President Michel Aoun said Thursday, at the beginning of a regular Cabinet session, that the port blast probe must resume quickly.

"The stalemate has been unjust to some detainees who might be innocent," he added, as he pointed out that many issues must be addressed quickly before the government becomes a caretaker government.

A Manhattan federal court jury returned a mixed verdict Wednesday in the trial of a New Jersey software developer who authorities say researched and photographed U.S. landmarks for possible attacks.

The jury was unable to reach a verdict on one terrorism charge — providing material support for a terrorist group — but found Alexei Saab, 44, had received military-type training from Hizbullah.

The Lebanese parliament voted in on Sunday will have to tackle overdue reforms required for international assistance the cash-strapped country desperately needs. 

After Lebanon struck a conditional deal with the International Monetary Fund for a $3 billion aid package, AFP looks at the challenges that await incoming lawmakers in a country where there is little consensus on a roadmap for financial recovery.

Interior Minister Bassam Mawlawi has called on Lebanon’s Sunni community to turn out heavily in the May 15 parliamentary elections, warning that “reluctance from practicing the right of voting would deepen the country’s crises.”

“You actively took part in founding the country and enshrining its National Pact. You did not take part in civil war and you did not take up arms. Today you are invited to participate heavily in pulling Lebanon out of a war that is of another nature – the war of poverty, deprivation and employment, which has entered into the homes of all Lebanese,” Mawlawi said in an interview with the Saudi al-Bilad newspaper.

President Michel Aoun on Wednesday sent a cable of condolences to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas over the killing of veteran Al-Jazeera journalist Shireen Abu Aqleh with “treacherous Israeli bullets as she was practicing her journalistic work.”

“As she joins the procession of the martyrs of occupied Palestine, who faced the Israeli occupation’s arrogance with their firm will, she confirms once again, with her blood, that this brutal occupation has total disregard for all international conventions and laws that govern journalistic work,” Aoun says in the cable.

Prime Minister Najib Miqati urged the Lebanese Wednesday to cast their votes in the parliamentary elections on Sunday.

"Voting is a right and duty that one should not refrain from nor hesitate to perform," Miqati said.

Lebanon, a small Middle East country wracked by political and economic turmoil and the fallout of the decade-old Syrian conflict next door, holds parliamentary elections on May 15.

Here are some key facts about Lebanon.

The "destructive actions" of Lebanon’s political and financial leaders are responsible for forcing most of the country’s population into poverty, in violation of international human rights law, the U.N. Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights, Olivier De Schutter, said in a report published Wednesday.

Urging the country to "change course," De Schutter accused the central bank of an "accounting sleight of hand regarding its losses... that covertly created a massive public debt... which will condemn the Lebanese for generations."

Lebanon, which holds parliamentary elections on May 15, has been mired in a deep financial, economic and social crisis, aggravated by a political deadlock.

Lebanon's elections Sunday won't yield a seismic shift despite widespread discontent with a graft-tainted political class blamed for a painful economic crisis and a deadly disaster, experts say.