Press Digest for Sunday May 13, 2012

The following are summaries of today's major stories published in the Arabic press. LBCI does not edit press digest articles for content, giving English-language readers insight into the various views expressed in newspapers across the Arab world.      

• General Security sets ambush to arrest Shadi Mawlawi outside Safadi’s office       

Well-informed sources told al-Mustaqbal newspaper on Sunday that the General Security wanted to arrest Shadi Mawlawi who previously asked the office of Finance Minister Mohammad Safadi to help him enter his newborn to the hospital. Sources added that a worker in the General Security pretended to be from Safadi’s office; he called on Mawlawi to go to the office and get and aid of 750,000 LBP. When he arrived, he was surprised to see that there was no money and that no one asked him to come to the office in the first place.       

As soon as he got out, Mawlawi was arrested in an ambush as a fight erupted between guards of Safadi’s office and security officials who drove off Mawlawi.      

• Gunmen fire at Kuwaiti embassy in Beirut       

Al-Anbaa newspaper reported that unidentified gunmen driving a “Golf” with no plate number fired at the Kuwaiti Embassy in Beirut at around 9 pm on Thursday, hitting the building’s walls, without causing any worth mentioning damage.        

The newspaper added that investigations and the photos of surveillance cameras installed in the embassy and the surrounding buildings said that the car was probably headed to the road leading to the Golf club in Ouzai.    

• Public spending issue to be settled next Wednesday        

An-Nahar newspaper reported that the cabinet’s agenda for next Wednesday has been distributed to ministers. It only includes 7 items, the first one pertaining to the 4900 billion LBP to cover administrative expenses until mid-2012. As for the 6 remaining items, they are related to financial allocations including the funds for the Rafik Hariri Governmental Hospital.           

Ministerial sources told an-Nahar that the concise agenda, which is a record, includes a serious approach to settle public spending issue which has been at the core of all contacts conducted yesterday. A solution to this issue is expected to be reached next Wednesday.       

The sources said that the 8.9 trillion LBP project has been withdrawn from the agenda, adding that a solution is under process since the president, the prime minister, the Amal Movement, Hezbollah and the Change and Reform bloc are bound to find a solution to this issue by Wednesday.          

• Houry:Nasrallah admitted that May 7 events aimed at sowing strife     

MP Ammar Houry told al-Mustaqbal daily on Sunday that Hezbollah Secretary General Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah admitted that the events of the 7th of May were aimed at sowing strife. He said that this acknowledgement is somehow a partial apology and a good sign.          

Houry stressed that a new chapter must be opened through a public and direct apology. Otherwise, wounds will not be healed and the status quo will remain unchanged.        

“He [Nasrallah] changed his logic due to his political losses and his concern over the region’s situation”, he said.