Israeli authorities on Thursday handed over to U.N. peacekeepers a Lebanese shepherd who was arrested near the border in southern Lebanon a day earlier.

Ismail Khalil Nabaa was handed over to the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon via the Naqoura border crossing, the army said.

Television journalist Fidaa Itani arrived in Beirut on Thursday night after he was set free by his abductors in Syria, his employer LBCI television reported.

Information Minister Walid al-Daouq and Information Ministry Director General Hassan Falha received Itani at the Rafik Hariri International Airport.

Internal Security Forces thwarted a jail break attempt by a Fatah al-Islam inmate from Roumieh prison, the oldest and largest of Lebanon's overcrowded prisons, the National News Agency reported on Thursday.

According to the news agency, the ISF revealed the scheme on Wednesday by one of the prisoners, who was planning to wear a black chador and climb down using a rope from the bloc that the Islamist inmates are held in.

Foreign Minister Adnan Mansour denied on Thursday a report saying that 98 Lebanese students currently in New York city allegedly went missing as the U.S. toll from hurricane Sandy passed 60.

“I contacted Lebanon's permanent representative to the United Nations, who informed me that all the Lebanese expats are well,” Mansour told Voice of Lebanon radio (93.3).

A border clash between Lebanese security forces and a group of armed men crossing illegally into eastern Lebanon, left one dead, a security source and the National News Agency reported Thursday.

At 5:15 am a group of armed men drove their pick-up truck across the Syrian-Lebanese border near the town of Arsal in the eastern Bekaa valley, sparking a firefight, the official told Agence France Presse.

Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea on Wednesday announced that “the era of settlements with the other camp is over,” noting that Prime Minister Najib Miqati's government “represents the killers.”

“We want to stop the killing machine that is targeting us. Assassinations have become a trivial thing and unfortunately some officials are calling for dialogue as if nothing happened,” said Geagea in an interview on Future television.

The government on Wednesday approved the long-awaited diplomatic appointments, selecting ambassadors comprised of state employees and non-state employees, in the first cabinet session to be held after the assassination of Intelligence Bureau head Maj. Gen. Wissam al-Hasan and amid calls for the cabinet to step down.

MTV, meanwhile, reported that "the ministers of the National Struggle Front voiced reservations over the government's appointment of non-state employees as ambassadors."

Iran insisted on Wednesday that it had obtained images of sensitive areas of Israel from a Hizbullah drone before it was shot down, despite the Jewish state questioning if the aircraft carried a camera.

"The fact that we have obtained the images of many areas that are important for us is the proof that we have conducted a successful mission," Revolutionary Guards' spokesman Brigadier General Ramezan Sharif told the ISNA news agency.

A 12-strong Israeli force on Wednesday kidnapped Lebanese shepherd Ismail Khalil Nabaa who hails from the southern border town of Shebaa, Lebanon's National News Agency reported.

Nabaa was abducted while grazing his flock on the heights of Jabal al-Saddaneh, north of the U.N.-demarcated Blue Line, NNA said, adding that the shepherd was taken to Israel.

Lebanese journalist Fidaa Itani has arrived in Turkey after he was released by his abductors in Syria, Interior Minister Marwan Charbel announced on Wednesday from the Baabda palace.

Al-Jazeera also reported that “Journalist Fidaa Itani has been released by the Northern Storm Brigade in Syria.”