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.
The cabinet
is expected to hold a regular session today to discuss the ranks and salaries pay scale.
In this
regard, ministerial sources told
Al-Joumhouria Daily on Wednesday that solving
the ranks and salaries issue today is unguaranteed due to the different
positions that range from sources of funding to the distribution of
approvals between one source and the other.
For his
part, the head of the Teachers Syndicate Nehmeh Mahfoud told
An-Nahar that he feels the
system will not be approved today according to the agreement reached. On his meeting
with PM Najib Mikati on Tuesday, Mahfoud said “Mikati’s statements were not reassuring;
he said many fear the approval of the system since it would have economic
repercussions on the Lebanese”.
Public sector employees have been
calling for the cabinet’s approval of a draft law on an improved ranks and
salaries system.
Earlier in July, public
school teachers announced that they suspended grading official exams in protest
of the cabinet’s failure to approve a ranks and salaries system draft law. However,
the grading was resumed in August.
An-Nahar’s correspondent in Paris announced
on Wednesday that the meeting between former PM Saad Hariri and MP Walid
Jumblatt in Paris on Tuesday was “amicable and intimate”.
“It was like a get together between two old friends”, sources close to both Hariri and Jumblatt’s said.
The sources considered that the most
important thing was the fact that the relationship between the two men went
back to the way it was before the formation of the current government and
before Jumblatt left March 14. They said that they both had the same opinion on
the Syrian crisis, and voiced their support to the Syrian revolution and the “righteous”
demands of the people.
“They both stressed the importance of civil
peace and stability to protect Lebanon from the repercussions of this crisis”,
the sources added.
On the electoral law, Hariri and Jumblatt reportedly
agreed that they will not accept the draft law referred by the cabinet to the
Parliament.
However, the two state men had a different opinion
regarding the current government’s fate; while Jumblatt considered that it must
stay “for its resignation would cause a void, affecting the country’s security and
stability”, Hariri said that it must be toppled and replaced by an impartial
government “required to oversee the upcoming elections”.
A diplomatic source told
An-Nahar Daily on Wednesday that
following his meeting with French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius, President
Michel Sleiman confirmed Lebanon’s refusal to receive Palestinians fleeing
violence in Syria “since it would threaten Lebanon’s security and integrity”.
The head of the group that hacked the e-mail account
of Syrian President Bashar Assad, Abdullah Hajem al-Chamri told
Al-Hayat Daily
on Wednesday that he has around 7500 e-mail messages for Assad including loads of
secrets and scandals as well as interesting e-mails for the ruling elite.
Al Chamri explained that he wrote articles on the
situation in Syria, sent them by e-mail to his contacts and documented them in
a blog. He added that he also sent them to the office of the Minister of Presidential
Affairs and several Syrian officials.
Al Chamri said that after sending these
e-mails, he received a phone call from a presidential office employee who reportedly
told him: “We used to hate you and then discovered that your statements were
true; however, they are cruel and I can’t convey them to the president. I will
give you the president’s private and confidential e-mail so you can send him
your articles your way”.
Al Chamri revealed that he obtained the president’s
e-mail on March 28, 2010 and sent him articles signed by him. He said that in
his articles, he warned him and called on him to carry out reforms before it is
too late.
“After protests swept through Damascus Reef,
I told my friends that we should think of a way to support them. We decided
to hack Assad’s e-mail by finding his password. On March 18, 2011, we brought
special programs to decrypt the password but we failed”, he said.
On April 16, 2011 Al Chamri said that he and
his friend uncovered the password “in a stupid way”. “It was 1234", he said.