The four Iranians kidnapped in Lebanon at the height of the civil war are alive and being held in Israel, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has said.

“Regarding the four abducted Iranian diplomats, there are documents (which prove) they are alive and in the hands of the Zionist regime,” Ahmadinejad was quoted by Iran’s Fars News Agency as telling U.N. chief Ban Ki-moon during a meeting in New York on Saturday.

An Israeli court has ordered the government to pay $432,000 to the family of a prominent Palestinian peace activist whose 10-year-old daughter was killed by an Israeli rubber bullet in 2007.

Abir Aramin was standing at a distance from stone-throwing demonstrators in the village of Anata, north of Jerusalem, when Israeli forces fired rubber-coated steel bullets to disperse the protest. One hit Abir, and she died of her wounds two days later.

U.N. chief Ban Ki-moon has expressed concern over Lebanese accusations about Israel’s encroachment on Lebanese waters, saying that any unilateral action would harm all countries in the region, a U.N. source said.

The source told An Nahar daily published Monday that Ban told President Michel Suleiman during his visit to New York last week that the U.N. can play a role in the delineation of Lebanon’s maritime borders under a Security Council resolution.

Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman said Sunday he favors the adoption of a plan by the international Quartet that foresees a peace deal with the Palestinians by the end of 2012.

"I think we must accept the Quartet proposal, for it includes a very positive point -- the opening of negotiations with no preconditions," he told Israeli public radio from New York.

Thousands of cheering Palestinians welcomed their president Mahmoud Abbas at his Ramallah headquarters on Sunday as he returned from delivering a historic U.N. membership bid.

An Agence France Presse reporter saw Abbas descend from his motorcade and enter the presidential building known as the Muqataa.

International efforts to get Palestinians and Israelis back to talks in the next four weeks will be a test of the "sincerity" of the foes, according to Middle East envoy Tony Blair.

And the ambitious target set by the United States, Russia, the European Union and the United Nations to restart direct negotiations could become a pressing new deadline, diplomats say.

An Israeli commando force helped a top Hizbullah official escape to Israel a month ago, An Nahar said Sunday under the daily's 'Secrets of the Gods' tidbit but without saying that he is a member of the Shiite party.

“Abou Abed Ismail’s rank is similar to a Minister of Infrastructure in his party,” it said without mentioning Hizbullah. “The commando force helped him escape from Lebanon a month ago after meeting him at a border village.”

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Saturday he is ready to accept a Quartet plan that foresees a peace deal with the Palestinians by the end of 2012.

"If the Quartet calls for the resumption of direct negotiations without preconditions, I think it's an important thing," Netanyahu said in an interview with Channel 10 from the United States.

Speaker Nabih Berri on Friday lashed out at a speech given by Israeli Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the United Nations General Assembly, Saying it was filled with “contempt” and “grudge.”

“Hizbullah doesn’t preside over the U.N. Security Council nor do President Michel Suleiman and Prime Minister (Najib Miqati), but Lebanon does the state that was slaughtered (by Israel) in 1996,” Berri said in a statement.

Former Prime Minister Saad Hariri praised on Saturday Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas’ speech at the United Nations where he demanded that Palestine be admitted as a full member state at the international organization.

He said in a statement: “The speech revealed Israel’s hostile plans and its hidden intentions to reject all efforts to achieve peace.”