Israeli warplanes have flown at low altitude over southern Lebanon in defiance of a United Nations resolution, reports from Beirut say. The fighter jets allegedly caused sonic booms as they flew over the cities of Sidon and Tyre, as well as the towns of Bint Jbeil and Marjayoun. Israel has so far made no comment on the Lebanese claims.
Israel has been criticised by the UN for making a number of overflights in Lebanon in recent weeks. Israel says they are necessary to monitor activities by the Lebanon-based Hezbollah militants.
‘Hezbollah stronghold’ Lebanese police said six Israeli aircraft violated Lebanon’s airspace at 0700 GMT, according to the AFP news agency. Police said the jets swooped low over the port cities of Sidon and Tyre as well as the Bint Jbeil region, a Hezbollah stronghold.
It was reportedly the first time that Israeli planes have flown at supersonic speeds in Lebanon’s airspace, causing sonic bangs. Last August’s UN ceasefire followed a resolution by the world body that ended a 34-day war between Israel and Hezbollah.
19 September 2007 BEIRUT: In its latest report for the fourth quarter of 2007, London-based Business Monitor International (BMI) maintained its 2007 real GDP growth forecast for Lebanon at 2 percent. However, the agency, which conducts credit rating and country risk research, believes that this growth is propelled by postwar reconstruction activity rather than a vibrant overall economic situation.
BEIRUT Daily Star: Speaker Nabih Berri declared Thursday that no Parliament session can take place without him, and warned that while the Lebanese Army would remain united during a widely feared domestic political crisis, the Internal Security Forces (ISF) might split. Appearing on the country’s most influential political talk show, the Lebanese Broadcasting Corporation’s "Kalam al-Naas," Berri warned that despite what some in the March 14 camp might think, Parliament cannot convene to elect a new president without him. 
Lebanese soldiers searched through devastated buildings and scorched bushes along the Mediterranean coastline in northern Lebanon on Monday, hunting for fugitives a day after the army crushed the remnants of a militant group and ended a three-month siege at a Palestinian refugee camp.Meanwhile, the body of the leader of the militant Fatah Islam group, Shaker al-Absi, was identified by his wife at a hospital in the port city of Tripoli, said Nasser Adra, the hospital’s director. Two captured militants also identified the body as Absi’s.
However, Adra told The Associated Press that the hospital could not officially confirm the identity, which would have to come from the judicial authorities after a DNA test.Absi, a Palestinian linked to the late leader of Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, had not been seen or heard from since early in the fighting that erupted May 20.The army searched Monday for Fatah Islam fighters who may have escaped the battle on Sunday at the Nahr al Bared camp. Patrol boats were looking for bodies in the sea. Military helicopters flew over the camp in low reconnaissance runs, as smoke from smoldering fires rose into the sky.
