European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and President of Cyprus Nikos Christodoulides met Thursday with caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati at the Grand Serail.

Army chief Joseph Aoun and Foreign Minister Abdallah Bou Habib also attended the meeting.

For one day, workers ruled the world’s biggest streets.

Workers and activists around the world marked May Day with largely peaceful protests over rising prices, low wages and calls for greater labor rights. Pro- Palestinian sentiments were also on display.

Speaker Nabih Berri met Monday evening with Hezbollah secretary-general's political aide Hussein Khalil and handed him a copy of the French paper suggesting a solution for the Israel-Hezbollah border conflict, MTV said.

The number of Syrian refugees leaving Lebanon is likely to keep rising as donors cut back on aid, the head of the U.N.'s migration agency warned, as pressure builds over their arrival on the Mediterranean island of Cyprus.

Amy Pope, director general of the International Organization for Migration, said that around 3,000 Syrians have left Lebanon since January, compared to 4,500 for the whole of last year. Many of them have headed to Cyprus, about 180 kilometers away.

Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea has blasted Hezbollah anew for opening a front with Israel to back up its ally Hamas, saying it has harmed Lebanon without making a dent in Israel's crushing offensive in the Gaza Strip.

In an interview with The Associated Press on Tuesday night, Geagea said Hezbollah should withdraw from areas along the border with Israel and the Lebanese Army should deploy in all points where militants of the Iran-backed group have taken positions.

Eight people were killed Tuesday after gas cylinders leaked and triggered a fire at the Pizza Secrets restaurant in Beirut's Beshara al-Khoury area.

The Beirut Fire Brigade said the eight victims suffocated to death inside the restaurant and that two other people were injured.

Polish prosecutors on Tuesday said they were investigating the Swiss unit of state-controlled refiner PKN Orlen for reported links with Lebanon’s Hezbollah.

Former Progressive Socialist Party leader Walid Jumblat has said that the decision to boycott the latest Maarab meeting was taken by the PSP and not by him personally.

“It wasn’t me. It was the PSP that took the decision not to go to Maarab. Then what’s the point of meeting people who do not recognize us?” Jumblat added, in an interview with the L'Orient-Le Jour newspaper.

Hundreds of university students in Lebanon protested on Tuesday against Israel's bombardment of Gaza, inspired by recent pro-Palestinian demonstrations that have rocked U.S. and European campuses.

Dozens of students gathered at the prestigious American University of Beirut (AUB), some wearing the traditional Arab keffiyeh scarf that has long been a symbol of the Palestinian cause.

Caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati is pressing the relevant international parties to return the unregistered Syrians in Lebanon to their country, a media report said.

“In the meetings that Mikati held over the past days, it was revealed that the European Union has become responsive to the Lebanese proposal,” the Nidaa al-Watan newspaper reported on Tuesday.