Europe's rescue fund cleared a major hurdle Thursday when German lawmakers voted overwhelmingly to beef it up, boosting markets as attention turned to a key international audit of debt-mired Greece.

Stock markets on both sides of the Atlantic greeted the news with relief as Chancellor Angela Merkel survived a vote that proved a hard-fought test of her political authority as the world looks to her to defuse the euro debt crisis.

Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi has informed President Michel Suleiman and Speaker Nabih Berri that he hadn’t asked for an appointment with President Barack Obama amid reports that the U.S. administration had snubbed him over his controversial remarks on Hizbullah’s arms and the situation in Syria.

As Safir daily said Wednesday that al-Rahi informed Suleiman and Berri about the issue during the lunch banquet thrown in the patriarch’s honor in Msayleh on Monday.

World oil prices soared on Tuesday, mirroring the performance of global equities, as markets followed Eurozone debt developments closely.

Brent North Sea crude for delivery in November jumped $1.59 to $105.53 a barrel in London midday deals.

Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi will skip Washington in his U.S. tour after he was informed that “the time was not appropriate to arrange a meeting with the U.S. president,” informed sources told An Nahar daily on Tuesday.

Al-Rahi will begin his pastoral trip on Oct. 4. His first stop will be the city of Saint Louis in Missouri. The patriarch’s visit until Oct. 23 will include stops in Maronite parishes in the states of Illinois, Ohio, Texas, California, New York, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts and others.

U.S. President Barack Obama will further his vow to sell his jobs plan in the four corners of America Monday, after warning a Republican win in 2012 elections could "cripple" the country.

Obama was to appear in a town-hall style meeting sponsored by executive social network LinkedIn in San Jose, before tapping donors in Democratic strongholds in San Diego and Los Angeles.

Two U.S. hikers accused Iran Sunday of using them as "hostages" in its power struggle with the West and described hearing the anguished cries of fellow inmates being beaten in Tehran's Evin prison.

Speaking at a press conference in New York hours after landing back safely on American soil following their release to Oman on Wednesday, Shane Bauer and Josh Fattal laid bare the extent of their harrowing two-year ordeal in Iran.

The State Department does not intend to cancel Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi’s entry visa to the U.S. over his controversial statements on Hizbullah’s weapons and Syria, As Safir daily reported Monday.

The report came after Ad-Diyar newspaper said Sunday that the Department might cancel the visa to snub al-Rahi for linking the fate of Hizbullah’s arms to the liberation of the remaining occupied Lebanese territories and for saying that Syrian President Bashar Assad should be given the chance to introduce reform.

The trip of Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi to the U.S. will be limited to a visit to the Lebanese community there after the prelate held onto his stances made in France, Ad-Diyar daily reported Sunday.

The newspaper said that al-Rahi will not meet with top U.S. officials in Washington after he told U.S. Ambassador Maura Connelly that he held onto his remarks on Hizbullah’s arms and the situation in Syria.

The two U.S. hikers Iran recently released after holding in jail for more than two years are scheduled to arrive home on Sunday, a family spokeswoman told Agence France Presse.

Josh Fattal and Shane Bauer, both 29, plan to leave Oman on Saturday and are "expected to arrive on U.S. soil tomorrow," spokeswoman Samantha Topping told AFP, without specifying where they would land.

Around 1,000 Palestinians gathered in the West Bank city of Ramallah on Thursday to protest against U.S. President Barack Obama's speech to the United Nations.

The protesters carried signs deriding the United States and Obama for his address, in which he reiterated his opposition to the Palestinians' attempt to win U.N. membership for their state, saying there was no "shortcut" to peace.