Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea on Thursday accused the Presidency and its allies of seeking to commit as much violations as possible prior to the end of President Michel Aoun’s term, in connection with the controversy over a decision to name an alternate judicial investigator in the Beirut port blast case.

Lebanon’s Economic Committees, a grouping of Lebanon's main businessmen and owners of major firms, on Thursday proposed an economic recovery plan that entails recovering 74% of the funds of bank depositors.

Caretaker PM and PM-designate Najib Mikati has “finally” won a U.S. green light to accept the Iranian fuel grant and Washington has made the condition that “there should be no political communication over the matter,” al-Akhbar newspaper reported on Thursday.

President Michel Aoun has hinted that he might eventually choose not to leave the Baabda Palace upon the end of his presidential term on October 31.

A group of 61 migrants picked up by a cargo ship from a crippled fishing boat in the central Mediterranean have safely reached the island of Crete hours after a severely ill child on the freighter died while being airlifted to Greece, Greek authorities said.

The Syrian, Lebanese and Palestinian migrants had reportedly been stranded for days without provisions on a leaking fishing boat near Malta, after trying to sail from Lebanon to Italy about 10 days ago.

A bomb detonated outside of a Hezbollah-backed Lebanese minister's home on Thursday in the eastern Bekaa valley.

The press office of caretaker Public Works Minister Ali Hamieh said in a statement that the explosive wrapped in electrical wires was detonated in his garden outside his home in the village of Taraya.

Hezbollah is awaiting the Israeli answer that U.S. mediator Amos Hochstein will carry to Lebanon within days, sources informed on the party’s stances said.

“Should the Lebanese government accept the answer and things go in a right direction that satisfies Lebanon, that will be good,” especially after Israel postponed production in the Karish field, the sources told Asharq al-Awsat newspaper in remarks published Wednesday.

The Foreign Ministry on Wednesday noted that Lebanon has not requested the omission of U.N. resolutions 1559 and 1680 from a U.N. resolution that has extended UNIFIL’s mandate, denying media reports in this regard.

“Lebanon respects all U.N. Security Council resolutions and abides by them, and it is out of the question for it to request, and it has not requested, the omission of the mention of the aforementioned resolutions,” the Ministry said in a statement.

A group of 61 migrants picked up by a cargo ship from a crippled vessel in the central Mediterranean have safely reached Crete hours after a severely ill child on the freighter died while being airlifted to the Greek island, authorities said Wednesday.

It was unclear whether these were the same people who had earlier been reported stranded for days without provisions on a leaking fishing boat near Malta, after trying to sail from Lebanon to Italy.

The Higher Judicial Council has agreed to a proposal from caretaker Justice Minister Henri Khoury to name an alternate investigator in the Beirut port blast case, sparking political and judicial controversy after the move was seen as illegal and politically motivated.

Dozens of relatives of the victims of the blast protested Wednesday against the decision, calling the move an attempt by the country's political class to prevent justice into one of the world's largest non-nuclear explosions.