Twenty people have been killed and 95 others injured in two explosions near the Iranian Embassy in the Lebanese capital, Beirut.

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

Gunmen have ambushed a van carrying a Turkish Airlines crew in the Lebanese capital and kidnapped a pilot and a co-pilot.

Gunmen have ambushed a van carrying a Turkish Airlines crew in the Lebanese capital and kidnapped a pilot and a co-pilot.

Syrian troops ousted rebels from the strategic town of Qusair near the Lebanese border yesterday, after a devastating 17-day assault led by Hezbollah fighters from across the frontier.

President Bashar Assad’s army is now in full control of the embattled border town of Qusair where fighting raged with rebels for nearly three weeks, Syrian state TV said today.

The leader of Lebanon’s Hezbollah has warned that the fall of Syrian president Bashar Assad’s regime would give rise to extremists and plunge the Middle East into a “dark period”.

Syrian troops pushed into a rebel-held town near the Lebanese border yesterday, fighting house-to-house and bombing from the air.

The US said today that it will double its assistance to Syria’s opposition as the rebels vowed to step up their two-year battle to oust President Bashar Assad’s regime.

Syrian authorities have beefed up security measures in Damascus as rebels fighting to topple President Bashar Assad urged supporters to mark the second anniversary of the country’s uprising by stepping up attacks against the regime.

It is being hailed as a miracle in a conflict that has seen endless misery.

The Syrian army shot dead at least five people in a town near the Lebanese border and stormed another town near Turkey's border, activists said.

RESIDENTS of a Syrian town near the Lebanese border have spoken of alleged acts carried out against them by the army including murder, torture, detention and deprivation of liberty.

ISRAELI troops fired at demonstrators in Syria who rushed toward the border fence yesterday in what Israel called a challenge to its sovereignty, killing 14 and leaving around 225 injured.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas today declared three days of mourning for the 15 people killed in mass protest marches toward Israel’s borders from Gaza, Syria and Lebanon.

A 12-YEAR-OLD chimpanzee was heading to a sanctuary in Brazil yesterday after animal rights workers discovered him smoking cigarettes to entertain visitors at a Lebanese zoo.

Iran’s president taunted arch-enemy Israel from just across the tense border in Lebanon, rallying tens of thousands of Hezbollah supporters as Israeli attack helicopters buzzed nearby.

LEBANESE troops battled Islamist militants based in a Palestinian refugee camp yesterday and more than 40 people were killed in Lebanon’s bloodiest internal fighting since the 1975-90 civil war.

Soldiers reinforced patrols and checkpoints around Beirut today following a rare night-time curfew imposed by authorities seeking to quell escalating clashes between factions supporting the Western-backed government and Hezbollah protesters trying to bring it down.

Life was returning to normal in the Lebanese capital and around the country today, a day after violent confrontation between government supporters and opponents killed three people and wounded dozens in the worst escalation of the Hezbollah-led opposition’s campaign to topple Prime Minister Fuad Saniora’s Western-backed Cabinet.

A LEBANESE man questioned by gardaí investigating the brutal murder of Latvian woman Baiba Saulite last November was arrested in Limerick months earlier when gardaí foiled an elaborate murder plot by a Limerick feud gang.

Turkish soldiers and civilians today arrived in Beirut to join the UN peacekeeping force in south Lebanon, making Turkey the first Muslim country to contribute troops to the mission.

A column of French UN peacekeepers and military vehicles including four tanks today left to take up position in southern Lebanon on the border zone with Israel.

ISRAEL lifted its naval blockade of Lebanon yesterday after European warships began patrolling to keep out weapons shipments for Hezbollah guerrillas, the head of the UN peacekeeping force in Lebanon said.

Workers at Lebanon’s only airport today prepared to receive a full flow of commercial flights as Israel pledged to lift an air and sea blockade imposed nearly two months ago when the war with Hezbollah guerrillas erupted.

Lebanon’s prime minister, caught in a vice of conflicting demands by Israel and Syria, side-stepped Israeli insistence that international forces be deployed on the Syrian border and said today that Lebanese troops already there posed no threat to its prickly Arab neighbour.

The United Nations has received pledges of 3,500 troops for an expanded peacekeeping force in Lebanon, but it is unclear whether the soldiers represent the right mix of countries and units that could deploy quickly.

Israeli airstrikes pounded south Beirut and border crossings to Syria, killing at least 13 people across Lebanon as ground fighting picked up intensity.

Israel and Hezbollah sharply intensified fighting with punishing airstrikes, scores of rocket attacks and brutal ground fighting – an apparent bid to inflict maximum mutual damage in the few days remaining before a draft UN cease-fire resolution takes hold.

An Israeli missile hit a house in a Lebanese border village early today, killing a family of three, Lebanese security officials said.

Eight thousand Israeli troops pressed the first full day of a massive new ground attack in southern Lebanon today and said they seized five Hezbollah fighters in a dramatic raid on a north-eastern town.

Israel launched its deepest ground strike into Lebanon today, claiming it had killed 10 Hezbollah guerrillas and captured five in the northeastern city of Baalbek, while nearby air strikes killed at least 15 civilians.

Protesters angry over an Israeli airstrike in Qana that killed up to 50 refugees broke into the main UN building in the Lebanese capital Beirut today, burning UN and American flags.

Hezbollah’s leader Hassan Nasrallah threatened more rocket attacks on cities in central Israel tonight and dismissed a new diplomatic effort by US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, saying the United States wants the fighting to continue.

ELIEZER Asulin lives alone in the remains of his home, half-destroyed by a direct hit from a Hezbollah rocket fired from Lebanon.

FIERCE fighting has been raging at the Lebanese border as Israeli troops moved to besiege the biggest town there — Bint Jbail, nicknamed the “capital of the resistance” due to its intense support of Hezbollah during Israel’s 1982-2000 occupation of the south.

British and American officials said their evacuations from Lebanon were wrapping up today, as ships continued to carry people to safety in Cyprus and Turkey.

Israeli troops took control of a village just across the Lebanese border today, after the area was pounded by bombs and artillery through the night.

Israeli troops and tanks massed on Lebanon’s border today and officials said the army was preparing for a limited incursion in Lebanon in the near future.

Warplanes resumed strikes on targets across Lebanon today as Israel warned hundreds of thousands of people to flee the south “immediately”, preparing for a likely ground invasion to set up a deep buffer zone in southern Lebanon.

A SECOND convoy of Irish evacuees was bused out of Lebanon yesterday as aid workers announced a diversion of funds to help any humanitarian disaster.

Israeli troops met fierce resistance from Hezbollah guerrillas today as they crossed into Lebanon to seek tunnels and weapons after warning residents in a nearly 20 mile swath of the south along the border to flee.

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 air strikes killed 42 people across Lebanon yesterday, including 10 civilians hit on a southern bridge, on the sixth day of a bombardment that has wreaked the heaviest destruction in Lebanon for over 20 years.