Since the collapse of Lebanon's state power grid, many middle and working class families have been forced to spend most of their monthly income to pay shady neighborhood businessmen running private generators.

Still, they go without electricity for nearly half the day, according to a report by Human Rights Watch released Thursday. The situation threatens to deepen the poverty of this tiny country embroiled in a devastating economic meltdown.

The Association of Banks in Lebanon announced Thursday that the country’s banks will resume their open-ended strike on Tuesday, March 14, decrying recent judicial rulings.

Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri's open nomination to Marada leader Suleiman Franjieh is not a challenge, Berri said, but is supposed to break the presidential deadlock.

In remarks published Thursday in al-Joumhouria, Berri said that his nomination to Franjieh is supposed to urge the other parties to announce their candidates, in order to seriously elect a president.

The presidential file was recently on the verge of a consensual settlement involving an agreement on both the presidency and the PM post, but the efforts failed in their last stages, a media report said on Thursday.

“Paris played a key role in formulating this settlement, which was based on the Franjieh-Salam equation, or the election of (ex-)minister Suleiman Franjieh as president and the designation of (ex-)ambassador Nawaf Salam as premier,” al-Joumhouria newspaper quoted “credible” sources as saying.

Caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati met Thursday with United Nations Special Coordinator for Lebanon Joanna Wronecka at the Grand Serail.

Wronecka stressed the need for Lebanon to commit to implementing basic reforms and completing constitutional junctures on time, especially the presidential and municipal polls.

The ambassadors of the UK, the U.S., Canada, Germany and the Netherlands and the deputy ambassador of Japan have met with caretaker PM Najib Mikati and agreed with him on “continued support for transparency and accountability in Lebanon,” a joint statement said.

Free Patriotic Movement Alain Aoun said Thursday that the FPM might agree with the opposition MPs on a presidential candidate.

"We are communicating with all parties," Aoun said, adding that hic bloc hasn't yet decided on a candidate.

Bkerki’s spokesperson Walid Ghayad said Thursday that Saudi Ambassador to Lebanon Walid Bukhari did not discuss with Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi the names of any presidential candidates, in a meeting they had Tuesday in Bkerki.

Ghayad told al-Jadeed TV that Bukhari did not support or oppose the election of any candidate, but rather mentioned the qualifications needed in a president.

French authorities have asked Lebanese prosecutors to detain two people suspected of involvement in a 1983 bombing in Beirut that killed dozens of French troops, Lebanese judicial officials said Wednesday.

It is highly unlikely that Lebanese authorities will detain the suspects nearly 40 years after the attacks. Neither has ever been taken into custody.

Marada Movement chief Suleiman Franjieh on Wednesday hit out at his Christian rivals for reversing their stance on the boycott of presidential election sessions.