President Michel Aoun on Thursday stressed to U.N. Special Coordinator for Lebanon Joanna Wronecka that Lebanon is committed to holding the parliamentary elections on time.

“Lebanon is committed to working for holding the parliamentary election on time on May 15 and to continuing the negotiations with the International Monetary Fund to approve the economic and financial recovery plan,” Aoun told Wronecka.

Thursday marked the handover of the Ministry of Public Health’s Central Drug Warehouse (CDW) in Qarantina, one year and a half after it was destroyed by the Beirut port explosions, WHO Lebanon said.

Early in 2020, WHO initiated the expansion of the CDW from 600 m3 to around 2,000 m3. However, the work was put on hold by the devastating explosions in August 2020. In response, a new plan was developed "aiming at fully reconstructing the warehouse and increasing the storage capacity to 8,000 m3, as well as modernizing the storage and distribution capacities of the warehouse."

The country’s top leaders are afraid that the repercussions of the Russian-Ukrainian conflict might have an impact on the organization of the upcoming parliamentary elections, a media report said on Thursday.

“The possibility of the parliamentary elections’ postponement is around 65%, and this possibility surged after the eruption of the Russian-Ukrainian war,” ad-Diyar newspaper quoted a senior leader as telling his visitors.

French Transport Minister delegate Jean-Baptiste Djebbari arrived in Beirut on Thursday to donate buses to Lebanon.

Djebbari will sign with Public Works and Transport Minister Ali Hamiyeh a memorandum of understanding.

Two Americans imprisoned in Japan for helping former Nissan Chairman Carlos Ghosn avoid trial and escape to Lebanon are hoping to serve the rest of their time in the U.S.

The Boston-based attorney for Michael Taylor and his son Peter Taylor, Paul Kelly, said Thursday that the elder man was suffering from serious back pain and frostbite.

The hissing of a water hose spraying the ground reverberates around the walls of the dimly lit Empire Cinema in Lebanon's northern city of Tripoli. From the floor of a paint-chipped room that was once a ticket office, a man sorts through rusty bolts and screws, while in the adjacent foyer, a woman sweeps dust off a mirror.

The person leading the restoration efforts is 35-year-old actor and director Kassem Istanbouli, known for his theater work throughout Lebanon.

Lebanon’s central bank, known as the Banque du Liban (BDL), announced Wednesday that it has asked commercial banks to provide it with the names of the “politically exposed figures” who have failed to repatriate their bank transfers from abroad in the wake of the country’s historic financial crisis.

In a statement, BDL’s Special Investigation Commission said it had made the request following a meeting that was held on March 3, adding that the names of those who have complied should also be submitted to the central bank.

With support from the Qatar Fund for Development (QFFD) and the International Organization for Migration (IOM), the implementation of the one-year project “Livelihood Support in the Beqaa and North Lebanon targeting Syrian Refugees” has kicked off, the IOM said in a statement distributed by the U.N. Information Center in Lebanon.

Hizbullah has deliberately let Israel know of the presence of air defense systems in its possession in Lebanon, Israeli media reports said.

Quoting the commanders of the Israeli army’s operations branch, an Israeli news website said the Iran-backed group had managed to bring the systems into Lebanon through Syria despite Israel’s numerous airstrikes on its arms shipments.

Foreign Minister Abdallah Bou Habib stressed Wednesday from Cairo that Lebanon is “determined to rise again,” urging the Arab countries to assist it in its efforts.