A bomb exploded in central Beirut on Sunday outside the headquarters of the Lebanese Blom Bank, causing damage to the building, security sources and witnesses said.
A powerful explosion occurred near a major bank in the western part of the Lebanese capital Beirut late on Sunday, a policeman on the scene told AFP.
Lebanese headed to the polls for the first time in six years on Sunday for municipal elections including in Beirut, where a new grassroots campaign is taking on entrenched parties.
An Australian woman and four journalists accused of kidnapping her children from their Lebanese father in Beirut were released on bail after he dropped the charges against them.
Twenty-two civilians were killed in an exchange of fire in Syria's second city Aleppo, a monitor said Sunday, in one of the highest single tolls since a fragile truce came into force.
The Saudi-owned television news channel Al Arabiya has shut its offices in Lebanon and dismissed 27 employees, in a sudden move that comes amid political tensions between Riyadh and Beirut.
Former Lebanese prime minister Saad al-Hariri said he was committed to backing his rival Suleiman Franjieh for the presidency, indicating an almost two-year deadlock over the job will not be resolved soon.
At least 23 people, most of them from the Ahrar al-Sham rebel group, were killed by a truck suicide bomber in Syria's Aleppo city on Monday, a monitor said.
Pro-government forces overran the last major rebel-held town in Syria's coastal Latakia province Sunday, as the United Nations prepares to host talks this week on ending the country's nearly five-year war.
The evacuation of more than 450 fighters and civilians including wounded started Monday from three Syrian towns under a rare deal between the regime and rebels, a monitor said.
