A Lebanese emigrant was shot dead in the South African city of Johannesburg, reports said on Thursday.

Ahmed Hashem Abou Draa was shot and killed by an unknown assailant who tried to rob him, reports added.

Lebanese and foreign security agencies obtained information that some Lebanese officials are a target of an assassinations plan and that the scheme includes figures from the March 8 alliance, the Kuwaiti al-Anbaa daily reported on Thursday.

The alleged plan does not include political figures of the March 14 alliance this time, said the daily, but is limited to figures of March 8 and it includes Speaker Nabih Berri, Finance Minister Ali Hassan Khalil, former minister Wiam Wahhab and Maj. Gen. Jamil al-Sayyed.

U.S. Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs Thomas Shannon is expected to arrive in Beirut on Thursday to assess the arrangements made by Lebanon as for the implementation of the U.S. financial sanctions against Hizbullah and other laws dedicated to eradicating the resources of “terrorist organizations”, as described by the U.S. administration, in Lebanon and the region, al-Joumhouria daily reported.

Well-informed sources told the daily that Shannon will also hold meetings with Speaker Nabih Berri, Foreign Minister Jebran Bassil, the economist adviser at the Presidency in charge of follow-up on the actions of “the international community to help Lebanon” on behalf of Prime Minister Tammam Salam, the Central Bank Governor, members of the Association of Banks and will visit the Defense Ministry, added the daily.

A “coordination and supervision commission” will be tasked with helping authorities and municipalities prepare for the decentralization of the waste management process, the Finance and Budget Parliamentary Committee said on Wednesday.

A bomb blast killed a Syrian woman and wounded at least eight other people in eastern Lebanon on Wednesday, the state-owned National News Agency reported.

Political circles are looking forward to see what will Speaker Nabih Berri state during a ceremony that will mark the 38th disappearance of Imam Moussa al-Sadr and his two companions, as expectations rise that his address will have an echo at the political situation prevailing in Lebanon, al-Joumhouria daily reported on Wednesday.

Berri will deliver his speech at a ceremony hosted by the AMAL movement in the southern city of Tyre on the occasion. The Speaker is expected to deliver several regional and local positions that observers believe will have a significant impact.

Minor skirmishes erupted at dawn on Tuesday in the southern Palestinian refugee camp of Ain el-Hilweh, but no casualties weer reported, the National News Agency reported.

An unknown assailant randomly opened gunfire inside the vegetable market which led to material damages to cars and stores, NNA said.

Concerns on Lebanon's inability to join the international financial laws that ensure its survival in the global financial system will surface again by the beginning of September when the due signing date of the Global Account Tax Compliance Act GATCA agreement looms in light of an existing government crisis, al-Joumhouria daily reported on Tuesday.

Despite the negative atmospheres that ruled the last dialogue between al-Mustaqbal Movement chief ex-PM Saad Hariri and founder of the Free Patriotic Movement MP Michel Aoun and the rumors that it has reached a dead end, unnamed sources said they sensed some kind of mutual flexibility between the Center House and Rabieh, al-Joumhouria daily reported on Tuesday.

Speaker Nabih Berri stressed on Monday that he has no initiative other than the one he launched in June as he urged the political forces to shoulder their responsibility and help Lebanon overcome the political impasse it is witnessing, al-Joumhouria daily reported on Monday.

“Am I an initiative prolific to launch a new initiative each day...I already suggested what I have and the political forces must shoulder the responsibility,” stated Berri answering a question on whether he will launch a new suggestion in a speech he will deliver on August 31 marking the anniversary of the disappearance of Imam Moussa al-Sadr and his two companions.