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An Israeli airstrike killed five members of the same family in a home in Ain Qana in the southern province of Nabatieh, Lebanon’s state media said. The report said a mother, father and their three children were killed but didn't provide their ages.
Three other Israeli strikes killed six people and wounded 32 in different parts of Tyre province on Friday, also in south Lebanon, the report said.
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The U.S. ceasefire paper presented to Speaker Nabih Berri consists of 13 points, the most controversial of which is one granting both sides "the right to self-defense," which Lebanon fears could stand for the "freedom of movement" that Israel has demanded and Lebanon has rejected, diplomatic sources in Beirut told Asharq al-Awsat newspaper on Friday.
Full StoryWhen Sara first arrived at her rescuers' home, she was sick, tired, and was covered in ringworms and signs of abuse all over her little furry body.
After spending two months in a small Beirut apartment with an animal rights group, the four-and-half-month-old lion cub arrived Friday at a wildlife sanctuary in South Africa after a long journey on a yacht and planes, escaping both Israeli airstrikes and abusive owners.
Full StoryA French court on Friday ordered the release of pro-Palestinian Lebanese militant Georges Ibrahim Abdallah, jailed for 40 years for the killing of two foreign diplomats, prosecutors said.
The court said Abdallah, first detained in 1984 and convicted in 1987 over the 1982 murders, would be released on December 6 provided he leaves France, French anti-terror prosecutors said in a statement to AFP, adding that they would appeal.
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U.S. Ambassador to Lebanon Lisa Johnson has informed Speaker Nabih Berri that U.S. envoy Amos Hochstein's mediation will continue, noting that the latter's efforts "enjoy the blessing of the new U.S. administration," the Saudi-owned Asharq al-Awsat newspaper has reported.
Full StoryA top Iranian official pledged his country's unwavering support for Lebanon after talks Friday with Lebanese leaders on the ongoing war between Israel and Hezbollah, which came as the United States continued actively pushing both sides to agree to a new cease-fire deal.
Ali Larijani, an adviser to Iran's supreme leader, Ali Khamenei, said that he hoped circumstances would soon improve in Lebanon so that displaced people could return home.
Full Story"Serious discussions have resumed" between Speaker Nabih Berri and U.S. officials and there are talks regarding the proposed agreement, but things have not reached the final stages, contrary to what the Israelis are claiming, the pro-Hezbollah Al-Akhbar newspaper reported on Friday, quoting informed sources.
"The pending points are related to the formation of an international committee comprising the U.S., the UK, France and a fourth country that might be Jordan in order to monitor the implementation of Resolution 1701 with all its stipulations," the sources added.
Full StoryU.S. Ambassador to Lebanon Lisa Johnson has handed Speaker Nabih Berri a letter containing a ceasefire proposal from U.S. mediator Amos Hochstein and Berri has promised to respond within two to three days, Al-Jadeed TV has reported.
"Berri is optimistic that a ceasefire can be reached within days or a week if no sudden development comes up," Al-Jadeed added.
Full StoryThe U.N. peacekeeping chief whose force monitors Lebanon’s south said redeploying Lebanese troops there is crucial for any solution to more than a year of Hezbollah-Israel clashes that escalated into war in September.
"The redeployment of the Lebanese armed forces is an absolutely central element to any durable settlement," Under Secretary-General for Peace Operations Jean-Pierre Lacroix told reporters during a briefing in the Beirut area.
Full StoryRescue teams were searching Friday for missing people through rubble near the city of Baalbek in eastern Lebanon where an Israeli strike hit a civil defense center the night before.
Thirteen bodies were recovered, all of them employees and volunteers of the emergency services agency, according to the Lebanese Civil Defense. Some other remains that will require DNA testing were also recovered, it said in a statement.
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