Following are summaries of some of the main stories in a selection of Lebanese newspapers Thursday. The Daily Star cannot vouch for the accuracy of these reports.

An-Nahar
PSP-Aouni tension electrifies Cabinet
Ban: Hezbollah arms key to Lebanese conflict

Cabinet saw a heated debate Wednesday over the disputed transfer of funds from the telecommunications to the Finance Ministry: Representatives of the Free Patriotic Movement and the Progressive Socialist Party clashing verbally over the issue.
Telecommunications Minister Charbel Nahhas, a representative of the FPM, has so far refused to transfer revenues from his ministry to the Finance Ministry.

Nahhas’ refusal came under fire from Public Works and Transportation Minister Ghazi Aridi. This in turn prompted Energy Minister Jibran Bassil, a colleague of Nahhas in the FPM, to take up his defense.
As the government “celebrated” 100 days since its launch Wednesday, the impression was that calm would prevail over the Cabinet meeting. However, the heated debate showed the increasingly tense relations between teams is in the government. Tension has mounted between the two teams since the crisis over the electricity plan last month.

Al-Akhbar
Cabinet sticks to pay raise decision as is

Cabinet’s Wednesday meeting dragged for more than six hours as a result of a heated debate among ministers, some using the power of words, others threatening to withdraw from the session. Despite the heated debate, the session was “democratic par excellence.”

The agenda had at least 90 items. But ministers took interest in only four issues and at the forefront was the issue dealing with the controversial wage increases. But all attempts to review the discrepancies in the pay raise failed.
All these efforts, according to ministerial sources, were blocked by a “tripartite alliance” represented by Prime Minister Najib Mikati and his ministers as well as Amal Movement and PSP ministers, who refused to open up the subject again.

Ad-Diyar
Major dispute between Aridi, Bassil over [Beirut] airport
Mikati visitors: Hezbollah did not veto STL funding

The issue of funding for the Special Tribunal for Lebanon remains a major issue of concern for the various political forces within the government and outside the government.
The latest in this regard came from Mikati, who was quoted by visitors as saying that Hezbollah did not demand – neither directly nor indirectly – to stop diverting funds to the STL.

“The issue is being carefully studied,” one visitor quoted Mikati as saying.
Separately, the Cabinet meeting Wednesday saw a heated debate between Transportation Minister Ghazi Aridi and Energy Minister Jibran Bassil when Aridi raised the issue of renewing licenses for the duty free shopping areas at Beirut airport.

Al-Mustaqbal
North [Lebanon] warns against Hezbollah plot in Tripoli

Future Movement MP Khaled Daher has uncovered a Hezbollah plot against Tripoli.
“There is a plot in the works by Hezbollah and the Syrian regime that backs it to take control over the entire Lebanese regions,” Daher said.
“For this purpose, Hezbollah has trained about 400 men to launch a military attack on Tripoli,” he added.

Daher said Hezbollah’s actions have prompted Tripoli’s parliamentary and popular figures, and even supporters of Prime Minister Najib Mikati and Finance Minister Mohammad Safadi, to go on alert “after they became annoyed by the party’s military practices, which are designed to destabilize Tripoli's security."
He said "all those facts led us to raise our voices” and urge the intervention of President Michel Sleiman, Mikati, Defense Minister Fayez Ghosn and Interior Minister Marwan Charbel.

“We particularly call on Mikati, who hails from Tripoli, to put illegal weapons, which can be found throughout the city, under state control,” Daher pleaded.
He accused Hezbollah of smuggling “large quantities of new Iranian weapons wrapped in nylon” into Syria and selling them on the black market.