Spotlight
U.S. envoy Amos Hochstein has urged Lebanese authorities to settle a maritime border dispute with Israel, saying it was the "last minute" for an agreement that could facilitate hydrocarbon exploration.
"I think that we’re at the moment of narrowing those gaps towards a deal," Hochstein told LBCI in an interview.

Ukraine said on Wednesday that a European diplomatic push aimed at averting a feared Russian invasion of the ex-Soviet state was working but that the situation remained tense.

Barcelona chief executive Ferran Reverter has resigned after only seven months in the role for what the club described on Tuesday as "personal and family reasons."

More than 100 Belgian police raided multiple addresses around the port city of Antwerp on Tuesday and detained 13 people suspected of links to a jihadist group.

Britain's embattled Prime Minister Boris Johnson faced renewed pressure Tuesday to apologize to opposition leader Keir Starmer for what critics have called a misleading "Trumpian" attack on him last week.

French President Emmanuel Macron said Tuesday that after talks with the Russian and Ukrainian leaders he saw paths forward on easing tensions.
"We now have the possibility to make these negotiations move forward" between Russia and Ukraine, he said after talks in Kyiv with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, adding that he also saw "concrete, practical solutions" for reducing tensions between Moscow and the West.

Dozens of Yemeni pro-government fighters have been killed in a new offensive to take a rebel-held city, loyalist sources said on Tuesday, following a surge in violence including missile attacks on the United Arab Emirates.
Thirty-two soldiers have died and at least 100 have been wounded in three days of fighting to drive the Iran-backed rebels from Haradh, north of the capital Sanaa and near the Saudi border, the sources said.

Saudi Arabia's Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman skipped the Beijing Winter Olympics opening ceremony despite being on the guest list because of "scheduling reasons", China's foreign ministry said Tuesday.
Prince Mohammed, Saudi Arabia's de facto ruler, was among dozens of world leaders who had been expected to attend the ceremony in Beijing last week, according to state media.

Environmental pollution will cost Lebanon more than 3% of its GDP, the World Bank said, urging a green post-Covid-19 recovery for the region.
Air pollution costs the Middle East and North Africa $141 billion per year, or around 2% of GDP on average, it said in a report.

Zakaria al-Adl was presumed to have attempted a sea escape to Europe after he had gone missing over the summer, but then the young Lebanese man turned up dead in Iraq.
A native of the northern city of Tripoli, the 22-year-old is one of at least eight men who have been reported killed in Iraq since December 2021, as a suspected jihadist militant.
