Caretaker Interior Minister Ziad Baroud has said that the judiciary was now in charge of handling the case of three Syrians reportedly abducted in Lebanon.

“The case is currently under the jurisdiction of the prosecutor general, and the probe is led by the military judiciary,” Baroud said in a statement released on Wednesday.

U.S. officials have reportedly chided Central Bank governor Riyad Salameh for helping Syria escape U.S. sanctions five years ago by transferring billions of dollars to Lebanon.

Al-Akhbar daily said Thursday that the officials told Salameh during his visit to Washington last week that the Central Bank’s move led to a cover up to illegitimate operations carried out by several Lebanese banks, including alleged money laundering.

March 14 General-Secretariat Coordinator Fares Soaid said a political document that will be issued by the coalition on Thursday stresses the need to put Hizbullah’s arms under the control of legitimate state institutions.

In remarks to Voice of Lebanon radio station, Soaid said the document also says that Hizbullah cannot coexist with citizens who abide by rules and regulations.

Aline Skaff, the Lebanese wife of Hannibal Gadhafi, is still in Libya and hasn’t attempted to flee the strife-torn country, her brother Danny told An Nahar newspaper.

“Aline last visited Beirut on New Year,” Danny Skaff said. “She comes to Lebanon at least twice or three times a year and spends around two months” here.

The March 14 alliance’s campaign against Hizbullah’s arms is expected to push for the quick formation of the new government, An Nahar newspaper reported Thursday.

The daily quoted Speaker Nabih Berri’s advisor MP Ali Hassan Khalil as saying that “the appropriate answer to the slogans launched by the March 14 team is to speed up the government formation process.”

Free Patriotic Movement leader MP Michel Aoun stated on Wednesday that weapons possession outside the authority of the state is not “eternal.”

He made his statements after holding talks with outgoing Patriarch Nasrallah Sfeir two hours before the Synod of Maronite Bishops’ retreat to elect his successor.

Israeli Channel Ten television broadcast preliminary images of what it claimed was a base in Syria where Hizbullah stored its rockets.

The report said: “Hizbullah is arming itself at an unprecedented rate under the misleading cover of calm in the North.”

United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon spokesman Andrea Tenenti stated on Wednesday that the international force supports Lebanon and Israel’s discussion of issues of maritime security.

Commenting on the Lebanese army’s request from UNIFIL to demarcate the Lebanese-Syrian maritime border, he said: “The international force does not have the jurisdiction to demarcate this border.”

Speaker Nabih Berri criticized the March 14 forces on Wednesday for lamenting their loss of power in the government, saying their campaign against Hizbullah’s arms contradicted with national principles.

In his weekly meeting with lawmakers at the parliament building, Berri reportedly stressed the need to form the government as soon as possible in order to face future challenges and solve problems such as shortage of water and power rationing.

The March 14 Secretariat General called on Wednesday the supporters of the Cedar Revolution to once again head down to the Martyrs’ Square at 10:00 am on Sunday to reiterate their commitment to state’s right to be the only authority entitled to possess weapons in the country.

It said after its weekly meeting: “You are invited to make a new historic day so that it will pave the way for the future that you aspire to.”