Phalange party leader Amin Gemayel said Lebanon’s Christians have concerns over their existence in the region following a sharp drop in their numbers in Iraq and Syria and attacks on Copts in Egypt.

In an interview published in An Nahar daily on Sunday, Gemayel said that Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi’s concerns over the Christians in the East are not new.

Prime Minister Najib Miqati has been involved in intense discussions with his team to prepare a draft-law that will seek to legalize the 2006-2010 extra-budgetary spending that has stirred controversy and retorts between the March 8 and 14 forces.

The cabinet tasked Miqati with referring the draft-law to the government during its next session at Baabda palace next Wednesday although it wasn’t mentioned in the agenda which was distributed to ministers on Saturday.

Security forces have raided a house near the coastal town of Jbeil in the search for the killer of two men whose bodies were found in a rented vehicle on the Tabarja highway, Voice of Lebanon radio (93.3) reported Sunday.

The station said that the policemen raided the home of a man which it identified with his initials as J.K. VDL said however that the suspect hasn’t been found yet.

Interior Minister Marwan Charbel and the Phalange and National Liberal parties exchanged accusations on Sunday on the side that triggered a clash between student demonstrators and the security forces during a protest against a new history curriculum.

Charbel, who is currently in Tunisia at the head of a delegation representing Lebanon at the meeting of Arab interior ministers, told An Nahar daily that the clash broke out on Saturday when some demonstrators sought to allow a vehicle with a loudspeaker to go beyond the area specified for the protest.

The Lebanese judicial authorities released 9 armed Syrians, who had fled into the eastern Bekaa area, Agence France Presse reported on Saturday.

“The Military court ordered the release of 9 detained armed Syrian men this week after they entered Lebanon illegally,” a ministerial source told AFP.

An 18-year old teenager who claimed that he was abducted in the Baalbek village of Brital confessed that he planned his kidnapping with two other accomplices in order to split the ransom, the National News Agency reported.

The two partners demanded the teenager’s parents to pay a $100,000 ransom to win his release.

The Ministry of Energy revealed on Saturday the launching of the 700 megawatts project tenders for producing more electricity in May, the National News Agency reported.

The project aims at producing additional electricity in Zouk, Jiyeh and Deir Ammar power plants, after the World Bank approved the project that meets “the international standards and requirements.”

Hizbullah deputy Chief Sheikh Naim Qassem stressed on Saturday that the cabinet will not collapse despite everything, the National News Agency reported.

“March 14 is struggling with its political options and their approach to developments in Lebanon and Syria,” Qassem said.

President Michel Suleiman slammed on Saturday the rise in the discovery of spoiled food products in Lebanon, deeming such cases as “unacceptable.”

He said: “No political cover will be provided to anyone who harms the citizens’ health.”

Five people were wounded on Saturday when clashes broke out between security forces and students from the Phalange Party and National Liberal Party, reported Voice of Lebanon radio.

The students were protesting the new official history book that is being prepared to be taught at schools throughout Lebanon.