The CEO of the world's busiest airport for international travel wants to get the globe flying again, but even he acknowledges everything remains up in the air during the coronavirus pandemic.

Paul Griffiths oversees what now is a much quieter Dubai International Airport, home to the long-haul carrier Emirates and crucial to East-West travel. The millions that once poured through the airport's concourses are no longer flying as countries around the world enforce lockdowns and travel bans to fight the virus and the COVID-19 illness it causes.

Lebanese rushed to food stores to stock up on vegetables and basic items, hours before the government was to reinstate a four-day nationwide lockdown on Wednesday, following a spike in reported coronavirus cases.

The government called on the public to stay home, starting Wednesday evening and until dawn on Monday, reversing measures earlier this month that phased out restrictions imposed since mid-March.

Living in a slum built precariously on the banks of a sewage-tainted river in Lebanon, Faiqqa Homsi feels her family being pushed closer and closer to the edge.

The flight from Italy was one of the last arrivals that day at the Stockholm airport. A Swedish couple in their 50s walked up and loaded their skis into Razzak Khalaf's taxi.

It was early March and concerns over the coronavirus were already present, but the couple, both coughing for the entire 45-minute journey, assured Khalaf they were healthy and just suffering from a change in the weather. Four days later, the Iraqi immigrant got seriously ill with COVID-19.

Turkish prosecutors have charged four pilots, an airline company official and two flight attendants for their alleged roles in former Nissan chairman Carlos Ghosn's escape from Japan to Turkey and from there to Beirut, Turkey's state-run news agency reported Thursday.

Anadolu Agency said prosecutors in Istanbul have completed an indictment against the seven, formally charging the four pilots and the official of illegally smuggling a migrant. The two flight attendants are accused of failing to report a crime, the agency said.

A senior Yemeni rebel commander was killed Thursday, the Shiite rebels announced as fierce battles with government forces intensified along the front lines in the country's central provinces.

The slain rebels' special forces commander, Mohamed Abdel Karim al-Hamran, enjoyed close ties to the top Houthi leader, Abdul Malek al-Houthi. He was the most high-ranking commander killed this year, part of an elite brigade trained by militants from the Lebanese group Hizbullah.

Israel's U.N. ambassador said Wednesday that his government is demanding major changes in the way the U.N. peacekeeping mission in southern Lebanon operates on the ground and has support from the United States.

Ambassador Danny Danon told a video press briefing that Israel will insist that peacekeepers have access to all sites, that they have freedom of movement and that any time they are being blocked the U.N. Security Council must be immediately informed.

The American University of Beirut, one of the oldest and most prestigious universities in the Middle East, has become the latest institution in Lebanon to announce it is facing a financial crisis due to what it said is a "confluence of calamities" starting with the collapse of the Lebanese economy and compounded by the coronavirus pandemic.

It said staff would endure significant pay reductions and that steps under consideration include furloughs as well as the closure of some programs and departments.

An economic recovery plan recently adopted by the Lebanese government is "an important step forward" to address Lebanon's economic challenges, the International Monetary Fund's chief said.

Kristalina Georgieva's remarks come as tens of thousands of Lebanese have been thrown further into poverty and unemployment amid a lockdown because of coronavirus.

The U.N. Security Council on Monday backed Lebanon's efforts to end the country's economic crisis and tackle other challenges including the impact of COVID-19 and called on the international community to help.

The U.N.'s most powerful body took note in a statement after a closed meeting of the "urgent need for the Lebanese authorities to respond to the aspirations of the Lebanese people by implementing meaningful economic reforms" and addressing security, humanitarian and COVID-19 challenges.