State Minster for Combating Corruption Nicolas Tueni, stressed on Tuesday that funding the wage scale can easily be done by preventing corruption and ending squandering of public funds.

“Ending the squander (of public funds), corruption and administrative malpractices can easily provide the needed funds for the wage scale,” said Tueni in an interview to VDL (93.3).

The United Arab Emirates' Foreign Ministry has reportedly summoned Lebanon's Ambassador to Abu Dhabi to protest statements made by President Michel Aoun about the need for Hizbullah's arms to back the Lebanese army, al-Akhbar daily reported on Tuesday.

UAE's foreign ministry “expressed utmost protest against the statement which Aoun has made during a visit to Egypt on February 13. He emphasized that Hizbullah's arms do not contradict with the State and are an essential component of the means to defend Lebanon,” added the daily.

France stressed on Monday that it will continue to back the Lebanese army and provide it with the needed military training, the state-run National News Agency reported.

The Public Schools Teachers Association staged a sit-in in Riad al-Solh in Downtown Beirut on Monday in parallel with a parliamentary joint committee meeting in Nejmeh Square dedicated to studying the thorny wage scale file.

The protesters want to press the government into approving the long-stalled scale.

Hundreds of Fatah Movement fighters are receiving military teachings and combat lessons in the Palestinian refugee camp of al-Rashidieh in the southern town of Tyre, An Nahar daily reported on Monday.

“The activity which has been going on for a year now, is carried out with the cognition of the Lebanese Security Forces. The matter was thoroughly discussed during the recent visit of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas to Beirut in February, through Palestinian Authority security chief Majid Faraj who spoke at length in that regard with General Security chief Maj. Gen. Abbas Ibrahim and senior army intelligence officers,” added the daily.

Saudi King Salman bin Abdul Aziz has canceled a scheduled trip to Lebanon this month amid reports claiming that statements made by President Michel Aoun about Hizbullah's arms were to blame, media reports said on Monday.

The King had plans to visit Lebanon in March to "interpret the Saudi leadership's desire in helping the Lebanese state and encourage it to fulfill its Arab and international obligations, and the settlement that ended the presidential vacuum,” said An Nahar daily.

Unknown assailants opened gunfire at a residential house in the Akkar town of Bebnine without causing any casualties, the state-run National News Agency reported on Saturday.

The gunmen opened fire at Abdul Karim al-Kassar's residence and managed to flee to an unknown destination, NNA added.

As efforts stall to find a new law that will govern Lebanon's upcoming parliamentary elections, Speaker Nabih Berri said the cabinet could approve the draft electoral law with two-thirds majority to be referred and approved in the parliament, al-Joumhouria daily reported on Saturday.

Taymour Jumblat, the son of influential Druze leader and Progressive Socialist Party leader MP Walid Jumblat said he will run for Lebanon's upcoming parliamentary elections to prove “that the Druze community will stay and no electoral law is able to marginalize it,” the pan-Arab Asharq al-Awsat reported Saturday.

Taymour said he will lead a list of political mavens and old friends of his father in addition to candidates new on the political arena, added the daily.

Ambassadors of six countries, the United States and the European Union sounded the alarm over President Michel Aoun's latest statements about Hizbullah's arms, amid threats that the UNIFIL could withdraw its peacekeeping mission from south Lebanon, MTV reported on Friday.

A covert meeting was held on February 15 at the United Nations headquarters in Yarze. It included ambassadors of the International Support Group for Lebanon, the US, France, Britain, Germany, Italy and China in addition to the EU ambassador and Representative of the United Nations Secretary-General in Lebanon and Arab League Representative, MTV said.