Lebanese authorities should address high levels of abuse and deaths among migrant domestic workers, a group of eight concerned civil society groups said Friday.

The non-governmental organizations said the Lebanese government should also act quickly to reform restrictive visa regulations and adopt a labor law on domestic work.

A Molotov cocktail exploded on Friday in the parking lot of ABC mall in Dbayeh, north of Beirut, creating a small crater but causing no major damage, the National News Agency reported.

NNA said the petrol bomb exploded at 9:45 am.

A Lebanese businessman who was kidnapped in southern Nigeria's oil-producing Edo State has been released, the director-general of the foreign ministry Haitham Jumaa announced on Friday.

Jumaa said Lebanon’s Charge d’Affaires Shawqi Abu Nassar informed him that Elias Sarkis was set free by his unidentified kidnappers.

Interior Minister Marwan Charbel has appeased fears on the growing clashes and gunfire in Syrian towns bordering Lebanon but warned against any attempt by Syrian refugees to engage in political activity against their country’s rule.

In remarks to pan-Arab Asharq al-Awsat daily on Friday, Charbel said: “There are no political intentions behind what’s going on the border between Lebanon and Syria from time to time.”

Lebanese authorities are weighing up what action to take after a group of newly recruited policewomen showed up for training wearing the hijab, a security official said on Friday.

The policewomen, numbering nearly 40 and all reportedly Shiites, were among hundreds who sat for an exam to join the Internal Security Forces earlier this year.

Speaker Nabih Berri slammed the government on Friday for failing to appoint civil servants to posts in state institutions and mainly employees linked to the premier’s office.

“Why haven’t the vacant seats been filled ten months after the formation of the cabinet?” Berri wondered in remarks to As Safir daily.

Speaker Nabih Berri issued another warning on Friday that parliament would hold the government accountable if it fails to appoint the members of the oil authority.

The cabinet’s adoption of the authority’s formation bill is not enough to avoid a parliamentary grilling, Berri said in remarks published in several dailies.

Premier Najib Miqati struck a pessimistic tone on the power crisis on Friday despite an offer by his Georgian counterpart to provide electricity to Lebanon via Turkey.

In remarks to As Safir daily, Miqati said he did not invite a ministerial committee tasked with resolving the crisis to a meeting on Thursday after he “found out that it would not be useful anymore to hold unproductive meetings.”

Defense Minister Fayez Ghosn hit back Thursday at Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea over the latter’s call for the army to storm the Ain el-Hilweh Palestinian refugee camp.

“Those behind such calls do not belong to Lebanon, its unity or its future,” Ghosn said in an interview on Al-Manar television.

Foreign Minister Adnan Mansour said on Thursday that the Lebanese community in Mali is safe as renegade soldiers in the west African country claimed that they seized power.

Mansour revealed that he had made some contacts to inquire about the status of the Lebanese community.