BEIRUT: The Norwegian ambassador to Lebanon announced Wednesday a $2 million donation toward the reconstruction of the Nahr al-Bared Palestinian refugee camp, a contribution that pushes total funds to nearly half the amount needed to complete the rebuild.

“It’s an important step in our view to alleviate widespread poverty prevailing among Palestinian refugees in Lebanon,” said the Norwegian envoy, Svein Aass.

BEIRUT: Head of Lebanon’s Audiovisual Media Council Abdel-Hadi Mahfouz accused the MTV station Wednesday of promoting ties with Israel and said the station’s reporting from the occupied Palestinian territories constitutes a violation of the council’s media guidelines.

BEIRUT: Customs officials at the Rafik Hariri International Airport in Beirut thwarted an attempt Wednesday to export over 4 kilograms of cocaine through express mail to Australia, security sources told The Daily Star.

Customs officials at the airport became suspicious of a particular parcel, intended to be sent to Australia, after discovering that it contained metal parts.

The officials worked on opening the parcel for three hours only to discover that it contained 4.

NABATIEH, Lebanon: Teachers at Deir Zahrani’s public school in Nabatieh held a sit-in Wednesday to protest an attack against their colleague who was brutally beaten up by three former students on school grounds.

At the sit-in, the teachers condemned the attack and showed solidarity with their colleague, Hanadi Traboulsi, calling on officials to severely punish anyone who attacks a member of the teaching body in schools across the country.

BEIRUT: The National Audiovisual Media Council Wednesday denounced the airing by Lebanese television stations of what it called “inappropriate programs” that include sexual content, asking them to restrict broadcast of such shows to after 10:30 p.m.

According to the media body, several Lebanese television networks have recently been competing by airing programs about sex.

BEIRUT: Public Prosecutor Saeed Mirza said Wednesday “huge” amounts of work still had to be done to prepare the cases of those involved in the 2007 Nahr al-Bared clashes, and that trials will not take place any time soon.

MARJAYOUN, Lebanon: New York Times correspondent Anthony Shadid’s ashes were spread Wednesday afternoon in the garden of the house he rebuilt in his hometown of Marjayoun.

His immediate and extended family honored the will of the man who many lauded as one of the finest journalists in the Middle East of this generation. Shadid was the recipient of two Pulitzer prizes.

Iraqi security forces on Wednesday arrested the head of Ansar al-Sunna, a Sunni insurgent group said to be linked to Al-Qaeda, the counter-terrorism chief for Anbar province said.

"Iraqi forces today arrested the leader of Ansar al-Sunna, Walid Khaled Ali, as he tried to illegally infiltrate into Iraqi territory from Syria," Brigadier General Khaled al-Dulaimi told AFP.

He "tried to cross on foot near Al-Walid border post" into Anbar province in western Iraq, Dulaimi said.

Kataeb Party leader Amin Gemayel said on Wednesday that Change and Reform bloc leader MP Michael Aoun’s receiving of Labor Minister Charbel Nahhas “obstruct institutions.”

Prime Minister Najib Mikati should have received the resignation, Gemayel told Future News.

“I am not surprised by this action. This is the logic that has prevailed for years.”

On Tuesday, Aoun said that he has not made up his mind regarding Nahhas’ resignation.

Britain summoned the Syrian ambassador on Wednesday to lodge a protest over the deaths of two Western journalists and demand the repatriation of their bodies, the Foreign Office said.

US-born war correspondent Marie Colvin, who worked for Britain's Sunday Times newspaper, and French photojournalist Remi Ochlik were killed on Wednesday by shell fire in the rebel Syrian city of Homs.