Speaker Nabih Berri has expressed frustration at the failure of Foreign Minister Adnan Mansour to welcome his French counterpart during a visit to Beirut last week, sources close to the speaker said Friday.
Mansour's absence from the welcoming ceremony of French President Francois Hollande and Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius last Sunday is not right at the level of protocol, the sources told al-Akhbar newspaper.
Full StoryLeader of the National Struggle Front bloc Walid Jumblat said on Friday that the collapse of Syrian President Bashar Assad will not make Hizbullah hand over its weapons as the March 14 alliance believes, assuring that the price will not be less than a new Taef agreement.
Jumblat called on all political powers to follow President Michel Suleiman's calls for a defense strategy stressing the necessity to avoid strife, he told As-Safir daily in an interview.
Full StoryAn FBI team that helped investigate the blast that killed Internal Security Forces Intelligence Bureau chief Wissam al-Hasan last month sought to make a specific and deep analysis of the explosives used in the bombing, security sources said Friday.
The sources told An Nahar daily that only the U.S., Britain and Russia have advanced labs to reach the required results.
Full StoryHead of Public Secondary School Education Teachers Association Hanna Gharib said on Friday that the cabinet's delay in referring the new wage scale for public employees to the parliament indicates that it's backing down on the draft law, warning the Syndicate Coordination Committee will enter an open-ended confrontation with the government.
“The cabinet imposed the battle and if it believe that it can break down or create a rift among the SCC then it are delusional,” Gharib said in comments published in As Safir newspaper.
Full StoryLebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea on Thursday noted that Syrian President Bashar Assad is trying to “scare” Christians by claiming that Syria is the "last bastion of secularism, stability and coexistence in the region."
In an interview on the pan-Arab satellite TV network Al-Jazeera, Geagea called on Syria's Christians to "take part in the revolution in their country."
Full StorySocial Affairs Minister Wael Abu Faour on Thursday announced that the government is preparing the financial plan for settling the situations of Syrian and Palestinian refugees who have fled Syria's war to the safety of neighboring Lebanon.
“The crisis in Syria will not end soon and the influx of Syrian refugees is a fact that cannot be overlooked or neglected and the Lebanese state must fully shoulder its responsibility in this regard,” Abu Faour said after a meeting at the Grand Serail that was presided over by Prime Minister Najib Miqati and attended by Health Minister Ali Hasan Khalil, Education Minister Hassan Diab and High Relief Commission chief Brig. Gen. Ibrahim Bashir.
Full StoryFree Patriotic Movement leader MP Michel Aoun congratulated on Thursday Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi on his recent appointment as cardinal.
“We assure the people that stability in Lebanon will not be harmed,” he said after holding talks with the patriarch at Bkirki on the current political crisis in the country.
Full StoryState commissioner to the military court Judge Saqr Saqr charged on Thursday a Lebanese man and two Syrians with helping three Fatah al-Islam inmates escape from Roumieh prison, the oldest and largest of Lebanon's overcrowded prisons.
The National News Agency reported that the three men were also charged with facilitating a prison break attempt for another inmate.
Full StoryPrime Minister Najib Miqati stated on Thursday that the dispute over the new wages scale should be resolved through calm discussions.
He said: “The dispute cannot be settled through negativity and escalation.”
Full StoryMilitary Tribunal Judge Imad al-Zain requested the referral of 13 people, including 9 from al-
Meqdad family, to the court to be tried over an abduction spree of Syrians and Turkish nationals to avenge the kidnapping of Hassan al-Meqdad in Syria in August.
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