The Trial Chamber of the Special Tribunal for Lebanon has scheduled the start of trial in the case of Ayyash et al. for Thursday, January 16, 2014, announced the STL in a statement on Tuesday.

It explained: “This decision has been made after consulting the parties to the case at the Trial Chamber’s last public hearing.”

Kuwait's Emir Sheikh Sabah al-Ahmed al-Sabah opened an annual summit of wealthy Gulf states on Tuesday with a call for an end to the "human catastrophe" in Syria.

Sheikh Sabah, who gave a share of the spotlight at the Gulf Cooperation Council summit to the head of Syria's main opposition bloc, also condemned the United Nations for failing to halt the 33-month conflict.

Free Patriotic Movement leader MP Michel Aoun on Monday denied accusations by Syrian rebels that the FPM has sent fighters to protect Christian places of worship in Syria, saying the claims might be a prelude to a “hostile act” against him.

“I was surprised by the claims and I would've done that publicly if I had the intention,” Aoun said during an interview with MTV, stressing that he does not have a “militia.”

President Michel Suleiman stated on Saturday his rejection of all foreign intervention schemes, adding that illegal arms have become a tool of destabilization in the country.

“The issue of the Lebanese identity has drawn foreign interference and it was only the result of local mistakes,” Suleiman said in a speech he gave at an event to unveil the busts of the 12 Lebanese presidents that have ruled the country since its independence in 1943., noting that Saturday's meeting aims at reviving “the cause.”

A group of nuns reportedly abducted from Syria's Maalula appeared Friday in a video broadcast by Al-Jazeera television, in which they reassured that they are in good health and would be released “in two days.”

“We are fine. We're staying at a beautiful villa and we'll leave in two days,” says one of the nuns in the video.

Hizbullah chief Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah on Tuesday accused Saudi Arabia of being behind the deadly bombings that targeted the Iranian embassy in southern Beirut, denying that large numbers of Hizbullah fighters were killed in the Syrian war.

“We believe the statement in which the Abdullah Azzam Brigades claimed responsibility for the attack on the Iranian embassy, because it is a well-known group and its emir is Saudi and it is linked to the Saudi intelligence,” Nasrallah stated in an interview on OTV.

Lebanon was ranked in 127th place in a survey carried by graft watchdog Transparency International on corruption in the public sector in 177 countries.

TI collates expert views on the problem from bodies such as the World Bank, African Development Bank, Economist Intelligence Unit, Bertelsmann Foundation, Freedom House and other groups.

Syrian rebels, including jihadist groups, captured the historic Christian town of Maalula north of Damascus on Monday, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

Rebels assaulted the town by rolling explosive-filled tires down the hills onto regime forces and were able to reach the city center after three days of intense fighting, with clashes still raging in the surrounding areas.

Paul Walker, the star of the "Fast & Furious" movie series, died Saturday in a car crash that killed one other person north of Los Angeles, his publicist said. He was 40.

Walker died Saturday afternoon, Ame Van Iden told The Associated Press.

Hizbullah is operating a fleet of 200 unmanned aerial vehicles on the border with Syria, American online newspaper World Tribune reported.

“Sources in the country said Hizbullah was operating UAVs throughout Lebanon,” the online news portal added