Lebanese authorities are hesitant in handing over Syrian refugees to Damascus, fearing that such a move would lead to an increased international pressure on Lebanon, ministerial sources said Saturday.

The sources told pan-Arab daily al-Hayat that Syrian authorities have asked Beirut to hand over several refugees that had escaped the fighting in their country to northern Lebanon.

Austria’s President Heinz Fischer will travel to Lebanon end of April, the first visit of an Austrian head of state to Lebanon, European diplomatic sources said.

The sources told al-Joumhouria newspaper published Saturday that Norway’s ambassador to Beirut has informed Lebanese political parties that Fischer was willing to meet with different Lebanese factions during his visit on April 26-27.

Telecommunications Minister Nicolas Sehnaoui has turned down several requests to provide telecom data to security services, putting the country in an “information blindness” that risks holding him legally accountable, security sources and MP Marwan Hamadeh said.

The sources that are investigating the assassination attempt on Lebanese Forces chief Samir Geagea told An Nahar daily on Saturday that Sehnaoui has so far refused to meet the request of handing over the telephone communications information to the agencies probing the attack.

The Lebanese airspace was closed from 6:30 p.m. to 9:30 p.m. on Friday due to rare dense fog that engulfed the country’s coast and caused low visibility.

All incoming flights were diverted to Cyprus, said Kamal Shoaib, deputy head of the Beirut Rafik Hariri International Airport.

President Michel Suleiman credited on Friday Italy for being among the major contributing countries in the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon, reported Italy’s AKI news agency.

He told the news agency that he hopes that collaboration between Lebanon and Italy would be bolstered in the future.

Hundreds of residents of the Beddawi camp near the northern city of Tripoli blocked on Friday the international road in protest against what it called was the release of “enemy collaborators”, reported the National News Agency.

It said that the residents were protesting the release of “collaborators, while Islamist detainees were still kept in custody for over four years without trial.”

Iran and Hizbullah have increased their military aid to the regime of embattled Syrian President Bashar Assad to assist him in his 13-month crackdown on protestors, Israeli daily Haaretz quoted Western intelligence reports as saying.

The newspaper reported that Israeli defense officials have said the potential fall of the Assad regime prompted Iran and Hizbullah to increase their involvement in the Syrian crisis.

Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi called on Good Friday for an end to violence and urged politicians to steer clear of corruption and the use of power for personal gains.

In his Easter message, al-Rahi rejected theft of public money and bribery.

Progressive Socialist Party leader MP Walid Jumblat denied on Friday that he informed Prime Minister Najib Miqati or any official that his National Struggle Front ministers would withdraw from the cabinet if it adopted an electoral law based on proportional representation.

“No one proposed the proportional representation except for (Interior Minister) Marwan Charbel… No one tackled the issue with us,” Jumblat told al-Akhbar newspaper.

A senior Hizbullah official discussed with a representative from the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) the conditions of the Syrian refugees in Lebanon, according to As Safir newspaper published on Friday.

The report said that the two officials held a meeting two weeks ago to discuss ways to aid the Syrian refugees in the country.