Israel fired several missiles early on Monday targeting areas near the Syrian capital, Damascus, Syria's state news agency reported. An opposition war-monitoring group said the strikes killed nine Iran-backed fighters.

The SANA news agency claimed that Syrian air defenses shot down most of the missiles, which it said were fired from Syria's Israeli-occupied Golan Heights.

Lebanon administered Sunday its first jabs of COVID-19 vaccine, with an intensive care unit physician and a well-known 93-year-old comedian becoming the first to receive Pfizer-BioNTech doses.

Lebanon launched its inoculation campaign a day after receiving the first batch of the vaccine -- 28,500 doses from Brussels, near where Pfizer has a manufacturing facility. More were expected to arrive in the coming weeks.

An American father and son accused of sneaking former Nissan boss Carlos Ghosn out of Japan in a box asked the U.S. Supreme Court on Friday to halt their extradition so they have time to pursue an appeal.

Michael and Peter Taylor have fought for months to keep the U.S. government from handing the men over to Japan, saying they can't legally be extradited and will be treated unfairly in the Japan. Their lawyers told the Supreme Court that the men would face harsh treatment in the Japanese criminal justice system.

A U.S. appeals court refused Thursday to put on hold the extradition of two men wanted by Japan on accusations that they helped smuggle former Nissan boss Carlos Ghosn out of the country in a box in 2019.

The Boston-based 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals rejected an emergency petition to halt Michael and Peter Taylor's extradition to give them time to challenge a lower court ruling. The U.S. government has said it could surrender the men to Japan as early as Friday, according to the Taylors' lawyers.

Ex-army chief General Jean Qahwaji on Thursday told Judicial Investigator Judge Fadi Sawwan that in the 2015-2016 period the army did not possess the ability to dispose of the huge ammonium nitrate shipment that exploded at Beirut port in August 2020.

Buthaina al-Raimi was five years old when a Saudi airstrike destroyed her home in the Yemeni capital and killed her parents and all five of her siblings in August 2017.

Ever since, she still breaks into tears for seemingly no reason. When planes fly overhead, she shouts to her uncle, "They're going to hit us!"

Chilling security video of last month's deadly insurrection at the U.S. Capitol, including of rioters searching menacingly for House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Vice President Mike Pence, has become a key exhibit in Donald Trump's impeachment trial as lawmakers prosecuting the case wrap up their opening arguments for why Trump should be convicted of inciting the siege.

The House will continue with its case Thursday, with Trump's lawyers set to launch their defense by week's end.

In the middle of the destroyed Beirut neighborhood of Gemmayzeh, a small team in masks and gloves were sanitizing and packing oxygen machines to be sent to those in need.

It's the latest venture of a Lebanese civil group that arose with the coronavirus pandemic and has been finding new avenues to help as the country's crises expand.

An independent autopsy revealed no signs of torture on the body of Lokman Slim, a well-known Lebanese publisher and vocal critic of Hizbullah who was shot dead in his car last week, his wife said Monday.

Slim, a 58-year-old political activist and commentator, was found dead with six bullets in his body Thursday on a deserted rural road in the country's south. He was visiting friends there and was due back in Beirut late Wednesday when his family reported him missing.

Judicial investigator Judge Fadi Sawwan has resumed his investigations into the August 4 catastrophic explosion at Beirut’s port.