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BEIRUT (AP) — Heavy clashes along the Syria-Lebanon border killed several people, including a number of Hezbollah fighters and Syrian rebels, Lebanese officials and a Syrian activist group said Monday.

The area has long been a flashpoint in the Syrian civil war. Since November, Syrian government troops, backed by Lebanese Hezbollah militants, have been on the offensive in Syria's mountainous Qalamoun region, trying to clear it of opposition fighters. The government side has so far captured most towns and villages there but hundreds of rebels are still active in the rugged region.

The latest clashes broke out on Sunday after Syrian rebels tried to infiltrate into Lebanon and clashed with Hezbollah fighters, said officials in eastern Lebanon, speaking on condition of anonymity in line with regulations.

They said the fighting, which took place near the Lebanese village of Youneen, ended at dawn on Monday after Hezbollah took control of the nearby hills.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the fighting left seven Hezbollah fighters dead and 31 wounded. The activist group said 17 rebels were killed and 23 wounded, and that Hezbollah fighters captured 14 rebels.

The Lebanese officials confirmed that a number of Hezbollah fighters were killed in the battles, without giving a figure. Facebook pages close to the Lebanese Shiite group said six Hezbollah fighters were killed, listing their names and hometowns.

Qassem al-Zein, a Syrian doctor who works at a makeshift hospital in the Lebanese border town of Arsal, said they received the bodies of three people killed in Syria on Sunday as well as 15 wounded. Syrian rebels enjoy wide support in Arsal, which is predominantly Sunni — as are most opposition fighters.

"It was a very intense night," said a resident of the Lebanese city of Baalbek, which is close to the area of the fighting. The man, speaking on condition of anonymity for fear for his own safety, said Lebanese soldiers and policemen were took measures around Baalbek on Sunday night, setting up checkpoints, stopping cars and asking for people's identity cards.

The Iran-backed Hezbollah openly joined the Syrian conflict last year. The group's fighters have been instrumental to President Bashar Assad's success on the battlefield, tipping the balance of power in the 3-year-old conflict in the government's favor after ousting predominantly Sunni rebels from their strongholds along much of the Lebanese border and near the Syrian capital, Damascus.

Syria's crisis, which began in March 2011, has killed more than 170,000 people, activists say.

NEW YORK (AP) — As the World Cup neared its end this week, Twitter had a field day with Brazil's humiliating 7-1 loss to Germany in the semifinals, which became the most-discussed sports game in the social network's history.

While Germany barreled down on a stunned Brazilian team to score five goals in the match's first half, quips such as #ThingMoreLikelyThanBrazilWinningTheWorldCup and #TeamsBetterThanBrazil became top trending topics on Twitter. Teams better than Brazil, naturally, produced lots of photos of children's soccer teams, and at least one of a team of puppies.

Here's a look at how the World Cup fared online this week:

— "RED WEDDING"

With Neymar nursing a back injury, Brazil was already down its star player on Tuesday. But as click-fishing websites like to say, you wouldn't believe what happened next. Germany delivered goal after goal (including four in a seven-minute span) that had Brazilian fans sobbing, yelling insults at their team and sitting in stunned silence. It may have been around the fourth or fifth goal — hard to tell, it was all happening so fast — that tweets such as "This is the World Cup's Red Wedding" began popping up, a reference to the infamous "Game of Thrones" episode in which several key characters are slaughtered.

The hashtag #PrayForBrazil also became popular, but God demurred. A parody account called @TheTweetOfGod, which has some 1.4 million followers, replied with "Stop praying to Me, Brazil. Even I can't help you now." Another widely circulated image was an altered photo of the famous Brazilian Christ the Redeemer statue, holding his face in his palm in exasperation.

— CURSE OF THE AGING ROCKER

Mick Jagger is accused of jinxing the World Cup teams he supports, including Brazil. The tradition to blame the Rolling Stones singer began four years ago, at the World Cup in South Africa. In that tournament, Brazil lost to the Netherlands in the quarterfinals. Jagger, who has a son with former Brazilian model Luciana Gimenez, showed up at the game wearing a Brazilian team jersey.

On Google, Brazilian searches for "Mick Jagger" increased 16-fold in the 24 hours around the match. Jagger again was in the audience — as he had been with six other games where his team lost.

— FACEBOOK, TWITTER SCORE

On Facebook, 66 million people had more than 200 million posts, comments and likes during the Brazil-Germany match. Sixteen million of those people were in Brazil, the company said. On Twitter, meanwhile, the match became the single most-discussed sports game ever, with 35.6 million tweets sent during it. The previous record was 24.9 million posts for Super Bowl XLVIII in February.

— STREAMING FAIL

A few dozen patrons at Rocky's Bar and Grille in New York City watched Wednesday's match between Argentina and the Netherlands. After a scoreless snoozer of a match, fans sipped beer and cheered after Argentina's Lionel Messi scored the first goal of the penalty shootout. Then the Netherlands missed the next one. More cheers erupted, as this crowd clearly leaned toward Argentina. But the cheering quickly turned to groans when the TV's streaming feed cut out, and the busy bartender continued to serve drinks as if nothing happened. With just moments to go in the game, an enterprising patron whipped out her smartphone, turned on the streaming feed and held it so the happy crowd behind her could cheer as Argentina won the shootout 4-2.

KIEV, Ukraine (AP) — Fighting has intensified around the eastern Ukrainian city of Luhansk as government forces step up efforts to disrupt rebel lines and claim more territory from the faltering insurgency.

The Defense Ministry said Monday that government troops had retaken several villages around the rebel-controlled city and reopened a corridor to the airport.

A spokeswoman for the Luhansk People's Republic told The Associated Press that separatist fighters destroyed a Ukrainian armed convoy in the village of Heorhiivka, 10 kilometers (6 miles) west of the airport. She says at least three Ukrainian soldiers were killed in that clash.

In the last two weeks, the government has halved the territory held by the pro-Russia fighters, who have been forced back into strongholds around the cities of Luhansk and Donetsk.

BEIRUT (AP) — Lebanese officials and a Syrian activist group say heavy clashes along the Syria-Lebanon border have killed several people, including a number of Hezbollah fighters.

Syrian troops backed by Hezbollah militants have been on the offensive in Syria's mountainous Qalamoun region since November, trying to clear the area of rebels.

Officials in eastern Lebanon say the clashes broke out on Sunday after Syrian rebels tried to infiltrate into Lebanon and clashed with Hezbollah fighters. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity in line with regulations.

They say the fighting, which took place near the Lebanese village of Youneen, ended at dawn on Monday after Hezbollah took control of the nearby hills. Several militants were killed.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights says there were casualties on both sides.