The first grain ship to depart Ukraine under a wartime deal entered the Bosporus Strait on the way to Lebanon after its cargo was checked and approved Wednesday, Turkish and Ukrainian authorities said.

An inspection team spent about 90 minutes conducting checks aboard the Sierra Leone-flagged Razoni, which was carrying Ukrainian corn and anchored off Istanbul, Turkey's defense ministry said.

Paul and Tracy Najjar have lived in grief since the massive explosion that tore through the Lebanese capital in 2020 killed their three-year-old daughter, and their anger boils over the stalled investigation.

The August 4 mega-blast, blamed on a fire that ignited tons of ammonium nitrate fertilizer haphazardly stored for years at Beirut harbor, was one of the largest non-nuclear detonations ever recorded.

Hezbollah chief Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah on Tuesday said that after the return of U.S. mediator Amos Hochstein to Lebanon, the stances of the Lebanese state and Hezbollah were in harmony as to the “limited time” left to reach an agreement.

Five people were arrested on a Greek island Tuesday and charged with trying to smuggle nearly a hundred migrants into Europe on an unsafe vessel last week, using what appears to be a new direct sea route from crisis-afflicted Lebanon to Italy.

It was the second such incident in about a month involving a boat departing Lebanon. The more common sea route for asylum seekers from the Middle East and Africa seeking a better life in Europe is from Turkey to Greece or Italy. But it has become less used amid increased vigilance by Greek and European Union border agencies.

The first official shipment of Ukrainian grain since Russia's invasion reached Turkish territorial waters on Tuesday near the entrance to the Bosphorus Strait, according to an AFP team on site.

The Sierra Leone-flagged Razoni is due to be inspected Wednesday near Istanbul by a team that includes Russian and Ukrainian officials before delivering its cargo of 26,000 tons of maize to Tripoli, Lebanon.

The head of Hezbollah’s parliamentary bloc, MP Mohammed Raad, announced Tuesday that Hezbollah’s stance on the sea border demarcation file with Israel is “clear and obvious.”

The British Embassy Beirut has announced that applications for the UK Government’s flagship Chevening Scholarships program opened on August 2.

Applicants should apply online via www.chevening.org/apply by 1 Nov 2022.

Lebanon's prosecutor general decided a Syrian ship allegedly carrying Ukrainian grain stolen by Russia may leave a port in the country's north, officials said Tuesday. The move came after an investigation showed the vessel wasn't carrying stolen goods.

However, the Laodicea cannot immediately leave the port of Tripoli because a judge ordered Monday that it may not sail for 72 hours at the request of Ukrainian authorities. If the judge does not extend the order, the ship could sail in two days, a move likely to anger Ukraine.

The Supervisory Commission for Elections said Tuesday in a statement that "some media outlets have been referred to the Publications Courts for violations, including defamation, slander, opinion polls, hate speech and the breach of electoral silence."

It added that it had also referred complaints to the public prosecutors in Lebanon. The complaints included bribery, obstruction of the electoral process, and other criminal offenses.

U.S. envoy Amos Hochstein met with Israeli Prime Minister Yair Lapid after leaving Beirut on Monday, Lapid's office said Tuesday.

Hochstein's unannounced visit to Israel followed an "important" meeting in Baabda with President Michel Aoun, Prime Minister-designate Najib Mikati and Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri, over the maritime border demarcation with Israel.