which has been officially set for August 13 3- The fires in Lebanon which have reached the hills overlooking Beirut and which have consumed millions of square meters of forests

Speaker Nabih Berri declared Tuesday that the parliament session for debating the Ministerial Policy Statement will start this Friday at 6:00 PM . He expects the session to continue till Sunday and may extend till Monday .The session will be broadcast live on Lebanese TV stations

Yesterday also the Presidential palace officially confirmed that the president will visit Damascus on Wednesday August 13 for one day ( subject to extension if needed ) for a summit with his Syrian counterpart .

The fires raged in the forests of the villages of Basatine, Qabr Shmoun, Sarhamoul and Ainab, southeast of the capital. The hills overlook Beirut . The army helicopters aided by Cypriot helicopters tried to extinguish the fires

Wednesday

17:15 Civil Defense Director Darwish Hobeika said the forest fires are premeditated.

13:00 Berri tells reporters after meeting Suleiman that economic issues have the priority after the cabinet wins vote of confidence. Suleiman's visit to Syria is important for the 2 countries. I advised PM Fouad Siniora to visit Damascus last year and I won't repeat my advice. 40 MPs would make speeches at the confidence vote sessions

12:00 Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri meets President Michel Suleiman at Baabda Palace.

11:00 Cabinet Minister Elie Marouni will be receiving arriving tourists at Rafik Hariri International Airport in the afternoon.

10:45 U.S. Central Command leader Gen. David Petraeus arrived in Beirut.

09:01 Al Sharq al awsat : no leads yet on who is starting the fires. The security forces are continuing with the investigations

08:45 The fires are now limited to Aley , Qurtoba and Ehden Road forests

08:40 Abu Hamze told Voice of Lebanon : The Price per 20 liters of gasoline is being reduced by 800 Lebanese pounds ( 55 cents)

08:20 Akram Chehayeb told Voice of Lebanon: The ministerial policy statement establishes the state as the exclusive authority in the event of facing any aggression by the enemy . The normalization of the Lebanese Syrian relations is a long term process

07:17, Lebanese, Egyptian sources denied the existence of any preparations for an impending visit of Lebanese President Michel Suleiman in Cairo at the invitation of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak

07:00 Elias Atallah told "the Sada al Balad : Hezbollah began to show a shift in its performance since the occupation of downtown Beirut and the latter slogan "arms are protected by arms" signaled a qualitative leap to enter the domestic situation through the use of the force of arms . I do not rule out the return of rivalry between the various factions if there is no recognition that the State institutions responsible for national security

06:58 «Yediot Aharonot»: the mini-ministerial committee for security affairs will discuss the subject Hezbollah arms and the security leaders are expected to provide a picture that is not encouraging about the situation

06:50 spokesman for Ban Ki-moon, Farhan Haqq: "He refused to say categorically that UNIFIL will not hand over any Israeli pilot that fall into its hands to the Israeli army , but confirmed that the international forces in the south will continue to operate according to rules adopted in 2006

Tuesday
19:15pm Fires were extinguished in Alay and Qabr Shmoun region

16:01 two witnesses were questioned in the case of the assassination of former PM Rafik Hariri

15:57 PM Siniora and Minister Taborian discussed the Ministry of Energy situation

15:36 Media syndicate leader Karam condemned the attack on Nichan and requested the attorney of the syndicate to follow up the case

15:23 Speaker Berri called for a pariliament session Friday at 6:00 PM to debate the Ministerial Policy Statement for the purpose of granting the government the vote of confidence

15:01 Fires rage in Qurtoba and the army helicopters supported by the Cypriot Helicopters are trying to extinguish the fires and to prevet it from spreading to neighboring areas . The burnt area is over 2 million square meters

12:30 Geagea: Paragraph 24 of the ministerial policy statement does not authorize the resistance with the right to defend Lebanon but authorizes the state, its people , its army and its various political forces to defend the country

Tags: Government, Hezbollah, March 14 Alliance, Prisoners, source: Now Lebanon, source: Ya Libnan, Syria