Defense Minister Fayez Ghosn confirmed that smuggling operations are taking place along the border with Syria, admitting that it is “very difficult” to completely monitor the entire 330 kilometer-border, reported the daily An Nahar on Sunday.

He told the daily: “The army is performing all it can to curb the illegal activity.”

Israel's U.N. ambassador said Friday that his government has made no decision yet on whether it will attend a proposed international conference on a nuclear weapons free Middle East.

But the envoy, Ron Prosor, insisted there could be no accord on a weapons free zone until there is a "comprehensive peace" in the region.

A 20-year-old man was killed and another 51 people injured by Israeli fire on Friday, as thousands rallied across the West Bank and Gaza to mark Land Day, medical sources said.

Demonstrations also took place in annexed east Jerusalem and across Israel, as well as in Jordan, southern Lebanon and Syria to mark the annual event that commemorates the deaths of six Arab Israelis at the hands of Israeli forces during protests against land confiscation in 1976.

Speaker Nabih Berri hailed the government for reaching a deal on how to resolve the country’s lingering electricity crisis but criticized it for failing so far to appoint the members of the oil authority.

In remarks to As Safir daily on Friday, Berri said a government session at Baabda Palace on Wednesday “was probably the first productive session for a long time.”

More than 3,000 Lebanese, Palestinian and foreign demonstrators marched to the Beaufort Castle in Nabatiyeh on Friday to mark Land Day, an annual protest against discriminatory Israeli land policies.

Waving Palestinian flags and singing Palestinian national songs, the protestors performed the traditional dabke dance as security forces kept them from moving beyond the Crusader-built castle that lies 15 kilometers from the Israeli border.

President Michel Suleiman stated on Thursday that Lebanon is adopting positive neutrality regarding regional issues, except the Palestinian cause and the conflict with Israel.

He said at the opening of the Arab League summit in Baghdad: “Lebanon sought to distance itself from the Syrian developments and we hope that United Nations and Arab league envoy Kofi Annan would succeed in his mission to reach a political solution to the crisis.”

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Thursday voiced his country's unwavering support for Tehran's nuclear ambitions in a meeting with Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, according to an official statement.

"The government and nation of Turkey has always clearly supported the nuclear positions of the Islamic republic of Iran, and will continue to firmly follow the same policy in the future," Erdogan was quoted as saying in the statement issued by Ahmadinejad's office.

The Lebanese General Security handed over to the International Committee of the Red Cross a Palestinian national who had swum to Lebanon in September 2011, reported the National News Agency on Thursday.

Ahmed Jamal Mahmoud al-Daaif will then be handed over to Israel.

Israel's former defense minister Shaul Mofaz roundly defeated his rival for the leadership of the country's opposition party Kadima, taking nearly two-thirds of the vote, the party said on Wednesday.

In a statement, Kadima said Mofaz had taken 61.77 percent of the primary votes to oust his rival, incumbent faction leader Tzipi Livni.

State commissioner to the military court Judge Saqr Saqr charged Jamil Reda Issa on Tuesday with collaborating with Israel and entering the Jewish state.

Saqr referred the suspect to the first military examining magistrate.