A U.S. district-court judge has awarded insurers $9.4 billion after entering a final judgment against Hizbullah in a lawsuit over the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks that left almost 3,000 people dead.

U.S. District Court Judge George Daniels in the Southern District of New York said Hizbullah must pay the damages to insurers that sought to recoup payments to business and property policyholders for losses from the attacks.

The parliament will hold a general discussion session in April to assess the governments’ performance.

MP Marwan Hamadeh said on Wednesday, after the weekly meeting between Speaker Nabih Berri and lawmakers, that the three-day session will be held on April 11-13 or after the Easter holidays on April 18-20.

An Indian citizen faces 75 years in jail in the United States after being found guilty by a Manhattan federal court of plotting to sell weapons to Hizbullah.

Patrick Nayyar, 48, was found guilty of five counts related to the support he attempted to provide to Hizbullah after a week-long jury trial before U.S. district judge Robert Sweet.

Energy Minister Jebran Bassil said Thursday he agreed with Premier Najib Miqati that no party emerged as a victor or vanquished during a cabinet session that saw the approval of power-generating vessels and the construction of electricity plants.

The government averted a crisis during its session at Baabda Palace on Wednesday after it approved the leasing of the ships for a maximum of three years to produce 270 megawatts and the construction of 1,500-megawatt power plants.

Progressive Socialist Party leader MP Walid Jumblat stressed on Thursday that he decided to boycott the Syrian regime once and for all, whether President Bashar Assad remained in power or he resigned.

“I’d rather end my life while I am at a rift with the Syrian regime,” Jumblat told As Safir newspaper.

Prime Minister Najib Miqati hailed on Thursday the cabinet session that was held at the Baabda Palace, saying that it was able to avert a crisis over a dispute on the power-generating vessels.

“We’ve stressed that we want to provide Lebanon with electricity and simultaneously preserve the public money,” Miqati said in comments published in An Nahar.

The cabinet has approved draft-laws to conduct an audit on extra-budgetary spending made between 2006 and 2010 by the governments of ex-Premiers Fouad Saniora and Saad Hariri.

The approval came during an eight-hour session held at Baabda Palace under President Michel Suleiman which also witnessed a solution to the controversial electricity plan.

The cabinet on Wednesday agreed to lease power-generating vessels for a period of two years -- renewable for one year -- and stipulated a new invitation for tenders.

The cabinet also approved three uncontroversial administrative appointments and was inclined to postpone the discussion of the thorny issue of financial auditing for the years 2006 to 2010.

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad on Wednesday stressed “his keenness on national unity” in Lebanon, stressing that revolt-hit Syria was “heading towards stability.”

During a meeting with ex-MP Faisal al-Daoud, head of the Arab Lebanese Struggle Movement, Assad said he was “reassured about the situation in Syria, which is heading towards stability and the implementation of reforms in a manner that would meet the aspirations of the Syrian people.”

The March 14 forces on Wednesday stressed rejection of “any violation” of Lebanon’s sovereignty “from whichever side it may come,” noting that the row over electricity will not force the collapse of Premier Najib Miqati’s government as “Hizbullah Secretary-General Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah is the real head of government.”

Briefing reporters after the weekly meeting of the March 14 General-Secretariat in Ashrafiyeh, secretariat coordinator Fares Soaid said “the decision was taken by the general-secretariat to task Democratic Left chief Mr. Elias Atallah, National Liberal Party chief Mr. Dori Chamoun and MP Marwan Hamadeh with conducting all the necessary contacts -- inside and outside the March 14 forces – in order implement the mechanisms aimed at reforming the March 14” coalition.