In the impoverished Bab al-Tabbaneh and Jabal Mohsen neighborhoods of Lebanon's second city Tripoli, the war in neighboring Syria has aggravated decades-old sectarian and political tensions.

Regional and local powers have taken advantage of the situation, arming poor fighters in the neighborhoods to fight a proxy war over Syria.

The corpses of the victims of the ferry sinking off the coast of Indonesia were returned to Lebanon on Thursday.

The corpses of 34 asylum-seekers arrived at noon at Rafik Hariri International Airport where their loved ones were waiting for them.

U.N.-Arab League envoy Lakhdar Brahimi is negotiating the release of the two Orthodox bishops seized in northern Syria in April, al-Joumhouria newspaper reported on Thursday.

The daily reported that Mokhtar Lamani, Brahimi's representative in Damascus, contacted the kidnappers of the two bishops, a radical Chechen group led by Mohammed Akroff.

A bomb exploded on Thursday morning near an army intelligence station in the central Bekaa region of Jalala.

The National News Agency reported that the bomb was discovered on the side of the ride, adding that it was placed behind the Moussawi institute in the area.

Arab Democratic Party official Rifaat Eid condemned the Internal Security Forces Intelligence Bureau's summoning of his father, Ali, over his alleged links to the twin blasts that rocked the northern city of Tripoli in August, reported As Safir newspaper on Thursday.

He told the daily: “The ISF Intelligence Bureau crossed red lines when it summoned my father and he will definitely not comply with the request.”

Gambian President Yahya Jammeh has pardoned Lebanese businessman Hussein Tajudeen, four months after he was expelled from the west African nation for questionable economic activities.

An official statement issued by the president's office said the multimillionaire was free to return to Gambia as of October 25.

Hizbullah chief Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah expressed his concern that the party may be the target of terrorist attacks on the occasion of Ashura in mid November, reported al-Joumhouria newspaper on Thursday.

The party is carrying out all measures in order to thwart such assaults, Nasrallah told a number of party and religious figures on Wednesday

Israel rejected a proposal by the U.S. to resolve the dispute with Lebanon over the two countries Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ), media reports said on Thursday.

According to the Israeli business newspaper the Globes, sources in the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs rejected to comment on the matter “due to its sensitivity.”

Ahmed Qiblawi, one of Sheikh Ahmed al-Asir's fugitive supporters, was arrested Wednesday as he tried to cross Sidon's al-Awali checkpoint while disguised as a niqab-wearing woman.

“An Internal Security Forces patrol chased Ahmed Qiblawi, one of Ahmed al-Asir's loyalists, while he was disguised as a woman and managed to capture him at al-Awali checkpoint at the northern entrance of the city of Sidon,” state-run National News Agency said.

Arab Democratic Party leader ex-MP Ali Eid was summoned Wednesday by the Internal Security Forces Intelligence Bureau for interrogation in the case of the deadly twin bombings that targeted two mosques in Tripoli in August, according to media reports.

“The interrogation will tackle the incident of plotting and facilitating the escape of Ahmed Merhi, one of the main suspects in the case of the Tripoli blasts,” LBCI television said.