Finance Minister Ali Hassan Khalil assured on Wednesday that positive results will be reached regarding the budget discussions, noting that Prime Minister Saad Hariri is keen on concluding the discussions today, al-Joumhouria daily said.

“The figures will be finalized on Wednesday after we introduce the amendments we have agreed upon during the previous session. Many items and procedures will be reconsidered," Khalil told the daily.

President Michel Aoun held talks on Wednesday with Acting U.S. Assistant Secretary of State David Satterfield who arrived in Beirut on Tuesday, as Washington mediates a maritime border dispute with Israel.

Aoun and Satterfield discussed the bilateral relations between Lebanon and the US, and the latest developments on the local and regional arenas, the National News Agency reported.

Lebanon bids farewell on Wednesday to former Maronite Patriarch Nasrallah Boutros Sfeir, who died Sunday.

Prime Minister Saad Hariri met with Acting US Assistant Secretary of State David Satterfield for a second time on the visit who made no comments to the press after his meeting with the Premier.

President Michel Aoun on Tuesday reassured that the Lebanese lira is “not in danger.”

An international delegation of fifteen senior military officers from the British Royal College of Defence Studies (RCDS) led by Air Vice Marshall Garry Tunnicliffe visited Lebanon for one week to learn about the political, economic, security, and social challenges facing Lebanon and how these relate to regional and international stability.  

The U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights is calling for "a thorough, effective and independent investigation" into the death of a Lebanese man who was allegedly tortured by police intelligence.

Michelle Bachelet says Hassan al-Diqa died Saturday despite numerous interventions by a variety of U.N. entities with Lebanese authorities after he was allegedly tortured while detained on drug-related charges in November.

Pope Francis has hailed late former Maronite patriarch Nasrallah Sfeir as a craftsman of peace and “ardent defender of the sovereignty and independence of his country.”

“I address my warm condolences to you, as well as to his family and to all the faithful of the Patriarchal Church of Antioch of the Maronites, whom he governed for many years with as much gentleness as determination,” Pope Francis wrote in a May 14 cable to Sfeir’s successor, Beshara al-Rahi.

Free Patriotic Movement chief MP Jebran Bassil on Tuesday called for abolishing “unproductive public administrations” and raising taxes on banks, as part of suggestions he made in Cabinet to further reduce public spending.

Speaking after the weekly meeting of the Strong Lebanon bloc, Bassil said he raised five suggestions in Cabinet related to “the state's size, funds waste and tax evasion, debt interests and trade balance.”

U.S. Acting Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs David Satterfield arrived Tuesday in Beirut for talks with Lebanese officials.

Satterfield began his visit by offering condolences in Bkirki over the death of ex-Maronite patriarch Nasrallah Sfeir.