An arrest warrant was issued Thursday for Nissan's former chairman Carlos Ghosn, who skipped bail while awaiting trial in Japan and is now in Lebanon.

"Insulting." "Shameful." "A disgrace." Those were some of the words used by Palestinian refugees in Lebanon on Wednesday to describe a White House plan for ending the Israel-Palestinian conflict.

Security forces clashed with protesters in downtown Beirut on Monday, leaving several demonstrators injured and others detained. As the protests simmered outside parliament, lawmakers held a controversial session to discuss and later approve the state budget amid a crippling financial crisis.

Hundreds of soldiers, including special forces, as well as riot policemen were deployed on major roads in the capital and its suburbs. They had sealed off the zone leading to parliament to prevent protesters from barricading the lawmakers' path. The protesters had in turn blocked roads further afield in an effort to stop lawmakers from reaching the building, but security forces managed to keep a single road open.

A U.S. military aircraft crashed in eastern Afghanistan on Monday, a Taliban spokesman and Afghan journalist affiliated with the militant group said.

A U.S. Army spokeswoman declined to comment on the Taliban claim, but video from the crash site circulating on social media appeared to suggest the aircraft was a U.S. Air Force electronic surveillance plane.

The Ukrainian jetliner stood ready for takeoff at Iran's main international airport bound for Kyiv, packed with passengers and so many bags on one of the cheapest routes to the West that the ground crew rushed to unload some luggage to make its weight for flight.

Nearly an hour late, Tehran air traffic controllers finally cleared Ukraine International Airlines Flight 752 for takeoff, carrying a newlywed couple, Iranian students bound for universities in Canada and others seeking a better life abroad.

Tight security measures were imposed near Lebanon’s parliament on Monday as lawmakers are scheduled to begin a two-day discussion and later approval of the state budget amid a crippling financial crisis.

Iraq's anti-government protests were dealt a blow after a powerful Shiite cleric withdrew his support from the movement, leading security forces to set fire to protesters' tents overnight Saturday in the country's south, as well as re-open key public squares in Baghdad that had been occupied by the demonstrators.

The presence of Muqtada al-Sadr's followers and his militia group had shielded the protesters from security forces and unknown groups looking to harm and suppress them, activists said. With that cover gone, many in the four-month-old movement feared the worst.

When Nazih Khalaf heard that protests were taking place Oct. 17 in Lebanon's capital over government plans to impose new taxes, he was just returning from south of Beirut where he'd been working to put out deadly wildfires that had been raging for days.

Greek authorities said Thursday they found more than a ton of processed cannabis camouflaged among a shipment of date paste headed by sea from Lebanon to Libya.

A police statement said the drugs were discovered on Jan. 16 in a ship's container on a freighter that had stopped at Greece's main port of Piraeus.

Free Patriotic Movement chief MP Jebran Bassil, who is also a former foreign minister who has been a frequent target of protesters in crisis-hit Lebanon, said Thursday he understands the people want change, but said he's not going anywhere until voters drive him out.

Bassil was officially replaced as foreign minister this week with the appointment of a new technocratic government backed by his party and the allied Hizbullah group. He said the new team should get right to work pushing for reform -- and demanded results in a reasonable amount of time.