The CIA and Israel's spy agency Mossad were behind an elaborate plot to kill Hizbullah commander Jihad Mughniyeh in a 2008 car bomb attack in Syria, the Washington Post reported Friday.

Citing former intelligence officials, the newspaper reported that U.S. and Israeli spy agencies worked together to target Mughniyeh on February 12, 2008 as he left a restaurant in the Syrian capital Damascus.

France urged Lebanon and Israel to exercise self-restraint to prevent any escalation along the border, stressing that Paris encourages the Lebanese political foes to end the presidential deadlock.

“France prioritizes Lebanon's” concerns, French Ambassador to Lebanon Patrice Paoli stressed in an interview published in An Nahar newspaper on Saturday.

Speaker Nabih Berri stressed on Saturday that Israel shattered the rules of engagement after its attack on Hizbullah's convoy in Syria's Quneitra, pointing out that the party's retaliation didn't violate the U.N. Security Council resolution 1701.

“It was a clean and fully examined operation that occurred on an occupied Lebanese land,” Berri's visitors quoted him as saying in comments published in al-Joumhouria newspaper.

Lebanese officials received warnings from foreign countries over attempts to drag Lebanon into a new confrontation with Israel despite Prime Minister Tammam Salam's moderate stance from the latest developments along the border.

According to An Nahar newspaper published on Saturday, U.S. and French officials contacted several ministers to stand on the cabinet's stance from Hizbullah chief Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah's speech.

The head of al-Mustaqbal Movement and ex-Prime Minister, Saad Hariri, is expected to deliver a televised speech on February 14 to mark the assassination of his father and former premier Rafik Hariri.

The March 14 alliance is gearing up to mark the 10th assassination anniversary of Hariri at the BIEL exhibition center in downtown Beirut, al-Liwaa newspaper reported on Saturday.

Nigeria's Supreme Court on Friday quashed the conviction of a Lebanese national who had been sentenced to life in prison for conspiring to import weapons, purportedly on behalf of Hizbullah.

The five judges of the country's top court unanimously ruled that prosecutors made a crucial technical error and should have tried Talal Ahmad Roda in the northern city of Kano, where he was arrested, rather than the capital Abuja.

Justice Minister Ashraf Rifi on Friday asked the public prosecution to seek the arrest and penalization of those who opened fire in celebration of a much-anticipated speech by Hizbullah chief Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah.

The celebratory gunshots and rocket-propelled grenades sparked panic and damaged cars and the facades of some buildings in the capital Beirut and its suburbs.

Two members of Casino du Liban's board of directors submitted their resignations on Friday against the backdrop of a growing crisis that was triggered by the dismissal of 191 contract employees, as both parties rejected an initiative proposed by Labor Minister Sejaan Qazzi.

“George Nakhle and Hisham Nasser have resigned from the board of directors of Casino du Liban,” several TV networks and Change and Reform bloc MP Simon Abi Rabia announced.

Spain and Israel have agreed to carry out a joint investigation on the death of a Spanish U.N. peacekeeper who was killed in Lebanon during Israeli shelling near the border, Madrid said on Friday.

The soldier was killed on Wednesday when the Israeli military shelled border areas in southern Lebanon following a Hizbullah attack that left two Israeli soldiers dead, Spanish authorities said.

Armed men kidnapped on Thursday night a teenager in the northeastern border town of Arsal and took him to the village's outskirts, the third such operation in ten days.

He was later released on Friday afternoon, reported the National News Agency.