A Lebanese man arrested two months ago in Thailand on Wednesday pleaded not guilty to charges of breaking weapons control laws, his lawyer said.

Atris Hussein was arrested in Bangkok in January and police later found a large amount of chemicals that can be used to make a bomb at an address he rented.

The cabinet is expected on Wednesday to tackle the appointment of the six members of the authority tasked with administrating the oil sector, An Nahar newspaper reported.

“It is unacceptable to waste our oil and gas natural resources while Israel is exerting efforts to benefit from it… If the cabinet remained at a standstill I will then take the necessary measure,” Speaker Nabih Berri told the daily.

Prime Minister Najib Miqati lashed out at Energy Minister Jebran Bassil concerning the leasing of the power-generating vessels, wondering how Bassil didn’t “understand what the premier wants.”

“They usually read behind the lines. How didn’t they understand something that is really clear,” Miqati told An Nahar newspaper on Wednesday about the Free Patriotic Movement or the Change and Reform bloc of MP Michel Aoun.

U.S. Treasury Undersecretary for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence David Cohen said he warned Lebanese officials against allowing Syria or Iran to use their country to evade international sanctions.

In remarks published in An Nahar daily on Wednesday, Cohen said the essential message that he delivered to the officials is that they should take the utmost precaution and be sure that Lebanon would not slide towards permitting Syria or Iran to use it in an attempt to evade the sanctions.

Lebanon has a moral obligation to support the fall of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and should use upcoming elections to "reject the apologists of Assad's butchery," Assistant U.S. Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs Jeffrey Feltman has said.

In strongly worded remarks, Feltman paid tribute to the Lebanese who took to the streets after ex-prime minister Rafik Hariri's assassination in 2005.

The Mustaqbal parliamentary bloc condemned on Tuesday Hizbullah’s tense political rhetoric at a time when various parties are presenting “constructive” political documents on the region’s future.

It said in a statement after its weekly meeting: “We question this escalatory rhetoric at a time when the Lebanese people have unanimously agreed on the need to bolster efforts that can lead to stability in Lebanon.”

Free Patriotic Movement leader MP Michel Aoun noted on Tuesday that whoever is not linked to the recently-discovered “takfiri” network would not criticized the army.

He therefore said after the Change and Reform bloc’s weekly meeting: “Those criticizing the army are linked to the network.”

U.S. Treasury Undersecretary for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence David Cohen held talks on Tuesday with Prime Minister Najib Miqati, Central Bank Governor Riyad Salameh, and a number of representatives from the Lebanese banking sector, announced the U.S. Embassy in a statement.

“In his meetings, Cohen reiterated the U.S. view that it is important to ensure that the current instability in Syria does not undermine the Lebanese financial sector,” it said.

A vacant building abutting a structure that collapsed in the coastal town of Tabarja, north of Beirut almost two weeks ago tumbled down on Tuesday.

The National News Agency said the building that lies near the Tabarja Beach complex collapsed at 10:55 am, causing no casualties.

Russia said Tuesday it was willing to support either a U.N. Security Council statement or a resolution on peace envoy Kofi Annan's mission to Syria as long as it contained no ultimatums.

"We are ready to back the mission of U.N. and Arab League representative Kofi Annan and the proposals to the government and opposition to Syria," Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov told reporters after holding talks with his Lebanese counterpart Adnan Mansour.