Australian government was providing top-level consular support to an Australian television crew facing charges after being caught up in a mother's bungled child-snatching attempt in Lebanon, Australia's prime minister said on Wednesday.

An Australian mother, a four-member TV crew from Nine Network, two British agents from the Britain-based Child Abduction Recovery International company, known as CARI, and two Lebanese men have been in police custody since two Lebanese-Australian siblings Lahala, 6, and Noah, 4, were snatched from a South Beirut bus stop last week in a bid to smuggle them out of the country.

A senior Palestinian official with the mainstream Fatah Movement was killed on Tuesday in a car bombing in the southern city of Sidon.

Reports said that Fathi Zaidan died and four others, including two bodyguards, were injured in the blast near Ain el-Hilweh Palestinian refugee camp.

A contractor said Tuesday that he negotiated with an Australian television network to snatch two Lebanese-Australian children from their father's family in Beirut but the network chose a cheaper option.

Col Chapman, who describes himself as a child recovery specialist, said executives at the Nine Network's "60 Minutes" program told him to "sharpen his pencil" when he quoted them 150,000 Australian dollars ($114,000) late last year to get the children Lahala, 6, and Noah, 4, out of Lebanon.

Tourism Minister Michel Pharaon stated on Monday that there is no financial scandal linked to the controversial file of the State Security Agency and slammed reports claiming that there is a kind of political “fight” over the file.

“There is no battle and no one is raising the stakes in the State Security file,” said Pharaon in a press conference.

The General Security agency was able to arrest an extremist network that recruits minors in favor of the Islamic State group and is active between the northern areas of al-Mankoubin and Wadi Nahle, al-Akhbar daily reported on Monday.

Lebanese Democratic Party chief MP Talal Arslan visited Prime Minister Tammam Salam on Sunday along with a delegation from Choueifat and told the premier that the town's residents are opposed to the establishment of a garbage landfill in the Costa Brava area.

The delegation comprised Choueifat municipal chief Melhem al-Souqi, municipality members, the town's mayors and representatives of political parties and civil society groups.

An exchange of gun fire erupted overnight on Sunday between a fugitive and anti-police theft in the northern Bekaa town of Brital, the National News Agency reported.

The fire occurred when anti-theft police raided the town and tried to ambush fugitive Ali Mohammed M., added NNA.

The Lebanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Emigrants said on Sunday that the numbers circulated in media outlets of Lebanese emigrants deported from the Gulf countries are exaggerated.

“The numbers of Lebanese emigrants spread in media outlets do not reflect the reality and are overstated,” said the Ministry in a statement.

The calls of Prime Minister Tammam Salam for the cabinet session on Tuesday have cleared the air of doubts following the latest heated session over the appointments of the members of the general-directorate of state security, An Nahar daily reported on Sunday.

The cabinet had convened on Thursday, but it was marred by the ongoing dispute over the state security agency. The possibility of holding another session was questionable.

A meeting between Prime Minister Tammam Salam and Saudi King Salman bin Abdul Aziz has been set to take place in Istanbul next week, the Kuwaiti al-Anbaa daily reported on Sunday.

Salam was informed by the Saudi ambassador to Lebanon Ali Awadh Asiri that a meeting has been arranged with the Saudi King in Istanbul, the daily added.