Former Nissan Motor Co. Chairman Carlos Ghosn made a new public appearance in Lebanon Tuesday during which he launched an initiative with a local university to help the country that is undergoing a severe economic and financial crisis.

It is Ghosn's second appearance in public since he was smuggled from Japan in late December to his ancestral Lebanon. In early January, Ghosn gave a news conference in Beirut saying he fled because he could not expect a fair trial, was subjected to unfair conditions in detention and was barred from meeting his wife under his bail conditions.

Cypriot authorities pushed back 200 migrants and refugees arriving from Lebanon aboard boats earlier this month, ignoring their claims for asylum while in some instances using violence and coercive tactics, a human rights watchdog said on Tuesday.

Human Rights Watch accused Cypriot marine police officers of beating some migrants and making threats. The group said coast guard vessels attempted to swamp migrant boats by circling them at high speed and abandoned at least one boat at sea without food or fuel.

Member of the Foreign Affairs Committee, US Senator Jeanne Shaheen reportedly presented a request to the US Senate calling on the US administration to grant Lebanon an exemption from the Caesar Act’s repercussions, Lebanese-American lawyer Cyline Atallah said in a statement on Tuesday.

The past year has been nothing short of an earthquake for Lebanon, hit by an economic meltdown, mass protests, financial collapse, a virus outbreak and a cataclysmic explosion that virtually wiped out the country's main port.

Yet Lebanese fear even darker days are ahead.

Two controversial draft laws, a general amnesty law and lifting bank secrecy, top an agenda to be discussed by lawmakers during a two-day legislative session at the UNESCO Palace, media reports said Tuesday.

Speaker Nabih Berri called lawmakers for the meeting to study and ratify around 40 draft laws and proposals on the agenda, most notably the general amnesty law.

A Nissan employee testified Tuesday that he worked with another former Nissan executive, American Greg Kelly to find ways to pay the automaker's former chairman, Carlos Ghosn without fully disclosing his compensation.

Toshiaki Ohnuma, a star witnesses for the prosecution, described to the Tokyo District Court his job in human resources at Nissan Motor Co., where he said he handled executive compensation matters, including working with Kelly on finding ways to pay Ghosn without disclosing it.

Lebanon’s permanent mission to the U.N. in Geneva on Monday responded to remarks voiced by Israel’s envoy at a session for the U.N. Human Rights Council.

Hizbullah's al-Manar TV blasted French President Emmanuel Macron in its main news editorial Monday night, telling him that Hizbullah "is and will remain an army facing Israel and will keep supporting Syria and its people against extremists."

It added that Hizbullah and its allies are not to blame for PM-designate Mustafa Adib's failure in forming a Cabinet, saying that Macron's threats of possible sanctions in the future against politicians are "unjustified and unacceptable."

Lebanon “regrets the eruption of hostilities in the region of Nagorny Karabakh and calls for resolving this issue through diplomatic means,” the Foreign Ministry said on Monday.

The lawyers Bassem Hamad and Nadim Qawbar on Monday filed a complaint with the public prosecution against ex-education minister Elias Bou Saab, the former education ministers, ex-head of the Center for Educational Research and Development Nada Oueijan and Lebanese University chief Fouad Ayoub.