Free Patriotic Movement chief Jebran Bassil has “given up his demand” to enlarge the government from 24 to 30 seats in return for him naming the new economy and displaced ministers who will replace incumbent ministers Amin Salam and Issam Sharafeddine, a media report said.

“Prime Minister-designate Najib Mikati does not mind this matter,” al-Joumhouria newspaper reported on Monday.

Prime Minister-designate Najib Mikati held talks Monday with Speaker Nabih Berri in Ain el-Tineh.

He left without making a statement.

The Presidency's press office has issued a strong-worded statement denying "everything that has been said by politicians and in the media about President Michel Aoun's staying in Baabda after the end of his term."

Slamming the accusations as "mere fabrications," the Presidency said they are "part of the ongoing scheme to target the Presidency's position and the president in person."

Lebanese singer George al-Rassi was killed at dawn Saturday in a car crash in the al-Masnaa area following his return from a concert in neighboring Syria.

He was 39 years old.

A plane belonging to Middle East Airlines -- Lebanon’s national carrier -- made an emergency landing overnight in Athens due to an engine malfunction.

The plane took off from Beirut and was headed for the Heathrow Airport in London.

A submarine has found the remains of at least 10 migrants who drowned when their boat sank earlier this year off the coast of Lebanon with about 30 people on board, the navy announced.

The boat, carrying dozens of Lebanese, Syrians and Palestinians trying to migrate by sea to Italy, went down more than 5 kilometers from the port of Tripoli, following a confrontation with the Lebanese navy.

UNIFIL will be Hezbollah's "shield" in the next conflict between Lebanon and Israel, Israeli newspaper The Jerusalem Post said.

"The likelihood of that potential conflict has grown due to the Lebanese Army subservience to Hezbollah, and UNIFIL irrelevance and dereliction of mission to prevent the resumption of hostilities," the daily added.

A senior Hezbollah military commander has noted that Israel is exerting strenuous efforts in order not to engage in another war with his group, because it knows that it will be “destructive” for it and that “it will not be able to confront Hezbollah in all fields.”

“The enemy must know that war with Hezbollah this time would mean a destruction of the Israeli entity’s infrastructure, which would turn the lives of settlers into a real hell in which they cannot live under fire and destruction. We are confident that the enemy will work on pulling corpses from the rubble during the war and this is what it and its people have not experienced until the moment,” the Hezbollah commander told al-Akhbar newspaper in an interview published Friday.

General Security chief Maj. Gen. Abbas Ibrahim said Friday that Lebanon is waging "a holy battle" to regain its maritime rights from the Israeli enemy.

He added that the battle includes controlling the land border crossings.

"Over 80 per cent of Palestine refugees in Lebanon, Syria and Gaza live below the poverty line," said UNRWA Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini.

Lazzarrini told the U.N. Security Council that "in Lebanon, the pressure on the Agency to do more to address the impact of the economic and financial crisis on the Palestine refugee community is becoming unbearable."