The army arrested Thursday a fugitive at a Syrian refugee camp in Arsal over ties to terrorist groups, as calm returned to the northeastern border town after residents from neighboring al-Bazzaliyeh reopened a vital road they had blocked in the wake of the execution of captive soldier Ali al-Bazzal.

“The Lebanese army raided a camp in Arsal and arrested a person who has ties to terrorist groups,” MTV reported.

Security forces at the al-Qobbeh prison in the northern city of Tripoli discovered on Thursday drugs hidden inside the handle of mop which was being smuggled into the facility.

The assortment of drugs were hidden inside the hollowed up wooden handle of the mop.

France informed on Thursday Prime Minister Tammam Salam that it will form a parliamentary committee aimed at following up on Lebanon's needs.

Salam revealed: “Speaker Claude Bartolone informed me that a high-ranking parliamentary committee will be formed to follow up on Lebanon's military and Syrian refugee needs.”

Two al-Jadeed TV journalists and a member of the Zahle Municipality were assaulted Thursday by gunmen loyal to MP Nicolas Fattoush and his brother Pierre during the filming of a TV report on the construction of a controversial cement factory.

"The colleagues Yumna Fawaz and Saad Ayyad were beaten up, threatened with weapons and detained by bodyguards loyal to Pierre Fattoush in Zahle,” al-Jadeed TV said.

The Special Tribunal for Lebanon heard on Thursday the controversy on telecommunications data that erupted in the aftermath of the assassination of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri in February 2005.

MP Marwan Hamadeh, who is the first politician to appear in court as a witness in the in absentia trial of five Hizbullah members, provided answers during the cross-examination of defense counsel Vincent Courcelle-Labrousse.

Information Minister Ramzi Jreij noted on Thursday that the media is offering the kidnappers of the Arsal captives too much airtime, “which is allowing them to blackmail the state and the victims' families.”

He said during a press conference: “The terrorists are exploiting the media to terrorize the people and they should therefore be kept away from the spotlight.”

Agriculture Minister Akram Shehayeb and Health Minister Wael Abou Faour held a joint press conference on Thursday over the food safety scandal, warning the owners of dairy factories that the state will not yield to their threats.

“We will not allow anyone pressure the state and the small producers... Greed is forbidden,” Abou Faour told reporters in comments on the protesters carried out by dairy farmers across the country last week over the fall in milk prices.

Israel doesn't expect a Syrian or Lebanese response to an airstrike in Syria attributed to Israel earlier this week since they are too tied up with that country's bloody civil war and can't afford to open another front, a senior Israeli military officer said Wednesday.

The officer said Hizbullah fighters had the capability, but not the motivation, at this time to harm Israel and there was no "logic" to picking a fight with Israel while it was knee-deep in battling a Sunni insurgency.

The crises gripping Lebanon due to the ongoing vacuum at the Baabda Palace are expected to increase with the near end of the tenure of Army Commander General Jean Qahwaji and Internal Security Forces chief Brig. Gen. Ibrahim Basbous.

According to al-Akhbar newspaper the tenure of Basbous ends in June, while Qahwaji's two-year extended term ends in September.

Speaker Nabih Berri has reiterated that Israel was “stealing” Lebanon's natural gas through a pipeline lying in its territorial waters despite a claim made by Energy Minister Arthur Nazarian that he did not have information about the alleged aggression.

Berri told As Safir daily published on Thursday that he has “evidence” condemning Israel.