The following are a selection of stories from Lebanese newspapers that may be of interest to The Daily Star readers. The Daily Star cannot vouch for the accuracy of these reports.
As-Safir
The wage scale has flown [the coop]...look towards the presidency!
Once more, Parliament has failed its constituents, using the salary scale as an excuse to ignore the rights of teachers and civil servants. What happened at yesterday’s session was suspicious: Suddenly, 65 deputies realized that the draft law needed further study.
What happened at yesterday’s session was not so much a delay as it was an a tacit death-blow to the wage scale. The new committee will not come up with anything that has not already been discussed over the past 25 months, and the wage scale will most likely get lost in the shuffle leading up to next week’s session to elect a president.
An-Nahar
The union coordination committee calls in the cavalry...lawmakers conspire to delay the presidency
Geagea declares presidential program today
Yesterday’s session was a victory for power and money and a disappointment for thousands of teachers, civil servants and retirees. If the new committee is given 15 days to study the draft law, a new parliamentary session cannot be called before mid-May.
If parties are unable to agree on a new President, they will ask for the intervention of the Maronite Patriarch in order to avoid a vacuum in the presidency, and the wage scale will be put off indefinitely. This is why the Union Coordination Committee was swift in announcing its strike.
Lebanese Forces Samir Geagea is set to declare his 32-item presidential program Wednesday, focusing on the necessity of restricting arms to state authority.
Al Akhbar
Security Forces investigating cars that were booby-trapped in Yabroud and Rankous
Security forces are pursuing several explosives-rigged vehicles after a dangerous felon arrested earlier this month confessed to receiving money to booby-trap them to carry out bombings in several areas across Lebanon.
Syrian national Mohammed Abdel-Hamid Qassem, also known as Abou Abdo, and Murad Almadar told investigators that several vehicles were rigged with explosives in the Syrian villages of Yabroud and Rankous in the Qalamoun area on the Lebanon border.
Security forces are currently investigating if the vehicles were used in previous bombings or not.
Qassem also revealed the identities of several people that he worked with inside Lebanon and abroad.
Al-Mustaqbal
People wanted by the authorities give up in the north and hide in the Bekaa
The security plan is on track in the north and the Bekaa, in a prelude to reaching the capital Beirut where the raids would focus on areas that witnessed armed clashes inside Beirut. Authorities are expected to go after wanted suspects such as Shaker Burjawi.
Security sources said that many suspects in the north handed in themselves to the military tribunal or Army intelligence because they started to feel suffocated by the security measures in the city.
In the Bekaa, suspects are starting to feel the real danger of getting caught and have been abandoning their houses in fear of being detained.
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