Libya's foreign minister expressed hopes for a "political solution" to end the two-month conflict in his country, his Cypriot counterpart said after the pair held talks on Thursday.

Abdelati Laabidi reiterated a "commitment to the initiative of the African Union and the wish for a political solution to be achieved," Cypriot Foreign Minister Marcos Kyprianou told reporters in Nicosia.

Germany's foreign minister said Friday the situation in Libya could not be solved through "military means" and called for a ceasefire, amid a NATO-led air campaign against Moammar Gadhafi's forces.

Guido Westerwelle made the comments after meeting his Chinese counterpart Yang Jiechi in Beijing on an official trip that will be followed by a visit to disaster-struck Japan.

The March 14 General Secretariat condemned on Wednesday attempts by some media outlets to involve Lebanon in Syria’s popular opposition movements, which claimed that some independence movements in Lebanon are inciting unrest in the Arab state.

It called on in a statement after its weekly meeting these outlets to cease their “rumors” which it believed are an attempt to employ the developments in the Arab world on the internal Lebanese political scene, demanding that legal action be taken against them.

U.N. Security Council members have expressed hope that Premier-designate Najib Miqati would overcome obstacles and form a cabinet as “soon as possible.”

An Nahar daily said Wednesday that the 15-member Council also hoped the new government would remain committed to Lebanon’s international obligations, mainly the Special Tribunal for Lebanon.

United against Nuclear Iran (UANI) called the CMA CGM Group (CMA CGM) to follow the lead of other responsible corporations and cease all business activities in or with Iran, reported Business Wire on March 10.

CMA CGM, a privately owned French company and the third largest shipping container company worldwide, is listed on UANI’s Iran Business Registry (IBR).

Nine powerful explosions early Monday shook the city of Sirte as rebels closed in on loyalist troops holding Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi's home town, an Agence France Presse journalist reported.

The latest blasts followed two explosions on Sunday evening in the city, blamed by Libyan state television on an air raid by coalition forces.

U.S. President Barack Obama said Saturday the international mission in Libya was clear and focused and succeeding and had saved countless innocents from a "bloodbath" threatened by Moammar Gadhafi.

Under increasing pressure to explain his strategy to Americans, Obama gave his most detailed review of the conflict so far, and insisted American national interests were behind his decision to order U.S. forces into U.N.-mandated combat.

A U.S. F-15 jet crashed in Libya due to a technical fault late Monday while enforcing a no-fly zone and both its crew ejected safely, the U.S. Africa command said Tuesday.

"Two crew members ejected from their U.S. Air Force F-15E Strike Eagle when the aircraft experienced equipment malfunction over northeast Libya, March 21, 2011 at approximately 10:30 pm CET," the command, based in the western German city of Stuttgart, said in a statement.

The U.N. Security Council began a closed-door meeting on Libya Monday, diplomats said, amid rising international criticism of air strikes directed at the regime of Moammar Gadhafi.

Missile and air strikes launched over the weekend by U.S., British and French forces targeted Libyan air defense systems to impose a no-fly zone on Gadhafi's forces, and on Sunday demolished a building in the Libyan leader's compound.

Fighting raged around Libya's rebel stronghold of Benghazi Saturday ahead of a key meeting in Paris to discuss international military action against Moammar Gadhafi's government forces.

The southern edge of the city suffered at least two air strikes and sustained shelling, sending thick smoke into the sky, and a warplane crashed in flames, an Agence France Presse reporter said.