President Michel Suleiman on Sunday wondered whether the president of the republic was “supposed to practice his powers by signing a decree, without having the right to appoint a head for the Higher Judicial Council,” in reference to calls asking him to sign a decree approving the $5.9 billion spending bill proposed by government should the parliament fail to adopt it.

Speaking to reporters upon his arrival in Australia on an official visit, the president said he was still studying all the aspects of the issue, noting that he has not taken a “final stance, although the door is still open for parliament to resolve this issue.”

Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi on Sunday voiced regret over the proliferation of “corruption” in Lebanon, warning that “evil is being plotted against the church and its shepherds.”

“Unfortunately, there is a lot of corruption, malice, injustice and insulting of dignities and reputations through lies and fabrications,” the patriarch said in his sermon.

Hizbullah MP Hassan Fadlallah on Sunday urged a “serious and responsible probe” into the killing of al-Jadeed cameraman Ali Shaaban on Monday by gunfire from the Syrian side of the border with Lebanon’s Wadi Khaled, as AMAL Movement MP Ali Bazzi warned against “creating another enemy on our border with Syria.”

Speaking at a ceremony commemorating Shaaban one week after he and two of his al-Jadeed colleagues came under heavy gunfire from Syria while filming a report on Lebanon’s northern border with Syria, Fadlallah said: “Ali practiced the profession of problems, which led him to that troubled area where he was supposed to audio-visually transmit the facts and events from a border witnessing a lot of ambiguity.”

Greek Orthodox Archbishop of Beirut Elias Audeh hoped in his Easter sermon on Sunday that the era of killing and assassinations has ended with no return.

“We reject killing and assassinations and condemn them,” Audeh said at the St. George cathedral in downtown Beirut in reference to the recent murder attempt on Lebanese Forces chief Samir Geagea.

Unknown assailants opened fire on the car of journalist Mustafa Mustafa Jeha, who escaped unscathed in the incident that took place on the highway south of Beirut on Saturday night, the National News Agency reported.

Jeha, 26, told police that gunmen riding a black Mercedes chased him on the Damour-Jiyeh highway before opening fire on his silver-colored Mercedes near the Oceana beach resort.

Hizbullah has exerted strong efforts to prevent Finance Minister Mohammed Safadi from threatening the fate of the cabinet over his dispute with Premier Najib Miqati, sources close to Safadi said.

The sources told pan-Arab daily al-Hayat on Sunday that Hizbullah has tried to appease Safadi over fears that his bickering with Miqati could spill over to the government and threaten its existence.

Ex-Premier Saad Hariri slammed efforts to adopt a parliamentary elections law based on proportionality, saying the threat of Hizbullah’s arms closes the door to democratic competition.

In an interview published in al-Mustaqbal daily on Sunday, Hariri said: “Proportionality is a means for people or political movements that do not enjoy absolute majority in a certain region to be represented in parliament based on their proportional size.”

Investigators are carrying out DNA tests on remains that could belong to Lebanese Imam Mousa al-Sadr, who mysteriously disappeared in Libya more than 33 years ago, an official at the ministry of missing persons told AFP on Saturday.

"We are testing the DNA of three separate bodies," said Esam Zregi, who heads the department for documentation and sample collections, adding that the final results would be ready in four to six weeks.

President Michel Suleiman stated on Saturday that the legislative authority has the responsibility to follow up on the people’s daily lives, as well as the manage government affairs.

He therefore stressed the need to hold a parliament session “as soon as possible” in order to tackle the $5.9 billion spending bill of the 2011 government.

A Syrian national was robbed at gunpoint Friday night in the neighborhood of Hay al-Sillum in Beirut’s southern suburbs.

Abdul Kafi al-Nayef was passing through the neighborhood when five individuals in a red Range Rover forced him into their vehicle where they stole his wallet at gunpoint.