At least seven people have been killed and dozens of others injured in two explosions near the Iranian Embassy in the Lebanese capital, Beirut.

Syrian president Bashar Assad has been quoted by a Lebanese TV station as saying a shipment of Russian air defence missiles has arrived in his country.

Syrian rebels seeking to topple President Bashar Assad fought intense battles with his troops today at two military air bases in northern Syria, activists said.

Celebrations have erupted across the Middle East after Hosni Mubarak stepped down as Egypt’s president.

Two rockets were fired from Lebanon into Israel today, prompting Israel to respond and fire at least two rockets back, Lebanese security and military officials said.

A GUNMAN infiltrated a Jewish seminary in Jerusalem and opened fire in a library last night, killing at least seven people, officials said.

Government and opposition supporters clashed at a Beirut university campus today, battering each other with sticks, stones and even pieces of furniture in new violence spilling over from Lebanon’s political crisis.

Hezbollah-led protesters burned tyres and cars and clashed with government supporters, paralysing Beirut and areas across Lebanon in the worst violence yet in the pro-Iranian group’s campaign to topple US-backed Prime Minister Fuad Saniora.

Hezbollah said its guerrillas clashed early today with an Israeli commando force that landed near their stronghold of Baalbek deep inside Lebanon.

Israel’s military struck Lebanon’s largest Palestinian refugee camp early today, killing at least two people and wounding five, officials said. In the eastern Bekaa Valley five people were killed and two feared dead in an Israeli raid.

Israel’s military struck Lebanon’s largest Palestinian refugee camp early today, killing at least one person and wounding three others, officials said.

Israeli artillery pounded villages and hills throughout south Lebanon while a complete curfew was imposed on any civilians still trapped in the heart of the war zone.

Hezbollah’s leader offered for the first time today to stop rocket attacks on northern Israel in return for an end to airstrikes throughout Lebanon.

Israeli missiles struck a southern Lebanese village today killing about 50 civilians – half of them children – when the building they sought refuge in collapsed.

Up to 50 people were killed today – more than half of them children – when Israeli missiles struck a southern Lebanese village early today, flattening houses on top of sleeping residents.

Israeli warplanes and artillery intensified strikes today, hitting Hezbollah positions and crushing houses and roads in towns in southern Lebanon, killing as many as 12 people, officials said.

A top Israeli general today said he expected Israel’s offensive in Lebanon to last several more weeks.

Hezbollah fighters battled to stop Israeli forces from capturing the southern Lebanese town of Bint Jbail today, with the guerrilla group’s TV station reporting one Israeli soldier killed and five wounded.

Israeli forces resumed attacks on Lebanon at daybreak today, pounding the country’s main road link to Syria with missiles and setting passenger buses on fire.

Israeli troops met fierce resistance from Hezbollah guerrillas today as they crossed into Lebanon to seek tunnels and weapons for a second consecutive day as Israel refused to rule out a full-scale invasion.

Israeli warplanes dropped 23 tons of bombs on a bunker in south Beirut where the army believed senior Hezbollah leaders were hiding, a senior army official said today, but the guerrilla group denied the site was a bunker or that its leadership had been hurt.

Israeli troops fought Hezbollah guerrillas in southern Lebanon today, and there were Israeli casualties, the Israeli military said in Jerusalem.

Israeli warplanes renewed attacks on Lebanon early today, targeting bridges and fuel storage tanks and petrol stations in the east and south, security officials said.

ISRAEL bombed the home of Hezbollah’s leader in Beirut yesterday as part of a widening assault in Lebanon since Shi’ite fighters captured two Israeli soldiers and killed eight.

YESTERDAY’S developments in the Israel-Lebanon crisis stem from the capture of two Israeli soldiers by Hezbollah.

The Israeli military has imposed a naval blockade on Lebanon.

A Lebanese guerrilla was killed and two Lebanese civilians were wounded in cross-border fighting today as Lebanese gunmen responded to Israeli airstrikes by attacking Israel, the Hezbollah’s Al Manar TV said.

A Hezbollah militia leader was killed in a car bomb explosion in a southern Beirut suburb, a spokesman for the Islamic militant group said.

Two suicide bombers blew themselves up in Tel Aviv, killing three bystanders, including two foreign workers, and injuring more than 40, police and witnesses said.