Every Sunday, the gymnasium along Beirut's airport highway echoes with the shouting and laughter of dozens of Syrian children enjoying a rare escape from a grim and confined life in exile.

The Sport 4 Development program, run by the U.N. children's agency, aims to bring 12,000 children, mostly Syrian refugees, to blacktops and turf pitches this year to teach the basics of soccer and basketball, and to ease the pain of war and displacement.

A U.S. military delegation is expected to arrive in Lebanon next week to discuss with the Lebanese army the repercussions of the Syrian war on Lebanon and to weigh the developments on the Lebanese-Syrian border where the army is facing militants, al-Joumhouria daily reported on Thursday.

U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) Commander General Joseph L. Votel, is expected to make an “unusual” visit to Lebanon next week, well-informed sources told the daily on condition of anonymity.

The Members of the International Support Group (ISG) reaffirmed Wednesday “their commitment to the stability and security of Lebanon,” an ISG joint statement said.

A 12-member Israeli force crossed the electronic fence overnight in the outskirts of the southern border town of Mays al-Jabal in the Kroum al-Sharqi area, media reports said Wednesday.

The Syndicate Coordination Committee, a coalition of private and public school teachers and public sector employees, staged a demo outside the Grand Serail on Wednesday, warning the political class over the fate of the academic year and the upcoming parliamentary elections should it fail to approve the long-stalled new wage scale.

“Should the Cabinet fail to deal positively with our outcry, we will resort to major escalatory steps, and let the ruling class bear the responsibility for the school year and the upcoming elections,” SCC official Nehme Mahfoud warned during the sit-in.

Israel's environment ministry announced Wednesday it will not renew the license of an ammonia container in the port city of Haifa as it poses a potentially deadly threat to residents.

The container, which holds 12,000 tons of the toxic, corrosive liquid, puts the public "at a risk we cannot accept," the ministry said in a statement.

A Lebanese national and U.S. permanent resident sentenced to 10 years in prison in Iran has confessed that he had tried to "encourage decadence" in the Iranian society, an Iranian semi-official news agency has quoted a Revolutionary Guard commander as saying.

Speaker Nabih Berri held talks Wednesday in Tehran with Iranian President Hassan Rouhani and Iranian Parliament Speaker Ali Larijani.

Israeli warplanes struck Hizbullah and Syrian army targets in a number of hills in the Syria-Lebanon border region at dawn Wednesday, media reports said, drawing a rebuttal from Hizbullah sources.

A delegation from Hizbullah's Loyalty to Resistance parliamentary bloc held talks Wednesday with President Michel Aoun at the Baabda Palace.