Pope John Paul II, who will be made a saint on Sunday along with John XXIII, was a charismatic leader who helped topple communism but was criticized for failing to tackle the scourge of child sex abuse by priests.

The first non-Italian pope since the Renaissance, and the first from eastern Europe, Polish Karol Wojtyla was hugely popular, eschewing the pomp that surrounded his predecessors and seeking contact with ordinary people.

Al-Jadeed TV's Karma al-Khayat and al-Akhbar daily's Ibrahim al-Amin might be sentenced to seven years in jail and/or fined 100,000 Euros if the Special Tribunal for Lebanon finds them to be in contempt of the court, STL spokesperson Marten Youssef told Naharnet on Thursday.

Earlier in the day, the STL said the two have been summoned to appear before it on charges of “contempt and obstruction of justice.”

Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea stressed Thursday that he will stay in the presidential race “until the end” regardless of the candidacy of Free Patriotic Movement leader MP Michel Aoun.

“I will carry on with my nomination until the end and this has nothing to do with General Aoun's candidacy,” Geagea told LBCI television, during a weekly show dedicated to interviewing the major presidential hopefuls.

Aid trucks delivered on Tuesday food packages and fuel oil to the residents of Tufail on the Lebanese-Syrian border through the backing of armed forces.

Tufail, which lies in eastern Lebanon in an area surrounded by Syrian territory, was isolated after the only road that leads to the town came under the control of Syrian government troops.

Anti-drug agents in the Dominican Republic said they have dismantled a synthetic drug laboratory and arrested five people, including a Lebanese suspect.

Abel Rojas, a spokesman for the Caribbean country's National Drug Control Directorate, said the clandestine drug lab in the northern town of Villa Gonzalez made ecstasy, or MDMA.

Internal Security Forces arrested in Beirut on Saturday an Italian national who is wanted by the Interpol for belonging to a “criminal organization.”

"The Intelligence Bureau arrested Marcello Dell'Utri in a hotel in Beirut,” the ISF said in a released statement.

Two car bombs killed at least 25 people, including women and children, in a government-held neighborhood of Syria's central city of Homs Wednesday, state news agency SANA reported.

Another 100 people were wounded in Karam al-Luz, in attacks SANA blamed on "terrorists," the government's term for people fighting to overthrow President Bashar Assad.

The killer of two Lebanese soldiers in an area in the northern district of Akkar committed suicide overnight and another accomplice was caught, the army and the state-run National News Agency said Wednesday.

The army said in a communique that Ali Hussein Taleb was found dead after he committed suicide but the military was able to arrest Bara' al-Kik after carrying out several raids in the town of Fnaideq.

Free Patriotic Movement leader MP Michel Aoun announced on Wednesday that he will not be a presidential candidate against Lebanese Forces head Samir Geagea, if the latter gained al-Mustaqbal Movement's support.

"If the March 14 coalition and al-Mustaqbal Movement announced their support for Geagea in the presidential elections, I will not nominate myself,” Aoun stated in an interview on Al-Mayadeen television.

A Detroit-area man accused of trying to travel to the Middle East to fight alongside Hizbullah in Syria's civil war will remain in custody while his case moves through court.

The government said Monday that 22-year-old Mohammad Hamdan wanted to join Hizbullah, which the U.S. considers a terrorist organization.