European Union ambassadors to Lebanon praised on Thursday the government’s choice of stability, independence, and sovereignty, encouraging the country’s leaders to maintain this path.

Ambassador Angelina Eichhorst said: “We express our trust that Lebanon will continue to honor its international obligations in 2012 as derived from U.N. Security Council resolutions, including with respect to the U.N. Interim Forces in Lebanon and continued cooperation with the Special Tribunal for Lebanon.”

China on Wednesday called on Iran and the U.N. atomic watchdog to cooperate over a new uranium enrichment plant, amid mounting international tensions over Tehran's nuclear program.

The comments came as U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner met Chinese leaders to try to press the case for sanctions on Iran, which Beijing -- a key consumer of Iranian oil -- has repeatedly opposed.

Four hundred people have been killed in Syria since Arab League monitors started a monitoring mission on December 26, and 40 people are being killed each day, a top U.N. official told the Security Council on Tuesday.

U.N. assistant secretary general B. Lynn Pascoe gave the new casualty figure in a closed meeting of the 15-member Council, according to envoys.

The United States on Friday urged Latin American countries not to deepen ties with Iran as Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad prepared to visit Venezuela, Nicaragua, Cuba and Ecuador.

"As the regime feels increasing pressure, it is desperate for friends and flailing around in interesting places to find new friends," State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said when asked about Ahmadinejad's trip.

The recent claims about the presence of al-Qaida in Lebanon have pushed U.N. chief Ban Ki-moon to stir the issue of the demarcation of the Lebanese-Syrian border with top Lebanese officials next week, informed sources said Thursday.

The sources told An Nahar daily that Defense Minister Fayez Ghosn’s allegations that al-Qaida was operating in the eastern town of Arsal and the contradictory statements made by officials later on, have forced Ban to discuss with the Lebanese officials about a request to demarcate the border in accordance with U.N. Security Council resolution 1680.

Palestinian leaders decided on Saturday to seek sessions of the U.N. Security Council and the Arab League, hoping for action to halt Israeli settlement.

A statement by the executive committee of the Palestine Liberation Organization said continued settlement growth in the occupied West Bank and east Jerusalem was liable "to destroy all chances of a peace process and the two-state solution."

Russia urged its ally Syria on Wednesday to provide as much freedom as possible for observers from the Arab League that began their first inspections of flashpoint cities this week.

"We constantly work with the Syrian leadership calling on it to fully cooperate with observers from the Arab League and to create work conditions that are as comfortable and free as possible," Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said at a news conference with his Egyptian counterpart.

The Arab League must bring the U.N. into the effort to stop Syria's bloody crackdown on protesters, the top opposition leader said Sunday, as security forces pressed ahead with raids and arrests around the country.

Burhan Ghalioun, the Paris-based leader of the Syrian National Council, made the plea as Arab League officials were setting up observer teams, part of their plan to end nine months of turmoil that has killed more than 5,000 people, according to the U.N.

The opposition Syrian National Council appealed Sunday for the Arab League to immediately send observers to the besieged city of Homs and other hotspots of a bloody crackdown on dissent, as activists said security forces killed 10 civilians across the country.

The call came a day before a first group of Arab League observers is set to arrive in Syria to begin monitoring a deal the 22-member bloc agreed with the government in Damascus aimed at ending nine months of violence.

The Arab League chief condemned on Saturday two deadly bombings against Syrian security forces in Damascus, saying the attacks would not affect a mission of observers to oversee an end to the bloodshed.

Nabil al-Arabi, who met the mission's head, Sudanese General Mohammed Ahmed Mustafa al-Dabi on Saturday as he prepared to leave for Damascus, also called for "an immediate end to all violence and killings by any side."