WASHINGTON (Reuters) — The United States said on Wednesday that Iran’s request for talks fell short of the UN Security Council’s demand for it to halt its nuclear programme.

BEIRUT (AP) — Syria’s President Bashar Assad was quoted in a TV interview Wednesday as saying that he would consider the deployment of international troops along the Lebanon-Syria border a hostile move towards his country.

BYBLOS — The Lebanese port of Byblos has survived the Romans, the Crusades and the armies of Alexander the Great but now it faces a 21st century menace, brought to its shores on a tide of war — oil pollution.