There was panic in a town in the northern Akkar district on Thursday after the death of a boy suffering from breathing problems as ten similar cases were recorded, the state-run National News Agency reported.

NNA said Hassan M. died two days ago at a hospital in the region after he had difficulty breathing and a high fever.

Rain water flooded homes and property in Minieh region north Lebanon on Thursday as the stormy weather in Lebanon kept on the rise.

The heavy rains rendered the area of Minieh as water deluged houses, warehouses and besieged residents, causing damage to private property, and submerging vehicles.

Three family members were killed at dawn Thursday after their house in the Metn district was hit by a lightning, the state-run National News Agency reported.

Habib al-Sbealani, 77, his 72-year-old sister Youssfiyeh and his daughter Rosette, 40, died when the lightning bolt caused the explosion of a gas canister at their house in the area of Mar Chaaya, NNA said.

Head of the international tribunal's defense office Francois Roux expressed hope on Thursday that the Lebanese authorities and the new cabinet would fully cooperate with the Special Tribunal for Lebanon, in particular his team.

“We will see if cooperation with the new government will be fruitful... So far I'm hearing positive remarks,” Roux said in an interview with An Nahar newspaper.

Head of the private schools teachers association Nehme Mahfoud said on Thursday that the Syndicate Coordination Committee will stage a protest to defend Prime Minister Tammam Salam's cabinet.

“The SCC will carry out a demonstration to defend Salam's government and to prevent vacuum at the executive authority,” Mahfoud said in comments published in al-Joumhouria newspaper.

Electricity du Liban officials have warned that the government's failure to legitimize the release of funds by the finance ministry to buy fuel oil would have detrimental effects on electricity.

The officials, who were not named, told al-Liwaa newspaper in remarks published on Thursday that the issue should be resolved within a week because the fuel oil available for the state-run EDL would be depleted.

U.N. experts have said that arms trafficking out of Libya is fueling conflict, insecurity and terrorism on several continents as they investigate the alleged transfer of weapons to 14 countries, including Lebanon.

Since civil war ousted longtime dictator Moammar Gadhafi in 2011, the experts said "Libya has become a primary source of illicit weapons."

Police in Spain arrested a rich Lebanese man suspected of trying to buy the healthy liver of a poor immigrant to receive it as a transplant, officials said Wednesday.

They said it was the first such organ trafficking racket uncovered in Spain, which is a pioneer in advanced transplants and performs more such operations than any other country in the world.

Gunmen on Tuesday kidnapped a citizen in an attempt to force him to pay debts he owed, reported the National News Agency on Wednesday.

Mounir Ataya, 63, told police that Moussa F. and another companion kidnapped him and his sister at gunpoint in the Cola area in Beirut.

Security forces at Tripoli's prison confiscated on Tuesday a number of prohibited items in the jail, as well as thwarted an attempt to smuggle drugs into the facility, reported the National News Agency on Wednesday.

It said that they thwarted an attempt by a woman to smuggle 200 Benzhexol narcotic pills into the jail.