BEIRUT: Scores of Syrian refugees headed home Saturday from eastern Lebanon in the second convoy in less than two weeks as Beirut attempts to organize a mass refugee return to the war-torn country.
Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency said the “voluntary return” Saturday included 330 Syrians who left from the eastern Bekaa Valley to Syria’s western Qalamoun region. Qalamoun borders Lebanon and years ago witnessed some of the worst fighting of Syria’s 11-year conflict.

RABAT: Moroccan authorities Friday seized more than two million amphetamine-type captagon pills, foiling an “international trafficking attempt” to West Africa, police said.
The pills were found at the Tanger Med industrial port complex on the kingdom’s northern coast, the DGSN security service said in a statement.
The drugs were “concealed inside a goods container onboard a maritime transport ship” headed from Lebanon to West Africa, it added, without specifying which country.

AMMAN: Funding and water remain two problems to be tackled despite Jordan announcing a set of technical and bureaucratic procedures that constitute the foundations of a food security enhancement project.
The kingdom reached out to donors and international lenders to secure funding for the project, which also involves Syria, Iraq and Lebanon.
The Jordanian government’s establishment of a “food security council” to work alongside the National Committee for Food Security will help mitigate the country’s vulnerability to global food crises and climate change.

RAMALLAH: Palestinian political and security officials and experts are deeply concerned, fearing an escalation of violence and economic restrictions on the Palestinian Authority and the people, as a right-wing Israeli government takes shape under Likud leader Benjamin Netanyahu.

GAZA CITY: A Hamas military training camp on Friday came under missile attack in the first Israeli bombardment of Gaza for three months.
Palestinian sources said Israeli warplanes fired around 13 missiles at a site in Maghazi used by Al-Qassam Brigades, the military wing of Hamas.
The early morning strike was carried out in response to the launching on Thursday evening of three rockets from Gaza toward Israeli towns. No injuries or damage were reported in Thursday’s attack and no Palestinian group has claimed responsibility for it.