A batch of a contaminated drug for the treatment of cancer and autoimmune diseases has been identified in Lebanon and Yemen, the World Health Organization has warned.

The WHO said the alert refers to “one batch of substandard (contaminated) METHOTREXTM (methotrexate) 50mg.”

Unknown assailants fired gunshots after midnight toward al-Jadeed TV building in Beirut’s Wata el-Msaitbeh area, around 24 hours after a Molotov bomb was hurled at the station’s premises, the TV network said on Wednesday.

“The shots fired in the vicinity of the building were heard across the area and security forces have launched an investigation,” al-Jadeed said.

Caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati met Tuesday with Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri in Ain el-Tineh.

The two leaders discussed the governmental file and how to run the state's affairs, Mikati said after the meeting.

The black market dollar exchange rate witnessed a dramatic drop around noon Tuesday after Central Bank Governor Riad Salameh announced that banks will start selling dollars to the public at a Sayrafa platform rate of LBP 38,000.

“Throughout the three-day holidays period, the U.S. dollar exchange rate surged by LBP 2,000 on the parallel market due to speculation operations and the smuggling of dollars to abroad. This hike caused inflation on the markets, which harmed the Lebanese citizen seeing as prices in Lebanon are linked to the dollar exchange rate,” Salameh said in a statement.

Hezbollah security chief Wafiq Safa has wished former president Michel Aoun a merry Christmas on behalf of Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah.

Safa told the OTV that there is no divorce between Hezbollah and the Free Patriotic Movement.

Unknown assailants have hurled a Molotov cocktail bomb overnight at al-Jadeed TV building in Wata el-Mousaitbeh, the media outlet said.

Al-Jadeed reported Tuesday that the bomb self-extinguished before reaching the building and that security forces have launched an investigation into the incident.

Hezbollah has handed over a man suspected of killing an Irish United Nations peacekeeper earlier this month, a security official told AFP.

Private Sean Rooney, 23, was killed and three others injured on December 14 when their U.N. Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) vehicle was attacked near the village of al-Aqbiyeh in the country's south, a stronghold of Hezbollah.

Free Patriotic Movement chief Jebran Bassil on Sunday said that the FPM will launch a "complete" political initiative within two weeks.

Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi on Sunday lamented that “arrogance is preventing politicians from coming together and holding dialogue to exit the presidential election crisis.”

Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi on Saturday lamented that “all political indications confirm the presence of a plot against Lebanon aimed at causing presidential vacuum accompanied by a constitutional vacuum, which is more and more complicating the election of a president.”