Lebanon mourns Tunisian President Beji Caid Essebsi who passed away Thursday with flags ordered to fly at half-staff on the Presidential Palace in Baabda and the Grand Serail.

Prime Minister Saad Hariri on Thursday held talks with President Michel Aoun in Baabda, amid continuous efforts to resume cabinet sessions and resolve the crisis over the deadly Qabrshmoun incident.

The National News Agency said talks tackled “the general situations in the country, the outcome of the ongoing consultations and contacts over the repercussions of the Qabrshmoun incident, and the approval of the state budget in parliament.”

A Lebanese indie band is to play at a music festival in Byblos next month, but only after apologizing for two songs deemed offensive to Christians, organizers said.

MP Ibrahim Kanaan on Thursday said in a tweet that nations can be lost when parties in a nation fight over power and dominance.

Palestinians refugees in the southern camp of Ain el-Hilweh are on an ongoing strike in protest against Lebanon's labour ministry cracking down on businesses employing foreign workers without a permit, media reports said on Thursday.

Prime Minister Saad Hariri met Wednesday evening at the Grand Serail with EU Ambassador to Lebanon Christina Lassen, for a farewell visit, Hariri’s media office said.

Finance Minister Ali Hassan Khalil appeased concerns on Thursday and said that “Lebanon is not Greece” and is not in a state of bankruptcy as some rumors claim, assuring that it is capable of overcoming the crisis, al-Joumhouria daily reported.

Progressive Socialist Party leader Walid Jumblat on Wednesday called for adjoining the cases of the Choueifat and Qabrshmoun incidents and referring them together to the Judicial Council.

Calling for “respecting people and their intelligence,” Jumblat said the Qabrshmoun incident “resulted from the previous chaos that marred some armed demonstrations all the way to the Choueifat crime, whose perpetrator has fled to Syria.”

President Michel Aoun on Wednesday pledged that he will leave “a much better country” to his successor at the environmental, economic and social levels.

“We will overcome the current crisis and the situation will improve gradually,” Aoun told a delegation of students from 30 Lebanese universities.

Mount Lebanon Prosecutor Ghada Aoun on Wednesday ordered the release of the members of Lebanese rock band Mashrou’s Leila after they were interrogated by the State Security agency.

“The band’s members removed Facebook posts that insult Christian sanctities at the behest of the Directorate General of State Security,” the National News Agency said.