Islamist militants fired Katyusha rockets at Lebanese villages on Friday, escalating their 8-week-old battle with the army at a Palestinian refugee camp in northern Lebanon.

London-based HSBC Holdings Plc, which owns a 70 percent stake in Dar Es Salaam bank, said on Wednesday that less than $1 million in cash was stolen in a raid on a Dar Es Salaam branch in Baghdad.

The White House is expected to present to Congress an interim report on the situation in Iraq, assessing the results of the major US troop “surge”.