Justice Minister Shakib Qortbawi, Interior Minister Marwan Charbel and two judges from the Higher Committee for Consultations discussed on Friday the controversial civil marriage in Lebanon.

Qortbawi, Charbel and Judges Sami Mansour and Marwan Karkabi held the talks at the justice ministry, the National News Agency said. The third member of the Committee, Judge Omar al-Natour, failed to attend the meeting for being abroad.

The Syndicate Coordination Committee went ahead with its open-ended strike on Friday by staging a demonstration near the Agriculture Ministry in Beirut's Bir Hassan area.

Angry protesters began rallying at 9:30 a.m. after calls by the SCC officials on Wednesday to escalate their endeavors over the cabinet's failure to refer the new wage scale for public employees to the parliament.

European Union Ambassador to Lebanon Angelina Eichhorst said on Friday that armed groups are moving daily between Lebanon and Syria, considering that the disassociation policy adopted by the government requires actual implementation.

“Armed groups shouldn't be allowed to move between Lebanon and Syria as they are threatening the situation locally,” Eichhorst said in comments published in As Safir newspaper.

Qatar is ready to pay a $5 million ransom to free the Lebanese pilgrims, who were kidnapped in Syria on May 22, unnamed sources told An-Nahar daily Friday.

General Security chief Abbas Ibrahim is following up closely on the controversial file and has met with President Michel Suleiman three times in ten days after his visit to Qatar and Turkey in January.

The onshore 3-D seismic scan process is expected to remain until September as the British Spectrum Company, which will conduct it, will cover the expenses estimated to reach $25 million, a local newspaper reported on Friday.

As Safir newspaper quoted a ministerial source as saying that the British firm will pay Lebanon a share of the profits achieved by the survey.

Interior Minister Marwan Charbel warned on Friday that officials affiliated with the March 14 and 8 coalitions are simultaneously exposed to assassination attempts, pointing out that the ties between Lebanon and the Gulf countries are “not deteriorating.”

“The security agencies are coordinating with the figures who are under threat,” Charbel said in comments published in the Kuwaiti al-Seyassah newspaper.

Speaker Nabih Berri denied on Friday that he gave rival lawmakers a one-week deadline to reach consensus on an electoral draft-law before putting the so-called Orthodox Gathering proposal to vote in parliament.

In remarks to An Nahar newspaper, Berri said: “I haven't spoken about it and I have neither set a week, nor two weeks nor 70 days for the General Assembly” session.

Members of the Lebanese Forces and the Phalange parliamentary blocs are split over the so-called Orthodox Gathering proposal and several of them could reject it if put for a vote in parliament, informed sources said Friday.

The sources told pan-Arab daily al-Hayat that Phalange MPs Nadim Gemayel, Elie Marouni and Fadi al-Habr in addition to LF lawmakers Joseph al-Maalouf and Antoine Abu Khater could vote against the draft-law or not attend a parliamentary session if Speaker Nabih Berri calls on the General Assembly to meet.

A man on trial for allegedly plotting attacks on Israelis in Cyprus described himself Thursday as a loyal Hizbullah member doing its bidding in Europe, but vehemently denied being part of a group preparing an attack.

The trial of Hossam Taleb Yaacoub, a 24-year-old Swedish-Lebanese citizen, is of interest because he was arrested last July, days before a July 18 bus bombing in Bulgaria killed five Israeli tourists and their Bulgarian bus driver. Bulgarian authorities have accused the group of being behind that bombing.

Progressive Socialist Party leader MP Walid Jumblat on Thursday blasted Free Patriotic Movement leader MP Michel Aoun over his stances on Bahrain, saying Lebanon must not be “implicated in reckless, hasty and biased political stances.”

In remarks published by the National News Agency on Thursday evening, Jumblat criticized “the latest statements on the Kingdom of Bahrain, which is going through a difficult period in its history.”