Speaker Nabih Berri stressed on Wednesday that it is Lebanon’s “sovereign right” to explore its oil wealth.

He stated before reporters: “Lebanon has the right to acquire its oil wealth through the resistance should diplomacy fail.”

The Mustaqbal bloc condemned on Tuesday that murder of al-Jadeed cameraman Ali Shaaban on Monday, calling on the government to summon the Syrian Ambassador to Lebanon Ali Abdul Karim Ali over the incident.

It said after its weekly meeting: “The government’s leniency over Syria’s violations against Lebanon have led to a number of deaths along the border.”

Free Patriotic Movement leader MP Michel Aoun condemned on Tuesday the murder of al-Jadeed television cameraman Ali Shabaan while on duty near the Syrian border on Monday.

He said after the Change and Reform bloc’s weekly meeting: “We hope the truth behind the incident will be revealed.”

President Michel Suleiman called on Syria to investigate the deadly cross-border shooting that targeted an al-Jadeed TV crew on Monday “in order to prevent the recurrence of such attacks,” as Premier Najib Miqati urged Damascus to “hold the perpetrators accountable” and ex-PM Saad Hariri blamed Miqati’s government for “turning a blind eye to the Syrian violations.”

Suleiman telephoned al-Jadeed’s owner, Tahsin Khayyat, expressing his condolences. He also telephoned Justice Minister Shakib Qortbawi, Higher Lebanese-Syrian Council chief Nasri Khouri and Lebanese Ambassador to Syria Michel Khouri, asking them to follow up on the investigations.

Al-Jadeed TV cameraman Ali Shaaban was killed on Monday in the northern border area of Wadi Khaled when he and two of his colleagues came under gunfire from the Syrian side of the border.

Reporter Hussein Khreis and cameraman Abed Khayyat managed to escape unharmed.

Pope Benedict XVI will visit Lebanon from September 14 to 16, the Vatican announced on Sunday.

The trip will mark the second to the region for Benedict, who visited Jordan, Israel and the Palestinian Territories in 2009.

The Lebanese airspace was closed from 6:30 p.m. to 9:30 p.m. on Friday due to rare dense fog that engulfed the country’s coast and caused low visibility.

All incoming flights were diverted to Cyprus, said Kamal Shoaib, deputy head of the Beirut Rafik Hariri International Airport.

At least 23 people were killed as thousands of anti-regime protesters poured onto the streets across Syria on Friday despite a massive security forces presence and as troops pounded rebel towns, activists said.

Thirteen people were killed in the central province of Homs, six in Aleppo’s countryside in the north, two in the northwestern province of Idlib, one in the Damascus suburb of Douma and one in the Daraa Province town of al-Jiza in the south, the Local Coordination Committees, the main activist group spurring protests on the ground, reported.

A ministerial committee tasked with scrutinizing a plan to lease power-generating vessels on Thursday reached an agreement with a Turkish company after slashing the costs by nine percent.

“The ministerial panel tasked with following up on talks with the two ship leasing firms, the American Weller Marine and the Turkish Karadeniz, has successfully finished its negotiations,” Energy and Water Minister Jebran Bassil said after the committee’s meeting.

Gillette, the world’s leading Male Grooming brand, has launched its most technologically advanced razor, Gillette Fusion ProGlide™, across the Middle East, the company said in a press release.

At an event hosted by senior executives and scientists from Gillette and Procter & Gamble at YAS Marina Circuit in Abu Dhabi, guests learned how Gillette’s new ProGlide razor has “truly turned shaving into gliding, offering men throughout the region their most comfortable shave yet,” said Gillette.