BEIRUT: The head of Lebanon’s powerful Shiite armed group Hezbollah warned on Monday evening against renewing on the same terms the mandate of the United Nations peacekeeping force in the country’s south.
The mandate of the UN Interim Force in Lebanon, which expires Thursday, was extended last year with a slight modification that Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah criticized at the time as “a violation of Lebanese sovereignty.”
He did so again on Monday.

DUBAI: Abu Dhabi-based PureHealth has signed an agreement to buy British hospital operator Circle Health Group for 4.41 billion UAE dirhams ($1.2 billion), Emirates News Agency reported.

PureHealth is the UAE’s largest healthcare provider and the acquisition marks its first foray into the UK market.

According to the report, Circle Health Group has the UK’s largest network of private hospitals and was the first European healthcare provider to enter the Chinese market.

BEIRUT: Several associations and 46 MPs in Lebanon have called for the Lebanese missing in Syrian prisons to be included in the remit of a UN-created body that seeks to establish the fate of people who have been forcibly disappeared during Syria’s civil war.

The UN General Assembly has already approved the creation of the Independent Institution on Missing Persons in Syria.

BEIRUT: Two Russian citizens who were recently detained in Beirut on suspicion of spying for Israel have been referred to an investigative military judge who issued arrest warrants for them, two judicial officials said Monday.
The two Russians were detained “several weeks ago” in Beirut as they were leaving the country through the capital’s Rafik Hariri International Airport, the officials said. The two judicial officials spoke on condition of anonymity in line with regulations.

RIYADH: Representatives of Islamic fatwa boards, councils, and universities recently joined international law experts, academics, and thinkers to discuss issues related to freedom of expression.

Organized by the League of Islamic Universities, the conference was staged at the headquarters of the Islamic World Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization in the Moroccan capital Rabat.