The Cabinet convened anew Friday to continue discussions over the 2019 draft state budget.

Defending free media around the world "has never been more pressing," the British embassy in Beirut said on Friday, adding that in April 2019 UK Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt and Canadian FM Chrystia Freeland launched a campaign to defend free media around the world.

Foreign Minister Jebran Bassil on Friday sent a letter to his Iranian counterpart Mohammad Javad Zarif asking that Tehran free Lebanese national Nizar Zakka from its prisons.

President Michel Aoun on Friday warned a visiting European minister that Lebanon might soon become "obliged" to coordinate with Damascus on the thorny issue of refugee repatriation.

Egyptian Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly held talks Friday with President Michel Aoun at the Baabda Palace.

Progressive Socialist Party leader ex-MP Walid Jumblat said Thursday that Hizbullah "will realize one day that only the state can protect them."

Hizbullah chief Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah on Thursday hit out at Druze leader Walid Jumblat without naming him, saying his remarks on the identity of the Israeli-occupied Shebaa Farms are "worthless."

The Cabinet on Thursday agreed to revoke customs and registration exemptions for cars owned by MPs and ministers and to slap fees on special number plates as part of austerity measures related to the 2019 state budget.

MPs from the Development and Liberation bloc of Speaker Nabih Berri and the al-Mustaqbal bloc of PM Saad Hariri held talks Thursday at the Center House.

Research teams from the Lebanese Army, Civil Defense and the Environment Ministry collected samples on Thursday from the oil leak spotted a day earlier offshore the Jiyeh coastal area, LBCI TV station.