Armed gunmen kidnapped in broad daylight the mayor of a neighborhood in Hermel, Khodr el-Rashini, media reports said on Wednesday.

Russian Ambassador to Lebanon Alexander Zasypkin hailed ex-PM Saad Hariri and Hizbullah for showing “responsible” positions after the STL verdict in the 2005 assassination of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri, al-Joumhouria daily reported on Wednesday.

The efforts to form a new government in Lebanon are not only exerted at the local level, amid reports that France is “leading” such endeavors through its ambassador in Lebanon Bruno Foucher, al-Joumhouria daily reported on Wednesday.

The United States welcomed the conviction Tuesday of a member of the Hizbullah Shiite movement over the 2005 murder of former Lebanese prime minister Rafic Hariri.

Lebanese authorities on Tuesday announced a new lockdown and a nighttime curfew to rein in a spike in coronavirus infections.

The new measures will come into effect on Friday morning and last just over two weeks, the interior ministry said, adding that they would not affect the clean-up and aid effort following the devastating August 4 Beirut port blast.

Some supporters of ex-PM Saad Hariri in the Beirut district of Tariq al-Jedideh on Tuesday expressed anger and disappointment at the verdicts issued by the Special Tribunal for Lebanon over Rafik Hariri’s assassination.

"If a police station in Tariq al-Jedideh had investigated this crime, it would have been a better result," one man, driving away on a scooter, told a local television station.

Ex-PM Saad Hariri said Tuesday he accepted a special tribunal's verdict over the 2005 murder of his father, former prime minister Rafik Hariri.

"The court has ruled, and in the name of the family of the late prime minister Rafik Hariri and on behalf of the families of the martyrs and victims, we accept the court's ruling," he said outside the court.

The U.N.-backed Special Tribunal for Lebanon on Tuesday convicted one member of Hizbullah and acquitted three others of involvement in the 2005 assassination of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri.

The STL said Salim Ayyash was guilty as a co-conspirator of five charges linked to his involvement in the suicide truck bombing. Hariri and 21 others were killed and 226 were wounded in a huge blast outside a seaside hotel in Beirut on Feb. 14, 2005.

President Michel Aoun has called for "accepting" the verdicts that will be issued by the Special Tribunal for Lebanon in the case of the 2005 assassination of Rafik Hariri.

A Special Tribunal for Lebanon session to announce the verdicts in the case of the 2005 assassination of ex-PM Rafik Hariri kicked off at 12:00 pm Beirut time at The Hague.

The session is expected to end at 6:00 pm.