With passion, determination and a big smile on his face Edward Maalouf greeted the students, faculty and administration of Jbeil’s public secondary school and Modern St. Anthony private school. The Lebanese Paralympic champion addressed the students about his disability and how sports has inspired him. This talk was part of the British Embassy’s activities in the run-up to the Olympic and Paralympic games that London will be hosting in 2012.

Edward was received by the students with eagerness and enthusiasm. They prepared a power-point presentation marking his sports milestones, from joining the basketball team to becoming a hand-cycling champion. In return Edward talked about his life as an athlete and his accomplishments in the run-up to the 2012 games. He also tackled the subject of his disability and how important it is to have ambition, strong will and determination. His latest dream – one of many –is aiming for gold at the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic games.

The U.N. Security Council and Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon condemned Friday’s attack against a French UNIFIL patrol in southern Lebanon, hoping the perpetrators will be identified and calling for the respect of the freedom of movement of peacekeepers.

In a statement, the members of the Security Council condemned “in the strongest terms the terrorist attack” and “all attempts to threaten the security and stability of Lebanon.”

A Syrian blogger who said he was tortured for expressing his opinions called on world governments Friday to step up the fight for Internet freedom, saying it makes everyone a reporter.

Access to social media has helped to expose the violent crackdown on dissent in Syria, Amjad Baiazy told a conference hosted by Dutch Foreign Minister Uri Rosenthal in The Hague.

Afghan police have arrested four suspects in connection with an acid attack on a 17-year-old girl and her family, allegedly for refusing a marriage proposal, the interior ministry said Friday.

The attack in late November attracted widespread media coverage and highlighted the dangers still facing women in Afghanistan 10 years after the U.S.-led invasion ousted the repressive Taliban regime.

U.N. chief Ban Ki-moon urged Somalia's al-Qaida-linked insurgents to end violence during a surprise visit Friday to war-torn Mogadishu, where he arrived wearing a bullet-proof jacket.

Flanked by a guard wearing a white U.N. helmet, Ban was welcomed at the airport by Prime Minister Abdiweli Mohamed Ali on the first visit by a U.N. chief to Mogadishu, often described as the world's most dangerous city, in almost two decades.

The crew of a British warship have created a viral smash hit by miming to the words of Mariah Carey's "All I Want For Christmas Is You".

The four-minute video shows servicemen and women on HMS Ocean acting and dancing along to the 1994 song on the helicopter carrier's flight deck and below decks.

Syrian activists on Thursday launched a campaign of civil disobedience to pile pressure on President Bashar Assad, after he drew a stinging rebuke from the U.S. for denying he ordered a deadly crackdown.

Local human rights groups said more than 100 people have been killed in Syria since the weekend, and the U.N. estimates at least 4,000 have died since March when anti-regime protests erupted.

Syria's isolation will intensify if Damascus fails to stop killing protesters, the British Foreign Office's minister for the Middle East, Alistair Burt, said on Wednesday.

"These killings must stop," Burt told Agence France Presse in Tripoli, where he reopened the British Council which had been closed during the armed revolt against Moammar Gadhafi's regime.

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad denied ordering the killing of thousands of protesters and said "only a crazy person" would target his own people, in a U.S. television interview released Wednesday.

Speaking to ABC News, Assad brushed off widening international sanctions and questioned the U.N. death toll of more than 4,000 since the eruption of the unrest in March, saying most victims were government supporters.

Yemen's Prime Minister-designate Mohammed Basindawa said on Wednesday he had finalized his new unity government and would disclose the line-up later in the day.

"The government has been formed and we will announce it formally this evening," Basindawa told Agence France Presse in the Yemeni capital Sanaa.