One of France's biggest news channels, BFMTV, was bought by billionaire shipping magnate Rodolphe Saade after the takeover was approved by regulators.

Saade's CMA CGM Group announced the surprise buy-out of Altice Media, which owns BFMTV and the RMC radio station, in March for 1.55 billion euros ($1.66 billion).

The man charged with stabbing author Salman Rushdie has rejected a plea deal that would have shortened his state prison term but exposed him to a federal terrorism-related charge, the suspect's lawyer said.

Hadi Matar, 26, has been held without bail since the 2022 attack, in which he is accused of stabbing Rushdie more than a dozen times and blinding him in one eye as the acclaimed writer was onstage, about to give a lecture at the Chautauqua Institution in western New York.

Lebanese authorities have charged a man who opened fire on the U.S. embassy in Beirut with the crime of belonging to the Islamic State group, a judicial source said.

Last month, a Syrian man was arrested for the shooting at the embassy entrance after having been seriously injured in the attack.

Hezbollah launched dozens of rockets into northern Israel on Tuesday in retaliation for an Israeli strike that killed a civilian in the country's south.

Israel and Hezbollah, an ally of Hamas, have traded near-daily cross-border fire since the Palestinian militant group's October 7 attack on Israel sparked war in the Gaza Strip.

French President Emmanuel Macron has urged Israeli leader Benjamin Netanyahu to prevent a "conflagration" between Israel and Hezbollah militants in Lebanon, during a telephone call between the two leaders.

Macron "reiterated his serious concern over a deepening of tensions between Hezbollah and Israel... and underscored the absolute need to prevent a conflagration that would harm the interests of Lebanon as well as Israel," the French presidency said Tuesday in a statement.

The deputy leader of the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah has said the only sure path to a cease-fire on the Lebanon-Israel border is a full cease-fire in Gaza.

"If there is a cease-fire in Gaza, we will stop without any discussion," Hezbollah's deputy leader, Sheikh Naim Qassem, said Tuesday in an interview with The Associated Press at the group's political office in Beirut's southern suburbs.

None of the main actors on the Lebanese-Israeli front actually wants a war, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken has said.

Arab League assistant secretary-general Hossam Zaki has noted that his recent remarks on Hezbollah have been “misinterpreted.”

German intelligence vice president Ole Diehl met Saturday evening in Haret Hreik with Hezbollah deputy chief Sheikh Naim Qassem, the pro-Hezbollah newspaper al-Akhbar reported on Tuesday.

Diehl and Qassem had met in January this year.

One person was killed Tuesday in an airstrike on the Tyre district town of Zalloutieh.

An Israeli drone also targeted al-Taybeh, damaging a power transformer in the town.