Press Digest for Thursday November 29, 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.      

• 376 new counterfeit medications seized        

Exclusive sources told Al Mustaqbal Daily on Thursday that the counterfeit medications scandal went out of proportion with the discovery of 376 new medications. It turned out the companies accused of having produced “counterfeit drugs” had forged the signature of the “Beirut Arab University.”          

The Daily said that the total number of counterfeit drugs amounted to around 471 cases.         

Al Mustaqbal reported that the Beirut Arab University has submitted this file and added it to the lawsuit it filed Tuesday against the companies that forged the first batch of medications after authorities discovered over 376 new counterfeit drugs.      

• Future-Hezbollah security channel is back      

Al Akhbar Daily reported that a meeting was held at the office of the ISF Director General Ashraf Rifi including the head of the ISF’s operation room Colonel Hussam al-Tannoukhi, the head of the Information Division Colonel Imad Othman and the head of Hezbollah’s Liaison and Coordination unit Wafiq Safa.       

According to the Daily, the 4-hour meeting  aimed at recovering the security channel which sought mainly to keep the Future Movement and Hezbollah in contact and which included Rifi, al-Tannoukhi, Safa and late Major General Wissam Hassan.          

• Loud debate over the removal of the timid sit-in outside Serail      

Al-Akhbar Daily reported on Thursday that a raging debate is ongoing between the March 14 General Secretariat members over the steps that should have been adopted to topple the current government. The newspaper added that discussions are underway to find the appropriate solution to remove the tents erected outside the Grand Serail. “This timid protest has become the mockery of pedestrians,” the Daily said.    

• Aounists are disappointed with Sami Gemayel     

Al-Akhbar Daily reported on Thursday that Aounists who believe in the necessity of forming an alliance with the Kataeb party have let go of the idea during the Free Patriotic Movement’s internal discussions after their disappointment with MP Sami Gemayel’s "false promises" reached its peak.            

• Vatican pleased with the attendance of a Hezbollah delegation    

Sources from Bkerke told Al-Akhbar Daily on Thursday that the President of the Pontifical Council for Inter-religious Dialogue, Jean-Louis Tauran voiced the Vatican’s pleasure to see a Hezbollah delegation attend the ceremony during which Maronite Patriarch Beshara Rai was appointed Cardinal. “The stance of the Vatican on Lebanon and Syria is clear,” they said.      

The sources said that every party wanted to be represented at the Vatican the way it sees fit. In addition to the official Lebanese delegation and Hezbollah’s delegation, other parties, such as the Free Patriotic Movement, participated massively. Others, such as the Lebanese Forces only sent one representative.