Prime Minister Najib Miqati reiterated on Thursday that Lebanon is keen on the best of relations with Arab countries and rejects meddling in their internal affairs.

During a meeting with a delegation of diplomats from Gulf Cooperation Council countries at the Grand Serail, Miqati stressed “the best of ties with the friendly Arab countries and mainly GCC states.”

Energy Minister Jebran Bassil and British Foreign Secretary William Hague launched on Thursday an onshore Lebanon seismic scan that will be carried out by British company Spectrum.

“We agreed with Spectrum to carry out a 3-D seismic scan,” Bassil told reporters at a joint press conference with Hague.

A worker at a gas station was injured when gunmen clashed with police as they chased a suspect wanted on drug charges in Beirut's southern suburbs known as Dahieh, the National News Agency reported on Thursday.

The state-run agency said that a police force from the drug unit was chasing the suspect in the area of al-Saha restaurant on the Beirut airport road when a dark blue Nissan with tinted windows blocked its way.

Foreign Minister Adnan Mansour denied on Thursday reports saying that Hizbullah fighters are engaged in battles in villages near the Lebanese-Syrian border.

“Sometimes the media report inaccurate news,” Mansour said in an interview with Russia Today on the sidelines of the first Arab-Russian forum held in Moscow.

Former Information Minister Michel Samaha, who was indicted in bombing attack plots on political and religious figures in Lebanon, has said he “wanted to create a shock.”

On Wednesday, Military Examining Magistrate Riyad Abu Ghida indicted Samaha, who was arrested in August, and Syrian security official Brig. Gen. Ali Mamlouk on terrorism charges and called for the death sentence.

Al-Mustaqbal MP Ahmed Fatfat criticized on Thursday Speaker Nabih Berri, accusing him of backing down on his promises to the parliamentary bloc by prompting the joint parliamentary committees to vote on the so-called Orthodox Gathering electoral draft-law.

“I am convinced that Berri's endeavors weren't (innocent), he had plans to push forward the adoption of the proposal,” Fatfat said in comments published in As Safir newspaper.

Syndicate Coordination Committee protesters challenged on Thursday the government by going ahead with their open-ended strike for the third day in a row, vowing to remain united and reach all the public institutions across Lebanon as long as the cabinet procrastinates referring the new salary scale to the parliament.

“The protest committees will be formed by the weekend and we will win this battle. We are getting stronger each day,” head of Public Secondary School Education Teachers Association Hanna Gharib told protesters rallying near the Education Ministry in the UNESCO area in Beirut.

Lebanese Forces chief Samir Geagea said Thursday that he hasn't lost hope on the ability of rival lawmakers to reach consensus on an electoral draft-law ahead of this year's parliamentary polls.

In remarks to An Nahar newspaper, Geagea said: “The efforts to find consensus (among the different factions) should continue no matter what.”

The Internal Security Forces Intelligence Branch arrested two people on suspicion of their involvement in the kidnapping of a Lebanese businessman in early February, security sources said Thursday.

The sources told al-Liwaa newspaper that Ali Aa, 52, and his cousin, were arrested in the area of Tyre in southern Lebanon on the suspicion of abducting Najib Youssef on Feb. 5.

A man on trial in Cyprus admitted Wednesday to being a member of Hizbullah, “acting as a courier for the group inside the European Union and staking out locations Israelis would frequent -- in particular a parking lot behind a Limassol hospital and a hotel called the Golden Arches,” the New York Times reported.

“In written testimony read out loud in Greek by his interpreter, the man said that he had not taken part in a plot to target Israeli tourists visiting Cyprus, as prosecutors charge,” the U.S. newspaper said.