Libanon

A UN-backed court based in the Netherlands unveiled new charges Monday, including terrorism and intentional homicide, against a Hezbollah fighter who also is accused of assassinating former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafiq Hariri.

Hezbollah said it downed an Israeli drone in southern Lebanon in another flare-up raising tensions between the Iran-backed group and Israel.

Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah has openly threatened Israel with attacks as the group has increased its military might. Two weeks before Israeli parliamentary elections, the risk of war is growing.

Lebanon is struggling with one of the world's heaviest public debt burdens, at about 150 percent of GDP. … On Monday, Lebanon declared a "state of economic emergency", with Hariri saying the government would take emergency measures to speed up economic reforms to help overcome a worsening crisis.

Incident comes days after alleged Israeli drone crashed in a southern Beirut suburb while another exploded nearby.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has hit back at critics following a series of alleged air strikes across the Middle East. Mr Netanyahu also accused Iran of producing "terror attacks" and said Israel would defend itself "by any means necessary". It comes after reports of strikes against Iranian targets and Iran-backed militias in Syria, Iraq and Lebanon. … Israel has put its military on high alert along its frontiers with Syria and Lebanon.

The Israeli military carried out air strikes on a Palestinian militant group backed by Syria's government in eastern Lebanon overnight, Lebanese media say. A position of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine-General Command near Qusaya was hit, the state-run National News Agency reported. The group responded with a barrage of anti-aircraft fire, it added.

Lebanese official says findings from investigation into a shooting incident which sparked political crisis would be reported to the cabinet, which is meeting for the first time in weeks.

A prominent Lebanese daily Thursday appeared on newsstands with a black front page in the second such protest by a local paper in less than a year over the country's lingering political crisis.

US and UN interim force in Lebanon to mediate discussions between Middle East rivals.