Lebanon has been eliminated as Canada, Latvia, Montenegro, Lithuania and Germany all headed to the round of 16 of the Basketball World Cup.

Debutants Latvia beat Lebanon in their opening game and sent heavyweights France crashing to a shock Basketball World Cup first-round exit on Sunday, while Canada underlined their title credentials in a blowout win over Lebanon.

Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi on Sunday called on security authorities to “enhance the protection of Lebanese border crossings.”

“We are praying for officials to rise above their private interests,” al-Rahi said in his Sunday Mass sermon.

General Security acting Director-General Maj. Gen. Elias Bayssari has announced the arrest of two individuals at Beirut’s airport who are suspected of having ties to Israel.

Journalist Talal Salman, who founded one of Lebanon's largest Arabic-language independent newspapers, died Friday after a long illness, the state-run National News Agency said. He was 85.

An Arab nationalist whose role model was late Egyptian President Gamal Abdul-Nasser, Salman devoted much of his writing to the Palestinian cause and calls for Arab unity.

Israel’s internal security agency, the Shin Bet, has said that four Arab Israeli citizens have been arrested in a joint operation with the police and the Israeli army over the possession of a large amount of "high quality" Iranian-made weapons including two explosive devices.

One of the men had been in contact with an operative of Lebanon-based Hezbollah, the agency said.

A Monaco investigation into caretaker PM Najib Mikati and his family has been concluded, resulting in the dismissal of all allegations and closure of the case, a press release issued by the Mikati family said.

Following a comprehensive investigation, Monaco’s Judicial Police confirmed on August 23 that there was no evidence of any wrongdoing regarding money laundering allegations made more than three years ago, the press release said.

Latvia turned its first FIBA World Cup game into an easy 109-70 win over Lebanon on Friday despite a late-game surge by the Lebanese team.

Rolands Smits had 17 points for Latvia, which had a 10-point lead midway through the first quarter and kept pulling away.

Former Progressive Socialist Party leader Walid Jumblat has lamented that “no one today wants a settlement” in the country.

“But it is the thing we need the most. A settlement for the sake of the country and not for the sake of any party in this or that camp,” Jumblat added, in an interview with al-Akhbar newspaper published Friday.

The latest French proposal for dialogue among the Lebanese parties is still unchanged, but Paris does not mind receiving objections and suggestions to discuss them and clarify them, especially if some parties are dismayed or have concerns, a French diplomatic source said.

“The previous package, which stood for a president in return for a premier, is no longer on the table, because it did not lead to a result,” the source told al-Joumhouria newspaper in remarks published Friday.

Interim Central Bank Governor Wassim Mansouri on Friday announced that the bank will not print Lebanese currency to cover for the state's deficit, stressing that financial regularity cannot be achieved without “passing the reforms.”

“I urge all political forces to keep the monetary authority out of political bickering, seeing as the current stalemate would negatively affect the economy and contribute to the isolation of Lebanon internationally,” Mansouri added at a press conference.