Europe's top rights court Thursday ordered Macedonia to pay 60,000 euros ($78,000) in damages to a Lebanese-born German who claims the CIA abducted him there in 2003 and flew him to Afghanistan to be tortured.

Khaled el-Masri, 48, says he was abducted by CIA operatives under the so-called extraordinary rendition program while on holiday in Macedonia and then taken to a secret Afghan prison for brutal interrogation.

Prime Minister Najib Miqati declared on Thursday that his cabinet will resign once Lebanese parties reach an agreement on the electoral law.

“We will not accept vacuum,” Miqati stated in an interview on al-Arabiya TV channel, explaining that his government helped in maintaining the country's stability and was able to control Sidon and Tripoli's clashes.

Several investors in the southern city of Tyre have reportedly become victims of embezzlement, radio Voice of Lebanon said on Thursday.

"Saleh Basma and Chawqy Arab pretended to be businessmen and cheated their victims into depositing $8 million,” VDL explained, adding that the depositors thought their money will be invested.

Lebanese lawyer Rashad Salameh agreed on Thursday to being appointed on Syria's behalf to prosecute former Premier Saad Hariri, Mustaqbal MP Oqab Saqr, and Syrian opposition member Louay al-Meqdad, reported the Central News Agency.

Widely-informed sources told the news agency that Salameh accepted the appointment on behalf of the Syrian state in its case against all those who armed the Syrian revolution.

The Military Tribunal charged on Thursday 12 people with robbing a number of banks and the attempted murder of a soldier and two judges, reported the National News Agency.

It said that Mohammed al-Jouni and 11 others were accused of robbing seven banks and the attempted murder of an Army Captain from al-Jurdi family and two judges.

Military Examining Magistrate Fadi Sawwan issued an indictment on Thursday against Hassan Karaki, who is accused of killing officer Abbas Jomaa in Beirut's southern suburbs in September.

Karaki, who is also known as Antar, opened fire at an army patrol pursuing him in al-Ghobairi on September 21, severely injuring Jomaa and wounding several others.

A delegation of March 14 opposition lawmakers met with Speaker Nabih Berri on Thursday amid a sign of lack of progress on the activation of the meetings of a parliamentary subcommittee tasked with drafting an electoral law.

MP Marwan Hamadah, who was part of the four-member delegation, announced following the talks with Berri in Ain el-Tineh that further discussions were required on the resumption of the meetings.

An employee for a mobile phone service company was released on bail on Thursday after he was imprisoned on charges of collaborating with Israel, reported the National News Agency.

It said that Charbel Qazzi was released from jail after paying L.L.10 million in bail.

Guards thwarted an attempt by around 20 Fatah al-Islam prisoners to escape from Roumieh prison, the oldest and largest of Lebanon's overcrowded prisons, the National News Agency reported on Thursday.

NNA said the inmates had cut iron bars at the prison's library and were seeking to dig a hole in the wall of the workshop that had been burned in previous riots when the plot was uncovered on Thursday night.

The army urged on Thursday media outlets not to publish any information about the military during the delicate situation that Lebanon and the region are passing through, unless it was issued by the army command or army chief Gen. Jean Qahwaji.

According to a communique issued by the Army Command it pointed out that there is no high-ranking military source that has the right to issue statements about the army other than its leader or what the Army Command discloses.