State Commissioner to the Military Court Judge Saqr Saqr is working on appealing the verdict issued in the case of former Minister Michel Samaha in light of the emergence of a video of the official that shows him discussing the transportation of explosives and plotting to assassinate Lebanese figures, reported An Nahar daily on Saturday.

Sources revealed that the Military Tribunal that charged Samaha failed to view the video showing the former minister with informant Milad Kfouri in which he speaks of transporting explosives from Syria to Lebanon in order to carry out attacks.

U.S. authorities could save the shrinking city of Detroit from collapse by infusing it with tens of thousands of resourceful Syrian war refugees, two experts suggested Friday.

The idea, floated in a New York Times op-ed, may appear politically impractical, but its authors argue it would be a step towards ending two seemingly intractable crises.

The Red Cross on Friday strongly criticized the Austrian government over its decision to set up tent camps for asylum seekers in response to the rapidly growing influx of refugees.

"For us this is the worst possible solution," said the general secretary of the Austrian Red Cross, Werner Kerschbaum, ahead of a crisis summit in Vienna.

Foreign Minister Jebran Bassil held talks on Friday with visiting German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier on Lebanon's efforts to support the burden of Syrian refugees and the ongoing conflict in the neighboring country.

Bassil said in a press conference after meeting his German counterpart: “Stability in Lebanon lies in lowering the number of Syrian refugees, backing the army, and holding presidential and parliamentary elections.”

Syria's army dispatched reinforcements to Palmyra in a bid to push back jihadists who advanced Friday to within touching distance of the ancient city, officials and a monitor said.

"Islamic State group jihadists are now one kilometer (less than a mile) from the archeological site of Palmyra," Rami Abdel Rahman, director of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, told AFP.

Bosnian prosecutors on Friday charged 12 people suspected of fighting with the Islamic State group in Syria and Iraq with terrorism offenses.

The 12 Bosnian nationals were charged with "becoming part of a terrorist group and illegally participating in conflicts in Syria in Iraq" during 2013 and 2014, a prosecutors' statement said.

Hizbullah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah is scheduled to give a televised speech on Saturday on the battle that his fighters are waging in the Syrian region of Qalamoun.

Nasrallah's speech is expected to focus on the military, security and political aspects of the Qalamoun fighting taking place between Syrian forces backed by Hizbullah and jihadists, said As Safir daily on Friday.

The U.S. Congress on Thursday sent President Barack Obama a bill to give lawmakers the power to review and potentially reject a nuclear deal with Iran.

The House overwhelmingly passed the measure, 400-25, a reflection of lawmakers' insistence on having a say in what could be a significant international accord to get Iran to curb its nuclear program in exchange for relief from economic sanctions.

President Barack Obama tried to reassure America's Gulf allies Thursday that engaging with Iran would not come at their expense, at a Camp David summit that proved short on concrete outcomes.

Pledging to counter external threats to Gulf states amid Iran's growing role in the region, Obama said his security commitment to the decades-old allies was "ironclad."  

A U.S. man born in Iraq was arrested Thursday for allegedly lying to the FBI about supporting the Islamic State jihadists after a pledge of allegiance to the group's leader was found on his computer, the Justice Department said.

Bilal Abood, 37, of Mesquite, Texas, is believed to have traveled from the United States to Syria through Mexico and Turkey in 2013, the Justice Department said.