Britain and France have raised the case of a dissident hunger striker with Egypt's President Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi, a day after the jailed activist started refusing water.

Alaa Abdel Fattah, a British-Egyptian, stopped drinking water on Sunday to coincide with the opening of the COP27 climate summit in Egypt.

The American father and son duo who helped former Nissan chairman Carlos Ghosn dramatically escape from Japan have been returned to the United States after spending 20 months in Japanese jails, their lawyer said Monday.

Hezbollah deputy chief Sheikh Naim Qassem has said that his Iran-backed party is not seeking a change of the political system in Lebanon.

“During this period, Hezbollah has not called for amending or changing the political system related to the Taif Accord, in light of the sensitivities present in Lebanon, and because the problem in the first place is not in amending it or not but rather in implementing what was stipulated in the Taif Accord,” Qassem said in an interview with Iran’s FARS news agency.

As several Free Patriotic Movement lawmakers announced that their parliamentary bloc will not cast blank votes in Thursday’s presidential election session, an independent MP told ad-Diyar newspaper that a “surprise” candidate will be voted for in the session.

The U.S. Embassy in Beirut has announced the expansion of interview waiver eligibility for Lebanese citizens who are renewing B1/B2 tourist and business visas.

Lebanese citizens of ages 50 and older and whose B1/B2 visas have expired within the last 24 months may qualify for Interview Waiver which allows for visa renewal without an interview.

Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri on Monday warned that Lebanon can only bear a few more “weeks” of further deterioration at all levels.

Deputy Speaker Elias Bou Saab has said that he will not cast a blank vote in Thursday's presidential election session.

Bou saab told LBCI that "blank ballots are no longer acceptable," and that all the MPs of the Free Patriotic movement have agreed on this.

A parliamentary committees session to discuss the long-awaited capital control law was adjourned Monday due to the absence of Central Bank Governor Riad Salameh, Deputy Speaker Elias Bou Saab said.

Caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati held meetings Monday in Sharm el-Sheikh with International Monetary Fund chief Kristalina Georgieva, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, Iraqi President Abdul Latif Rashid and Pakistani PM Shehbaz Sharif.

Mikati and the IMF chief discussed “the steps that Lebanon has taken since the preliminary agreement was signed between Lebanon and the Fund,” Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency reported.

Lebanon is in the most dangerous stage of its political, economic, financial and social history, said Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi.

Al-Rahi said Monday that war makers cannot make peace, and that the ruling class has failed to elect a new president because "those who made the war are ruling our country."