A dispute in the Beirut suburb of Shiyah-Ghobeiri between the families of Fadel and al-Masri erupted into an armed clash on Thursday, leaving two people wounded, state-run National News Agency reported.

The two were stabbed with knives, the agency said.

Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi noted on Thursday that Christians in the Arab world are among the “native” residents of their respective countries in that they have lived there since biblical times, stressing that their practices have become an integral part of the peoples of each state.

He said: “They should not be viewed as minorities, but as native people who have enjoyed equal rights with all others.”

Telecommunications Minister Nicolas Sehnaoui noted on Thursday that the Lebanese people have “no idea of the large amount of information” that is stored in the telecom data.

He said after holding talks with Speaker Nabih Berri: “Whoever acquires the data can spy on everyone in Lebanon.”

Israel will attack Lebanese government targets during a future war with Hizbullah, a senior defense official said, lamenting that the Jewish State did not do so during the 2006 aggression on Lebanon.

“It was a mistake not to attack Lebanese government targets during the war in 2006,” The Jerusalem Post quoted a senior defense official as saying. “We will not be able to hold back from doing so in a future war.”

Security sources have slammed a decision by a judicial authority to prevent the Internal Security Forces from accessing telecommunications records, saying the security of the people was more important than their privacy.

“What’s more important? The security of the people or their privacy?” the sources wondered in remarks to An Nahar daily published Thursday.

The union of bakeries has announced a strike for April 20, a day after a planned transportation strike over record high gasoline prices.

Economy Minister Nicolas Nahhas’ “promises have vanished with regard to compensating the sector and resolving its problems,” the union said in a statement.

The Israeli navy has recently strengthened its “indirect cooperation” with the Lebanese navy in the Mediterranean ahead of possible pro-Palestinian flotillas to Gaza on Nakba Day, Haaretz daily reported.

The Lebanese army increased its naval operations and barred any ship from approaching the maritime border with Israel, to prevent any possible provocations on Land Day on March 30, Haaretz said.

Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea told March 14 opposition officials that Christians in Lebanon would have suffered from the consequences of his assassination if snipers succeeded in killing him.

Al-Liwaa daily on Thursday quoted Geagea as saying in his address to the officials during their large-scale meeting at his residence in Maarab that “March 14 is in the eye of the storm.”

Libyan forensic doctors are carrying out DNA tests on human remains unearthed from a cemetery in Libya believed to be that of missing Imam Moussa al-Sadr.

Libyan government spokesman Nasser al-Maneh told al-Jazeera Arab TV network on Wednesday that the remains were taken to a hospital in Tripoli for the tests.

President Michel Suleiman is mulling to issue a decree on a $5.9 billion extra-budgetary 2011 spending over fears that public sector employees would fail to receive their salaries and state projects would stop by the end of May.

Suleiman discussed the issue with the head of the parliamentary finance and budget committee, MP Ibrahim Kanaan, at Baabda palace on Wednesday.