Four French lawmakers met with Syrian President Bashar Assad Wednesday during a private trip to the war-torn country, despite a breakdown in diplomatic ties between Paris and Damascus.

The French government, which supports the moderate Syrian opposition and wants Assad to leave power, was quick to clarify that the lawmakers were there in no official capacity.

Lebanese satirist Charbel Khalil appeared before a prosecutor in Beirut on Monday after Dar al-Fatwa, the country's top Sunni religious authority, filed a judicial complaint against him for allegedly defaming Islam.

Khalil found himself in hot water after he shared a photo on Twitter that was perceived by some as insulting to Islam.

Iran is seeking to open a "third front" against Israel using Hizbullah fighters on the Syrian Golan Heights, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Sunday.

Netanyahu said Tehran's alleged attempts to entrench itself along Israel's borders was one of the biggest emerging security threats facing Tel Aviv.

Judge Ivana Hrdličková of the Czech Republic has been elected President of the U.N.-backed Special Tribunal for Lebanon that is probing ex-PM Rafik Hariri's assassination, the STL announced on Wednesday.

She succeeds Judge David Baragwanath of New Zealand.

Three Syrian refugee children burned to death in a fire that destroyed their makeshift wooden hut in the northern region of Akkar on Thursday, a security services official told AFP.

The three children, two sisters and their cousin, were living in the hut built a year ago on the roof of a building in the town of Bhannine.

Free Patriotic Movement leader MP Michel Aoun announced on Tuesday that he is withdrawing confidence from Defense Minister Samir Moqbel after the extension of the term of Higher Defense Council chief Mohammed Khair.

He said: “We withdraw confidence from the defense minister because he has exceeded his privileges and overlooked violations at the military institution.”

Hizbullah Secretary-General Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah on Monday hit back at al-Mustaqbal movement leader MP Saad Hariri, saying all Lebanese should go to Syria to fight the “serious and real” threat terrorism poses to the entire region, as he stressed keenness on the ongoing dialogue between the two parties.

“I tell those who are asking us to withdraw from Syria, 'Let us go together to Syria and Iraq and to any place that contains a threat to the future of our nation, because that is the right way to defend Lebanon,'” said Nasrallah in a televised speech commemorating Hizbullah's “martyr leaders” – Sheikh Ragheb Harb, Sayyed Abbas al-Moussawi and Imad Mughniyeh.

Adviser to the Justice Minister Judge Mohammed Saab stressed on Monday that the judiciary will show no leniency in the food-safety file and that punishment against violators could reach up to “15 years imprisonment or hard labor.”

“The judiciary is following up closely on the food-safety campaign launched by Health Minister Wael Abou Faour, and it will not show leniency in imposing punishment on violators who are threatening the citizens' safety and lives,” said Saab in an interview with An Nahar.

The term of Maj. Gen. Mohamed Khair, the secretary general of the Higher Defense Council has been extended as he reaches the retirement age, media reports said on Monday.

Defense Minister Samir Moqbel has signed a decree to extend the term of Khair, who reaches the retirement age by the end of February, according to al-Joumhouria daily.

Greek Orthodox leader Youhanna X Yazigi has hoped that talks among the country's rivals would lead to stability, stressing that only dialogue is in Lebanon's favor.

In remarks to As Safir daily published on Monday, Yazigi, who is the Patriarch of Antioch and All the East, encouraged dialogue among all of Lebanon's factions.