Teachers and school officials across Lebanon held a strike Thursday to protest a government pay hike decision. Most students stayed home from school as some 4,000 teachers from throughout the country joined in downtown Beirut to protest, The (Beirut) Daily Star reported. The strike comes as part of general discontent throughout labor unions over a recent government decision to raise the minimum wage from $332 to $398. Political parties such as Hezbollah, the Kataeb Party and the Free Patriotic Movement voiced support for the day-long strike.