The Foreign Ministry denied that Lebanon’s Ambassador to Damascus Michel al-Khoury left the mission’s headquarters over the deterioration in the security situation of the Syrian capital.

In a statement it issued on Friday, the ministry said al-Khoury is in Beirut on a two-day administrative leave.

A former Qantas worker found guilty of producing a do-it-yourself jihad manual had his conviction reinstated by Australia's High Court Friday, with judges ruling he had extremist intentions.

Lebanese-born Belal Khazaal, an ex-Qantas cabin cleaner, was jailed for 12 years in 2009 over the Arabic-language handbook, which included how-to guides on bomb-making, assassinations, kidnappings and shooting down planes.

MP Mohammed Raad, head of Hizbullah’s Loyalty to Resistance parliamentary bloc, on Thursday described as “security fabrications” the arrest earlier in the day of former minister Michel Samaha on alleged charges of plotting for bombings.

“We will not remain silent but we will wait for some time,” Raad said in a speech during a Ramadan iftar banquet.

Kidnapper of the 11 Lebanese pilgrims, Abou Ibrahim, stated on Thursday that the captives would be “released very soon, God willing,” reported LBCI television.

He told the television station: “We want Lebanese politicians to officially recognize the Syrian revolution in order to release the pilgrims.”

The attempt of two armed men to rob a BLOM Bank branch in the North Metn area was thwarted by a Lebanese army captain who was injured in the incident, the National News Agency reported Thursday.

The Army Command later confirmed the incident, saying that Captain Ryan al-Jerdi’s injuries are serious.

Prime Minister Najib Miqati stated on Thursday that former minister and MP Michel Samaha’s arrest was based on a judicial request.

He said: “The investigations with Samaha are linked to security issues, not the Special Tribunal for Lebanon.”

The Israeli intelligence service intercepted several telephone calls between Lebanon and Burgas in Bulgaria two months before the bombing that killed five Israeli tourists and their local bus driver, the New York Times reported on Thursday.

“The volume (of calls) intensified in the three days leading up to” the bombing, a senior Israeli government official told the newspaper on condition of anonymity.

A gang comprised of thugs in the southern city of Tyre resumed its endeavors in the city, terrorizing the residents amid the security chaos in the country, An Nahar newspaper reported on Thursday.

According to the report, the gang’s kingpin known as Wassef S. reiterates to the residents of Tyre that he enjoys a “special judicial care,” which has always saved him from continuing his sentence at prison.

The Internal Security Forces Intelligence Branch arrested former MP and cabinet minister Michel Samaha on Thursday morning "for security reasons," the acting general prosecutor said.

Samaha was arrested following raids on his houses in Beirut’s Ashrafiyeh district and the North Metn town of Jwar al-Khensahara.

The March 14 opposition alliance, which has severely criticized a new electoral draft-law, is gearing up to reject it in parliament and holding intense meetings to draft a new law in coordination with Progressive Socialist Party leader Walid Jumblat, high-ranking opposition sources said.

The sources told An Nahar daily that the March 14 forces will not only work on toppling the draft-law, but will seek through small coordination committees along with centrist Jumblat to work on reaching common points that would form the nucleus of a new draft.