Mount Lebanon Prosecutor Judge Ghada Aoun has frozen the assets of five of Lebanon's largest banks and those of their board of directors as she investigates possible transfers of billions of dollars aboard during the country's economic meltdown.

The state-run National News Agency said the decision covers real estate, vehicles and shares that the five banks or their directors own in other companies.

Today, Tuesday, doors will close for candidacy for the parliament elections on May 15.

A low turnout is expected in the Sunni community, as former prime minister Saad Hariri's political exit created a vacuum and a need for a new mantle.

Russia's offensive in Ukraine edged closer to central Kyiv on Tuesday, with a series of strikes hitting a residential neighborhood as the leaders of three NATO member countries planned a visit to Ukraine's embattled capital.

Shortly before dawn, large explosions thundered across Kyiv from what Ukrainian authorities said was artillery strikes. The shelling ignited a huge fire and a frantic rescue effort in a 15-story apartment building. At least one person was killed and others remain trapped inside.

Iranian state television has reported that the paramilitary Revolutionary Guard arrested members of a "network" working for Israel that planned to sabotage Iran's major underground nuclear facility at Fordo.

The TV claimed that the "Zionist regime" — a Tehran reference meaning Israel — has for years been trying to hit Fordo, a top nuclear facility in the country, but without success. The report did not say how many suspects were arrested, what their nationalities were or when and where the arrests supposedly took place.

A Russian missile attack that killed at least 35 people in western Ukraine, some 15 miles from NATO member Poland, has stirred anxiety and spurred Poles to rush to passport offices and stockpile essentials amid fears the war could cut off supplies, or even spill over into Poland.

A long line of applicants, unseen for decades, formed Monday outside Warsaw's main passport office on Krucza Street. Canned food, bottled water, flashlights and batteries filled shoppers' baskets. People in the street talked of the latest news and their worries for the future.

When Afraa Hashem thinks back about living through the siege of Aleppo, she remembers how inventive everyone was.

In late 2016, Syrian government forces had sealed off Aleppo's rebel-held eastern half, with 270,000 people inside, and for months they and Russian warplanes blasted it to rubble. Food was scarce. Hashem's family, like others, was largely surviving off one meal a day.

The leaders of Poland, the Czech Republic and Slovakia are traveling on Tuesday to Kyiv on a European Union mission to show support for Ukraine as Russia’s invasion intensifies.

Czech Prime Minister Petr Fiala said in a tweet: “The aim of the visit is to express the European Union’s unequivocal support for Ukraine and its freedom and independence.”

Lebanon, facing skyrocketing food and fuel prices amid an unprecedented economic crisis exacerbated by the Russian war, is now seeing its breadbasket “being bombed.”

The United Nations chief has warned that the war on Ukraine is holding “a sword of Damocles” over the global economy, especially poor developing countries.

Qatar's investment in sports has extended to the ownership of Paris Saint-Germain launching a new global tour for the squash-tennis racket game of padel.

The Qatar Sports Investments-backed Premier Padel tour has scheduled at least 10 tournaments each year — starting in Doha later this month.

Sci-fi epic "Dune" won five prizes and brooding Western "The Power of the Dog" was named best picture as the British Academy Film Awards returned Sunday with a live, black-tie ceremony after a pandemic-curtailed event in 2021.

New Zealand filmmaker Jane Campion was named best director for "The Power of the Dog," becoming only the third woman to win the prize in the awards' seven-decade history.