U.S. President Donald Trump has expressed Washington’s readiness to cooperate with a new Lebanese government that meets the needs of the Lebanese people, Lebanon’s National News Agency said.

Trump remarks came in a cable he sent to President Michel Aoun to greet him on the occasion of Lebanon’s Independence Day.

Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri has called for a session next Wednesday to study draft laws related to banking secrecy and retaking stolen state money.

Berri's call came two days after protesters prevented legislators from reaching the parliament building to draft and study new laws. The protesters say parliament has no right to draft laws in the presence of a government acting in caretaker capacity.

U.N. Special Coordinator for Lebanon Jan Kubis on Thursday denied interfering in the country’s cabinet formation process.

“Following some misleading media reports, the Office of the U.N. Special Coordinator for Lebanon (UNSCOL) would like to reconfirm its position concerning the government formation,” the office said in a statement.

A court session in the case of Lebanese-American ex-Israeli collaborator Amer Fakhoury was postponed Thursday because of his illness, state-run National News Agency said.

NNA said the session in the southern city of Nabatiyeh was postponed until Dec. 5.

Five young men and women belonging to the Youth Movement for Change on Thursday stormed the headquarters of the central bank on Hamra Street in protest at the bank’s so-called financial engineering operations and other banking measures.

“They entered through the main gate and gathered in the lobby as one of them started reciting a statement, but guards forced them to leave the lobby and the statement was recited outside the bank,” the National News Agency said.

State-run National News Agency reported Thursday that the soldier who shot and killed the protester Alaa Abu Fakhr in Khalde last week has been charged by a military prosecutor with murder.

The agency said that a colonel who was on the scene with the soldier at the time of the shooting was also charged Thursday.

France could dispatch a new envoy to discuss an “initiative” to salvage Lebanon’s crumbling economy, al-Akhbar daily reported on Thursday.

Army Commander General Joseph Aoun addressed the troops on Thursday saying their “vigilance foiled attempts of some to fish in troubled waters.”

On one of Beirut's main commercial streets, store owners are cutting salaries by half or considering shutting down. Shops advertise sales, but still can't draw in customers. The only place doing a thriving business: the store that sells safes, as Lebanese increasingly stash their cash at home.

It's a sign Lebanese fear their country's financial crisis, which has been worsening for months, could tip over into disaster.

Hizbullah and AMAL Movement reportedly wish to intensify contacts to persuade caretaker PM Saad Hariri “again” to lead the new government, al-Joumhouria daily reported on Thursday.