Cabinet has approved in a session Thursday to renew the expired passports for voters in the parliamentary elections.

The passports will be renewed for one day, only to be used for voting on May 15. The renewal cost will be LBP 200,000 for each passport.

The official unemployment rate in crisis-hit Lebanon jumped almost three-fold to reach 29.6 percent at the start of the year, a joint survey by the U.N. and the government said Thursday.

Saudi Ambassador to Lebanon Walid Bukhari met Thursday at Dar al-Fatwa in Beirut with Grand Mufti Sheikh Abdul Latif Daryan, the country’s top Sunni Muslim cleric.

During the meeting, Bukhari expressed “the firm solidarity of the Gulf Cooperation Council countries with the Lebanese people, and our permanent keenness on Lebanon’s security, stability, territorial integrity, Arab belonging and independent political decision.”

The U.N. Subcommittee on Prevention of Torture (SPT) is concerned about the prolonged pre-trial detention, overcrowding and “deplorable living conditions in places of deprivation of liberty” that it observed during its second visit to Lebanon, a U.N. statement said.

The third phase of parliamentary elections, dedicated to the public employees who will oversee Sunday's polls, kicked off Thursday across Lebanon.

The Lebanese had voted abroad in 58 countries on Friday and Sunday, with a 60 percent turnout.

The brother of Lebanon's central bank governor posted bail of 100 billion Lebanese pounds ($3.7 million) and was freed on Thursday after two months detention, a judicial source said.   

The bail figure is a record in Lebanon, a country grappling with a financial crisis seen as one of the world's worst in modern history and widely attributed to corruption and woeful governance by the ruling elite.  

President Michel Aoun said Thursday, at the beginning of a regular Cabinet session, that the port blast probe must resume quickly.

"The stalemate has been unjust to some detainees who might be innocent," he added, as he pointed out that many issues must be addressed quickly before the government becomes a caretaker government.

A Manhattan federal court jury returned a mixed verdict Wednesday in the trial of a New Jersey software developer who authorities say researched and photographed U.S. landmarks for possible attacks.

The jury was unable to reach a verdict on one terrorism charge — providing material support for a terrorist group — but found Alexei Saab, 44, had received military-type training from Hizbullah.

The Lebanese parliament voted in on Sunday will have to tackle overdue reforms required for international assistance the cash-strapped country desperately needs. 

After Lebanon struck a conditional deal with the International Monetary Fund for a $3 billion aid package, AFP looks at the challenges that await incoming lawmakers in a country where there is little consensus on a roadmap for financial recovery.

Interior Minister Bassam Mawlawi has called on Lebanon’s Sunni community to turn out heavily in the May 15 parliamentary elections, warning that “reluctance from practicing the right of voting would deepen the country’s crises.”

“You actively took part in founding the country and enshrining its National Pact. You did not take part in civil war and you did not take up arms. Today you are invited to participate heavily in pulling Lebanon out of a war that is of another nature – the war of poverty, deprivation and employment, which has entered into the homes of all Lebanese,” Mawlawi said in an interview with the Saudi al-Bilad newspaper.