The Mustaqbal bloc rejected on Tuesday parliament’s attempt to issue a law to increase the roof of government spending for Prime Minister Najib Miqati’s cabinet.

It said in a statement after its weekly meeting: “Should such a law be approved, then it should apply to all governments, past and present.”

The Progressive Socialist Party stressed on Tuesday that the party’s criticism of the Syrian regime is not linked to the internal Lebanese situation.

It said in a statement: “PSP leader MP Walid Jumblat emphasized during his recent meeting with Sheikh Ahmed al-Asir the need to prevent the unrest in Syria from spreading to Lebanon.”

Free Patriotic Movement leader MP Michel Aoun stated on Tuesday that no appointment has yet been reached over the appointments of top civil servants.

He said after the Change and Reform bloc’s weekly meeting: “An agreement over this issue has not been reached with President Michel Suleiman.”

The security forces succeeded on Tuesday in releasing the two Syrian teenagers who were kidnapped on Monday, reported the National News Agency.

They were released after the kidnappers received $1 million in ransom, reported Voice of Lebanon radio.

Grand Mufti Sheikh Mohammed Rashid Qabbani postponed on Tuesday the elections of the Higher Islamic Council for two months to allow for the necessary reform at Dar al-Fatwa.

Qabbani approved Prime Minister Najib Miqati’s initiative to postpone the elections that he had call for on April 22 for two months to carry out the reforms in principle and pave way for the election of a new Council this year, the National News Agency reported.

Phalange Party MP Sami Gemayel slammed on Tuesday the new official history book that is being prepared to be taught at schools throughout the country, saying that it lacks objectivity and it selectively recounts historic events.

He said during a press conference: “We warn that we will stage educational disobedience if the new book is approved by cabinet because we will not allow it to be used at schools.”

President Michel Suleiman said Tuesday that Lebanon will exert efforts to restore Syria’s membership in the Arab League whose decisions are respected by Beirut no matter what its stance is.

“No matter what Lebanon’s stance is at Arab League summits, it commits itself to its decisions,” Suleiman said at a joint press conference with his Romanian counterpart Traian Basescu in Bucharest.

Former Prime Minister Saad Hariri thanked U.N. chief Ban Ki-moon for extending the mandate of the Special Tribunal for Lebanon and the appointment of a new prosecutor.

Hariri telephoned Ban hailing his decisions, according to a statement issued by his press office.

Wounded British journalist Paul Conroy has been smuggled safely out of the besieged Syrian rebel city of Homs and crossed into Lebanon, officials said on Tuesday.

But there was uncertainty over the fate of French reporter Edith Bouvier, who was first reported to have also escaped before that was denied.

A 22-year-old Syrian was arrested for the murder of the owner of a money exchange shop in the southern port city of Sidon, the National News Agency reported Tuesday.

NNA said that the assailant, Nasser al-Fares, stabbed to death Mohammed al-Natout, 66, and fled after stealing $5,000 from him at dawn Tuesday.