Australian mother and TV crew freed on bail in Lebanon amid child custody battle

An Australian mother and TV crew caught up in a high-profile child custody battle and detained in Beirut amid a botched attempt to take the woman's two children from their Lebanese father have been released on bail.

Ali Amin, the father of the two children, aged three and five, said he dropped attempted kidnapping charges against his estranged Australian wife Sally Faulkner and the Channel 9 TV crew because he "didn't want the kids to think I was keeping their mother in jail".