Flooding caused by heavy rains has caused damages across Lebanon, trapping Lebanese families and destroying Syrian refugee encampments.

Administrator of the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) Achim Steiner, visited Lebanon on February 15 and met with Prime Minister Saad Hariri, Speaker Nabih Berri and Interior Minister Nouhad al-Mashnouq, the UNDP said in a statement Saturday.

Drilling companies working offshore Israel have sent “warning signals” to Israeli authorities that escalating a dispute with Lebanon over oil drilling rights "could push them to withdraw which prompted Israel to de-escalate” tensions, al-Joumhouria daily reported on Saturday.

A federal grand jury in Minnesota indicted three people on charges that they conspired to export drone parts and technology from the U.S. to the Iranian-backed Hizbullah in Lebanon, authorities announced Friday.

The U.S. Attorney's office for Minnesota said two of the suspects — brothers Usama and Issam Hamade — are now in custody in South Africa, while the third, Samir "Tony" Berro, remains at large.

A Lebanese man and his Syrian wife have been killed in Turkey's Istanbul while their son has gone missing, Lebanon's National News Agency reported on Friday.

The agency said the crime occurred overnight Thursday in Istanbul's Arnavutkoy area.

President Michel Aoun on Friday called for an urgent solution to Lebanon's Syrian refugee crisis.

“The refugees definitely want to return to their country to live in it in dignity instead of staying in encampments and gatherings,” Aoun said in a speech at a conference for the Rotary International organization at Beirut's Phoenicia Hotel.

U.S. Secretary of State for Middle East Affairs David Satterfield held separate talks on Friday with Speaker Nabih Berri, Prime Minister Saad Hariri and Foreign Minister Jebran Bassil one day after U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson met with senior Lebanese officials during a one-day visit to Lebanon.

Satterfield, accompanied by the US ambassador to Lebanon, first met with Bassil at the foreign ministry. He left the meeting without making a statement.

First investigative judge in Mount Lebanon, Nicola Mansour, on Friday interrogated prominent TV talk show host Marcel Ghanem and allowed him to leave pending indictment, as his attorney MP Boutros Harb said the indictment will be issued in a “couple of hours or days.”

“The judge decided to leave Ghanem after he signed a residency guarantee document... We will continue to consider the judiciary independent and... What happened today in the meeting was good," said Harb.

President Michel Aoun's warnings of prolonged failure to address Lebanon's long-standing electricity crisis means the country “could plunge into severe power rationing that could impact everything in Lebanon,” al-Joumhouria daily reported on Friday.

Ministerial sources told the daily that Aoun has sounded the alarm and stressed the need to find a quick solution for the country's suffering which “means soon there shall be severe power shortage that will affect the Lebanese and various aspects of everyday life.”

President Michel Aoun on Thursday briefed the Cabinet on his separate talks with U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and Assistant Secretary of State David Satterfield, while noting that Lebanon will become a “gas producing country.”

“We have informed the U.S. side of Lebanon's stance over the issue of the (Israeli) cement wall and territorial waters, and we focused on continuing discussions and consultations to reach solutions for these issues,” Aoun said, noting that Tillerson was appreciative of the Lebanese stance during his talks earlier in the day with the president.