Customs agents at the Rafik Hariri International Airport discovered on Thursday radioactive material in a shipment of mobile phone covers.

The Finance Ministry announced that a shipment of 98 crates of mobile phone covers, imported from China, were suspected of carrying radioactive material.

The Lebanese army advanced on Thursday on the outskirts of the northeastern villages of Ras Baalbek and Arsal, establishing new checkpoints and surveillance posts.

The military said in a communique that “army units deployed at dawn (on Thursday) on the outskirts of Ras Baalbek and fully controlled the heights of Sadr al-Jarash and Harf al-Jarash.”

An Israeli military unit advanced on Thursday towards al-Wazzani river on the southern border raising alert among Lebanese troops and peacekeepers, the state-run National News Agency reported.

NNA said the 20-member unit was backed by a Merkava tank for monitoring.

Bassel al-Moussawi, who was abducted at gunpoint in the Bekaa town of Ali al-Nohri earlier on Thursday, was released, the state-run National News Agency reported.

The circumstances of his abduction remain unclear.

The case of Lebanese hostages is expected to further complicate after a secret mediator in the case died while in the custody of Lebanese security agency, al-Akhbar newspaper reported on Thursday.

Mustapha Behlok, who has been playing the role of mediator between the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) and the Lebanese state, was detained recently on Wadi Hmeid checkpoint in the northeastern border town of Arsal.

A man from the Jaafar clan wanted in the murder of a couple in the eastern Baalbek district died on Thursday after he was shot by the Lebanese army during his arrest, the military command and the state-run National News Agency said.

Ahmed Mohammed Salim Jaafar was injured on Wednesday night after the military ambushed him in an area between al-Yammouneh and Dar al-Wasaa.

The fate of the cabinet was still unclear on Thursday after Prime Minister Tammam Salam refused to confirm whether he set a date for a session to discuss the controversial decision-making mechanism.

Local dailies quoted Salam was saying that some ministers were paralyzing the cabinet over limited and personal issues.

Al-Mustaqbal movement leader ex-PM Saad Hariri left Beirut for Saudi Arabia on Wednesday, after he stayed in Lebanon for twelve days.

Former “premier Saad Hariri left Beirut this evening for Riyadh,” Hariri's press office announced.

The Free Patriotic Movement lashed out Wednesday at former president Michel Suleiman, describing his election in 2008 as “the biggest stab to constitution.”

“The remarks that were voiced in a friendly Arab country by a Lebanese official who belongs to the past were unfortunate, especially that statesmen must be keen on the internal unity of the Lebanese during their foreign trips,” Education Minister Elias Bou Saab, who is close to FPM chief MP Michel Aoun, tweeted.

Security forces in the eastern Bekaa region arrested on Wednesday a Syrian for his involvement in recent clashes with the army, reported the National News Agency.

It said that Hussein Ghirly was arrested at a hospital in the Bekaa.