His boss Carlos Ghosn escaped financial misconduct charges by fleeing the country, but another former Nissan executive is still awaiting trial in Japan: Greg Kelly.

Kelly's trial in Tokyo District Court is to open Sept. 15, nearly two years after his arrest, and the same day he turns 64 . If convicted of charges related to alleged under-reporting of Ghosn's income, Kelly could face up to a decade in prison.

Presumed Israeli air strikes on eastern Syria killed 16 Iran-backed fighters Thursday, a war monitor said, hours after Damascus said it intercepted Israeli missiles fired at a central air base.

Lebanon's Bisri Valley lies on a green fertile bed, a spot that has cradled civilizations dating as far back as the Bronze Age. Its expansive lands of pine, citrus trees and ancient ruins are threatened with being submerged by a controversial mega dam funded by the World Bank.

For years, activists and locals have voiced their opposition to it, describing it as an environmental crime and a project that mirrors Lebanon's patronage system and bad governance.

Lebanese leaders began consultations on Wednesday to form a new crisis government, with the majority of parliamentary blocs expressing uncommon willingness to drop demands for government portfolios.

French President Emmanuel Macron issued a stern warning to Lebanon's political class Tuesday, urging them to commit to serious reforms within a few months or risk punitive action, including sanctions, if they fail to deliver.

Macron is on a two-day visit to Lebanon, marking the country's centenary and holding talks with officials on ways to help extract it from an unprecedented economic crisis and the aftermath of last month's massive blast that ripped through the capital Beirut.

Governor of Central Bank of Lebanon Riad Salameh reiterated in remarks to Sky News Arabia on Tuesday, that the bank can not use all its obligatory foreign reserves to subsidize medicine, oil and wheat once it reaches the minimum threshold.

Over a three-decade military career, Israeli Maj. Gen. Ori Gordin has led commando raids, fought in wars and even earned a degree at Harvard. But he has never seen anything quite like his latest mission.

As head of the Israeli army's Home Front Command, Gordin is now overseeing the military's coronavirus "task force," formed last month to bring one of the developed world's worst outbreaks under control. Its main responsibility is taking the lead in contact tracing and breaking chains of infection.

French President Emmanuel Macron returned to Lebanon on Monday, a country in the midst of an unprecedented crisis, for a two-day visit and a schedule packed with events and political talks aimed at charting a way out for the country.

But his first meeting wasn't with the new prime minister-designate appointed hours earlier, nor with the country's feuding politicians or civil society activists. Macron instead chose to see Lebanon's No. 1 diva Fairuz, a national symbol and one of the rare figures in Lebanon beloved and respected across the country.

In his first move after being appointed as Lebanon’s premier-designate, Mustafa Adib visited the historic neighborhood of Gemmayzeh, one of the areas hardest-hit by the catastrophic Beirut port explosion.

Donning an immaculate white shirt, tie and medical face mask, Adib tried to chat with residents -- something which no other senior Lebanese politician has done. Outgoing ministers Marie-Claude Najm and Tarek al-Majzoub had tried to inspect the area days after the blast but were chased away by residents and activists.

The massive explosion in Beirut earlier this month that killed and injured thousands of people has caused up to $4.6 billion in physical damage, the World Bank said in a report released Monday.

The Aug. 4 blast was caused by the explosion of nearly 3,000 tons of ammonium nitrate stored at the Port of Beirut since 2014. The blast killed 190 people, injured more than 6,000, left nearly 300,000 people homeless, destroyed much of the port and damaged entire neighborhoods.