“For the future of Lebanon and its children, it is critical that the Lebanese Government and all stakeholders work together to rebuild the education system,” U.N. Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator for Lebanon Najat Rochdi has said.

“With the vital support of international partners, U.N. agencies in Lebanon have been providing significant support to the entire Education sector. We are aware of the difficult situation that teachers are facing and are supporting the Ministry of Education and Higher Education to improve the conditions in schools for both teachers and children,” Rochdi said in a statement.

Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison on Sunday rejected claims he launched his political career by vilifying a rival over his Lebanese heritage and stoking rumors he was Muslim.

Two members of Morrison's party signed legal declarations stating he told them back in 2007 that his competitor in a local election, Michael Towke, was too risky for the Liberals to back as their candidate.

Iraq, once synonymous with conflict and chaos, is becoming a land of opportunity for Lebanese job-seekers fleeing a deep economic crisis back home.

Akram Johari is one of thousands who fled Lebanon's tumbling currency and skyrocketing poverty rates.

Grand Mufti Sheikh Abdul Latif Daryan, the country’s top Sunni Muslim religious authority, has called on the Lebanese to turn out heavily in the May 15 parliamentary elections, despite a declared boycott by al-Mustaqbal Movement, Lebanon’s biggest Sunni political party.

“There is a remaining peaceful path and the Lebanese must take it without hesitation. All Lebanese must head to polling stations,” Daryan said in his annual Ramadan message.

Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri on Friday told his popular base and that of Hizbullah that “Lebanon’s future, fate, identity, principles and means to exit the crisis are linked to the outcome” of the May 15 parliamentary elections.

Claiming that electoral rivals have so far spent 30 million dollars in the second electoral district in the South, Berri called on supporters in a speech in Msayleh to turn out heavily in the elections.

U.N. Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator for Lebanon Najat Rochdi welcomed on Friday "the important step by the Lebanese Parliament towards the ratification of the U.N. Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) by adopting a law, on 29 March, authorizing the Government to proceed with the ratification process."

"Lebanon showed its commitment to the human rights of persons with disabilities by signing the Convention in 2007. Lebanon now needs to take the next step of ratification to join the current 185 States parties to the Convention and fully commit to promote, protect, and ensure the full and equal enjoyment of all human rights by persons with disabilities," Rochdi said.

Hizbullah “cannot fight the corrupts in our country” with weapons, “but it can besiege, rein in and punish them,” the head of the party’s parliamentary bloc, Mohammed Raad, said on Friday.

“We’re the guarantee for protecting this country and its security and stability, and our concern has been and will always to protect Lebanon against what harms our people,” Raad said in remarks in the southern town of Arnoun.

Hizbullah's MP Hassan Ezzeddine said Friday that the capital control law should have been issued at the start of the financial crisis and not after three years from its onset.

Ezzeddine claimed that Hizbullah is concerned about protecting the depositors' rights, just the way it is concerned about protecting the Lebanese from the Israeli enemy.

Prime Minister Najib Miqati met in the past days with a number of potential candidates for replacing embattled Central Bank Governor Riad Salameh, who is facing a host of lawsuits inside and outside Lebanon, a media report said on Friday.

The latest European measures against Salameh and some associates are what pushed Miqati to consider Salameh’s replacement, especially after Monaco “requested judicial cooperation from the Lebanese Justice Ministry in filed related to Miqati and members of his family” and after “the French threatened sanctions should the obstruction of investigation continue,” informed sources told al-Akhbar newspaper in remarks published Friday.

A group of protesters stormed on Friday the Ministry of Energy and Water in Corniche el-Nahr.

An activist was meanwhile seen on TV smashing then tearing up a picture of President Michel Aoun that was hung on a wall in the ministry.