14 MP Jean Oghassabian told Voice of Lebanon radio (100.5) that the committees approved the cabinet’s initial draft law as called for the opposition and not as Energy Minister Jebran Bassil and his father-in-law Aoun wanted.

Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea stated on Thursday that his speech following Saturday’s mass commemorating the fallen members of the party will tackle regional developments and their effect on Christians.

He told Free Lebanon radio that it will also focus on internal Lebanese developments.

A unit from the Internal Security Forces Intelligence Branch raided a car repair shop in the town of Ghaza in the Western Bekaa arresting four people for suspected links to the kidnapping of seven Estonian tourists in March.

The National News Agency said Wednesday that three of the suspects are Lebanese while the other is Syrian.