The price index committee meeting failed on Thursday to reach an agreement over the wage hike.

Labor Minister Charbel Nahhas announced that he will propose his plan in cabinet “because the government is responsible for implementing the law. Anything other than that does not concern us.”

European Union ambassadors to Lebanon praised on Thursday the government’s choice of stability, independence, and sovereignty, encouraging the country’s leaders to maintain this path.

Ambassador Angelina Eichhorst said: “We express our trust that Lebanon will continue to honor its international obligations in 2012 as derived from U.N. Security Council resolutions, including with respect to the U.N. Interim Forces in Lebanon and continued cooperation with the Special Tribunal for Lebanon.”

Libya is probing the mysterious disappearance of revered Lebanese Shiite Imam Moussa al-Sadr who went missing in Tripoli 33 years ago, Foreign Minister Adnan Mansour told reporters on Thursday.

"The investigation is on... there is a commission of inquiry chaired by the Libyan attorney general" which is probing the case, Mansour said after meeting Mustafa Abdel Jalil, the head of Libya's ruling National Transitional Council (NTC).

Customs officers thwarted on Thursday a drugs smuggling attempt from Brazil at the Rafik Hariri International Airport, reported the National News Agency.

The officers found the 2.130 kg of pure cocaine hidden in a double-bottomed suitcase.

Prime Minister Najib Miqati hailed on Thursday the Internal Security Forces on their efforts to preserve the national security.

“The security forces and army played a major role in maintaining stability amid the storms in the region,” Miqati said at a meeting at the Grand Serail with heads of security agencies.

U.N. chief Ban Ki-moon's fourth visit to Lebanon, which starts on Friday, is expected to focus on the controversial Special Tribunal for Lebanon (STL) and the deadly crisis in n Syria.

A government source told Agence France Presse that Ban was expected to address Lebanon's duties to the STL that has charged four Hizbullah operatives in the 2005 assassination of ex-Premier Rafik Hariri.

Three students and a teacher were injured on Thursday when a school bus overturned on the main road of Shahour-Tayr Felsay in the district of Tyre.

The National News Agency said the injured were taken to Jabal Amel hospital in the southern city of Tyre for treatment.

An explosion ripped through a liquor store in Sarafand in the South overnight, causing $30,000-worth of damages, the shop’s owner said Thursday.

Ahmed Ali Hamdan told Voice of Lebanon radio station (93.3) that the bomb that targeted his shop around 2:30 am weighed 400-500 grams of TNT.

A meeting was held between Hizbullah and Progressive Socialist Party officials on Wednesday to set the stage for improved ties between the Shiite party leader, Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, and PSP chief Walid Jumblat, An Nahar daily reported.

Minister Wael Abou Faour, who is a PSP official, told As Safir newspaper on Thursday that the meeting came as part of dialogue between the two sides and keenness to improve bilateral relations.

Libya is ready to work with Lebanon to probe the mysterious disappearance of Shiite Imam Moussa al-Sadr who went missing upon arrival in Tripoli in 1978, an official said Wednesday.

The ruling National Transitional Council was "ready to form a joint commission with the Lebanese to investigate" what happened to Sadr, said Fathi Baja, head of political affairs at the NTC.