Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea accused on Friday Hizbullah Secretary General Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah of abusing power, slamming his recent speech in which he declared that the party will exploit the gas and oil wealth of any side that exploit’s Lebanon’s.

He said during a press conference on Lebanon’s offshore wealth: “We cannot remain silent over such a dangerous announcement.”

Lebanon's few remaining Arabic calligraphers, whose elegant script and interweaving words transport one to another era, are working to preserve an art form struggling to compete with new technology.

"The computer is a wonderful tool but in no way can it replace an artist or produce masterpieces," says Mahmoud Bayoun, one of the country's best-known calligraphers, whose works have been displayed in the United States and Iran.

Several ministries and a parliamentary committee are holding intense talks to prepare a draft-law that sets Lebanon’s Exclusive Economic Zone but the decree is not likely to be completed by August 2 during a session of the cabinet, An Nahar daily reported Friday.

It said the meetings are being held between the representatives of the foreign, energy and economy ministries and parliament’s energy and hydraulics committee.

Premier Najib Miqati returns to Beirut from his family trip abroad on Friday night as the cabinet readies itself to hold a meeting next week to discuss the bombing that targeted a UNIFIL patrol in the south and a series of administrative issues.

The agenda of Tuesday’s cabinet meeting has 161 items linked to financial, real estate, electricity and water projects. The agenda also includes the transfer of teachers at the Lebanese University.

U.S. Ambassador Maura Connelly has said that Premier Najib Miqati’s cabinet “appears to reflect less the will of the people and more the will of external interests.”

During a reception held at the embassy to bid farewell to Public Affairs Officer Ryan Gliha on Wednesday, Connelly said: “There is a danger that Lebanon will lose many of its hard-fought gains on the level of democratic participation and transparency.”

Tawhid movement leader Wiam Wahhab brushed aside on Friday a decision by U.S. President Barak Obama to extend a 2007 freeze of assets against him.

The decision is “meaningless,” Wahhab told Voice of Lebanon radio station (100.5), saying “it didn’t affect me in 2007 and won’t affect me today.”

One of the most wanted car robbery suspects and three others were arrested in the Bekaa town of Brital, the general-directorate of the Internal Security Forces announced Friday.

It said the ISF arrested the four men during a raid on the house of the most wanted criminal on Thursday. The communique did not identify the suspects but said that the top criminal is a 41-year-old man who has 28 rulings against him.

U.S. Ambassador Maura Connelly has reportedly asked Speaker Nabih Berri why Lebanon would not strike deals with companies to start oil exploration in its territorial waters as Israel did pending a solution to its conflict with the Jewish state on the Exclusive Economic Zone.

Media reports quoted Berri as answering Connelly that the maritime border line between Lebanon and Israel should be drawn. “If someone is seeking or working to reach a peace agreement between Lebanon and Israel to settle the oil issue, then this didn’t and won’t happen.”

Some 300 supporters of the Baath Party, the Syrian Social Nationalist Party and Hizbullah on Thursday staged a demonstration in the Roueisat neighborhood in Northern Metn’s Jdeideh district in support of the embattled Syrian regime.

Demonstrators carried pictures of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, Hizbullah chief Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah and Free Patriotic Movement leader MP Michel Aoun, Voice of Lebanon radio (100.5) reported.

U.S. President Barack Obama on Thursday extended a freeze of assets on persons “threatening stability in Lebanon.”

A White House statement, extending the freeze imposed in 2007, said that "certain ongoing activities, such as continuing arms transfers to Hizbullah that include increasingly sophisticated weapons systems, serve to undermine Lebanese sovereignty."