Speaker Nabih Berri stressed on Thursday that Lebanon is committed to the drilling of oil within all of its maritime borders.

He said that “Lebanon is determined to invest in its petroleum and gas wealth.”

President Michel Suleiman stated on Thursday that the dispute over the transportation allowance must not be left unresolved, reported the National News Agency.

He demanded that all cabinet decisions be respected “in accordance with the mechanism that has been adopted for 16 years.”

Israel released on Thursday a Lebanese citizen who had been imprisoned in the Jewish state for four years, reported the National News Agency.

Khaled al-Mohammed, 55, was apprehended on Lebanese territory and jailed by Israel on charges of smuggling drugs into Palestinian territories.

A teenage boy died and his parents and four siblings were hospitalized for smoke inhalation after a fire swept through their house in the southern town of Dhour al-Ghaziyeh, the National News Agency said Thursday.

Fourteen-year-old Ahmed Ibrahim al-Hajj passed away while his parents Ibrahim and Nuha, his brothers Ali and Wehbe and sisters Nadine and Zahra were taken to hospital, NNA said.

Prime Minister Najib Miqati urged Lebanese officials on Thursday to respect constitutional institutions and give up their “challenging slogans” to ensure stability in the country.

At the inauguration of a phase of the expansion and rehabilitation program at Beirut Port, Miqati said: “National unity is the guarantee to having a stable Lebanon capable of confronting challenges.”

Israel revealed that an attempt to assassinate Defense Minister Ehud Barak was foiled during his trip to Singapore on Monday, reported Kuwait’s al-Jarida newspaper on Thursday, in remarks swiftly denied by an Israeli defense official and Singaporean police.

High-ranking Israeli sources said: “A joint cell from Iran and Hizbullah plotted the attempt to kill the minister.”

Syrian Ambassador to Lebanon Ali Abdul Karim Ali praised on Thursday Lebanon’s stance at the Arab League, which decided to disassociate itself from the turmoil in Syria.

Ali held a meeting with Foreign Minister Adnan Mansour, who informed him about the Arab League’s meetings on development in Syria.

U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano has said the U.S. is closely monitoring the activities of Hizbullah after a failed bomb plot in Bangkok and attacks on Israeli embassy staff in India and Georgia.

Napolitano told lawmakers Wednesday that the Homeland Security Department has contacted Jewish organizations around the country and is working with the FBI and other law enforcement and intelligence agencies.

The environment ministry was on Thursday investigating the mysterious red color that tainted the Beirut River a day earlier, urging the Hazmiyeh and Baabda municipalities to cooperate with it.

Beirut police went in vain up and down the stream on Wednesday to locate the source of the red liquid.

Progressive Socialist Party leader MP Walid Jumblat criticized on Thursday the March 14-led opposition leaders’ rhetoric during a gathering organized in BIEL on ex-Premier Rafik Hariri’s Feb. 14, 2005 assassination anniversary.

“The context of their speeches didn’t differ from that of last year, except for the tackling of the developments in Syria,” Jumblat told An Nahar newspaper.