The UK Chief of Defence Staff’s Senior Advisor to the Middle East and North Africa (DSAME), Air Marshal Martin Sampson, begins his visit to Lebanon with meeting President Michel Aoun on Wednesday in a show of Britain’s “continued support” for the crisis-hit nation, al-Joumhouria daily reported on Wednesday.

Eight months after a massive blast ripped through Beirut port and nearby districts of the Lebanese capital, a host of foreign companies with different national interests are competing to rebuild it.

One person was killed and two people were wounded in a clash Tuesday in the northern city of Tripoli.

The National News Agency said the clash, in Tripoli’s al-Khnaq area, erupted between a number of young men over “the distribution of food rations in the area.”

Muslims in many parts of the world marked the start of Ramadan on Tuesday, but a spike in coronavirus cases in several countries has once again put curbs on the holy month's signature feasts and lengthy prayers in mosques.

In Lebanon, most Muslims began Ramadan on Tuesday amid soaring inflation. The small country is in the grips of the worst economic and financial crisis in its modern history, with the Lebanese currency losing some 80% of its value against the U.S. dollar in past months.

The Free Patriotic Movement-led Strong Lebanon bloc on Tuesday accused PM-designate Saad Hariri of thwarting “every positive idea” regarding the cabinet formation crisis.

“The PM-designate is still standing idly by, seeing as whenever a positive idea is proposed he thwarts it, the last of which was the 24-minister format, which did not include any one-third-plus-one share for any party,” the bloc said in a statement issued after its weekly e-meeting.

From the British Virgin Islands to Geneva, Swiss prosecutors are tracking the suspected fund movements of Lebanon's central bank chief Riad Salameh, a Swiss newspaper reported Tuesday.

The Swiss attorney general's office said in January it was investigating "aggravated money laundering... in connection with possible embezzlement to the detriment of" the Lebanese central bank. It said it had requested judicial assistance from Lebanon.

The efforts of Speaker Nabih Berri towards all parties are aimed at “reaching a government of independent, nonpartisan specialists according to the French initiative,” a pro-Berri MP has said.

The lawmaker, Ali Bazzi, added in an interview on al-Hurra TV that the so-called one-third-plus-one obstacle is still preventing a “breakthrough” in the crisis.

President Michel Aoun on Tuesday put on hold a decree expanding the sea area disputed with Israel, citing the need for a Cabinet meeting.

The decree was signed Monday by caretaker PM Hassan Diab and the caretaker ministers of public works and defense before being sent to the Presidency for an “extraordinary approval.”

A coalition of Lebanese civil society groups and parties called Tuesday for a unified electoral bloc to try to defeat traditional leaders in 2022 polls.

The joint appeal by 16 groups, including the National Bloc, Beirut Madinati and Mintishreen, marks the most concerted effort yet towards forming an opposition umbrella to take on the ruling elite in parliamentary elections scheduled for May 2022.

The Central Bank governor Riad Salameh affirmed on Tuesday that "the central bank remains the last solid pillar for the country."