LEBANON: Military leaders condemned Israel’s air strikes on suburbs of Beirut, warning that such attacks are weakening the role of Lebanon’s armed forces that might eventually suspend co-operation with the committee monitoring the truce that ended the Israel-Hezbollah war.

The army statement came hours after the Israeli military struck several buildings in Beirut’s southern suburbs that it said held underground facilities used by Hezbollah.

INTERPOL: Global police organisation Interpol said that 20 people have been arrested in Europe and the Americas following a cross-border operation in 12 countries targeting child sexual abuse material.

Spanish authorities arrested seven suspects, including a health worker and a teacher, Interpol said today.

Authorities in Latin America arrested 10 suspects in seven countries. The remaining suspects were arrested in other parts of Europe and the United States.

UNITED STATES: A federal judge late on Thursday temporarily blocked an executive order by President Donald Trump that banned foreign students from entering the US to attend Harvard University.

Mr Trump’s order, issued on Wednesday, was the latest attempt by his administration to prevent the nation’s oldest and wealthiest college from enrolling a quarter of its students.

NIGER: The International Committee of the Red Cross announced the closure of its offices in Niger on Thursday and the departure of its foreign staff, four months after the country’s rulers ordered the organisation to leave.

“We reiterate our willingness to maintain constructive dialogue with the authorities of Niger with a view to resuming our strictly humanitarian protection and assistance activities,” Patrick Youssef, the ICRC’s regional director for Africa, said in the statement.