Head of the Mustaqbal bloc MP Fouad Saniora stressed on Sunday that the election of a president should be a priority at this present time in Lebanon.

He stated: “Our hand is extended to hold dialogue in order to reach an agreement over a new president.”

The al-Qaida-affiliated al-Nusra Front threatened on Sunday to “kill the Shiite Lebanese soldiers” it had kidnapped earlier in August should Hizbullah intervene in battles in Syria's al-Qalamun region, while also issuing a warning to the Free Patriotic Movement, reported the Turkish Anatolia news agency.

The group said in a statement that it will wage the battle to “liberate” al-Qalamun in a few days, adding: “Hizbullah's participation against us will force us to kill our Shiite prisoners.”

Cengiz, a street seller who plies his trade selling bread rings in the center of Istanbul, is usually a fervent supporter of Turkey's newly-elected President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. But on one issue, he begs to differ.

"I support Erdogan. But I must say he made one error and that's to allow the Syrians into our country," he said.

He doesn't bluster and he doesn't strut and President Barack Obama certainly isn't panicking, though he admits it feels like the world is falling apart.

But Obama's cool-in-a-crisis style and disdain for the impulsive use of military force is fueling criticism of his leadership, as crises stagger the Middle East and Ukraine.

All 75 Filipino troops serving as U.N. peacekeepers in the Golan Heights are safe after the last batch slipped away under cover of night from besieging Syrian rebels, military spokesmen said Sunday.

Military chief General Gregorio Catapang called it "the greatest escape," and praised the soldiers.

Thirty-two Filipino United Nations peacekeepers have been evacuated after being caught up in heavy fighting on the Golan Heights while others remain under fire, the U.N. confirmed Saturday.

The group was part of a 72-member contingent situated in two different locations in the area.

U.N. peacekeepers caught up in heavy fighting on the Golan Heights were evacuated Saturday as the fate of 44 colleagues captured by Syrian rebels remained uncertain.

An Agence France Presse photographer heard intense small arms and missile fire in the buffer zone separating the Israeli-occupied part of the strategic plateau and the Syrian part, where soldiers with the U.N. Disengagement Observer Force (UNDOF) are being held.

The number of refugees from Iraq's Yazidi religious minority who have fled to Turkey from the advance of jihadists has risen to 16,000 and may rise further, a top provincial official was quoted as saying Saturday.

The number marks a sharp rise from the figures of several thousand previously given and shows Turkey is dealing with another major influx of refugees as it gives sanctuary to some 1.2 million fleeing the Syria conflict.

Several dozen Yazidi women kidnapped by Islamic State jihadists in Iraq have been taken to Syria, forced to convert and sold into marriage to militants, a monitoring group said Saturday.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based NGO, said it had confirmed that at least 27 Yazidi women had been sold for around $1,000 each to IS fighters.

The angered families of the captives, who were taken hostage by Islamist gunmen in the northeastern border town of Arsal, blocked several roads on Saturday to protest the ongoing abduction of their relatives.

But Prime Minister Tammam Salam revealed late on Saturday evening that a ministerial cell has been formed and to work "behind the scenes on following up on the abducted troops' case."