Interior Minister Marwan Charbel and Public Works and Transportation Minister Ghazi Aridi denied that the Lebanese authorities were informed that Syrian men aged between 18- 42 were banned from entering Lebanon.

The two ministers said in comments published in the pan-Arab daily Asharq al-Awsat on Tuesday that these measures aren’t accurate.

Minister of Transportation and Public Works Ghazi al-Aridi stated that a law on government spending should not speak of the mechanism and auditing of spending, reported the daily An Nahar on Sunday.

He explained: “A draft law on the matter should set the limit of government spending.”

Minister of Transportation and Public Works Ghazi al-Aridi stressed on Thursday the importance of “flexibility” in resolving the telecom data dispute as the security agencies had made achievements in the past by obtaining this data.

“President Michel Suleiman tackled the issue during his speech (at the cabinet session on Wednesday at the Baabda Palace), and the obstacles blocking the army from obtaining the (telecom) data,” Aridi told An Nahar newspaper.

Minister of Transportation and Public Works, Ghazi al-Aridi, of the National Struggle Front stated that the bloc is counting on various political contacts in order to resolve the dispute over government spending ahead of Monday’s parliament session, reported the daily An Nahar on Sunday.

He told the daily however: “We will not attend the session if a settlement is not reached.”

Speaker Nabih Berri has snapped back at the March 14 coalition that urged him to find a comprehensive solution to the controversial extra-budgetary spending, saying the opposition should instead approve his proposal to form a joint ministerial-parliamentary committee to resolve the dispute with the March 8 forces.

In remarks published in several newspapers on Saturday, Berri said: “I improved the conditions of the success of my proposal so that it gets implemented.”

Prime Minister Najib Miqati urged Lebanese officials on Thursday to respect constitutional institutions and give up their “challenging slogans” to ensure stability in the country.

At the inauguration of a phase of the expansion and rehabilitation program at Beirut Port, Miqati said: “National unity is the guarantee to having a stable Lebanon capable of confronting challenges.”

The head of the Council of Development and Reconstruction, Nabil al-Jisr, said Thursday that the Council will start dismantling the Jal el-Dib metal bridge that links Beirut with the North within five days.

In remarks to Voice of Lebanon radio station (93.3), al-Jisr said: “We are setting the stage for removing the bridge but only after guaranteeing” a route for drivers that cross under the bridge to head towards Beirut.

The government could order on Wednesday the immediate removal of the Jal el-Dib bridge that links Beirut to the north over worries that it could collapse, a day after Interior Minister Marwan Charbel called for taking the necessary precautions around the bridge.

An Nahar daily said that the cabinet decision could come during a session that is scheduled to be held at the Grand Serail. But ministerial sources told the newspaper that a decision to remove the bridge had been taken several weeks ago.

The decision has been taken to remove the Jal el-Dib bridge “as soon as possible” in order to avoid a possible “disaster,” Interior Minister Marwan Charbel said Tuesday, after the collapse of a building in Ashrafiyeh that left 27 people dead stirred fears of the possibility of similar disasters.

Numerous complaints have been made about the weary metal bridge on the Jal el-Dib highway, north of Beirut. But Charbel reassured that “there is no need to panic,” saying the relevant authorities had taken the “necessary precautions.”

The pilot of an Ethiopian plane that crashed into the sea minutes after taking off from Beirut in stormy weather two years ago made 15 mistakes in three minutes, An Nahar daily reported Saturday.

The newspaper quoted the official investigation report into the accident as saying that the pilot “moved from one mistake to another until the plane’s equipment were incapable of responding to his instructions.”