Lebanon’s Customs Department and Minister of Health Hamad Hassan on Tuesday confiscated around 40 tons of expired chicken in warehouses in the Metn town of Zikrit.

Shiite cleric Sayyed Ali al-Amine stressed after talks with Maronite Patriarch Beshara el-Rahi on Wednesday, that neutrality makes Lebanon an independent and sovereign state capable of imposing its authority on all Lebanon’s territory, and rejected the logic of “seeking power in majority.”

The "political-financial system" controlling the country has reportedly worked "with all its might" to "thwart" the plan to recover stolen and smuggled funds outside Lebanon when depositors were prevented from obtaining their money from banks, al-Joumhouria daily reported on Wednesday.

The head of Hizbullah’s Loyalty to Resistance bloc, MP Mohammed Raad, held talks Tuesday in Ain el-Tineh with Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri.

Speaking to reporters after the meeting, Raad said Berri “is not pessimistic” about the situations.

Cabinet on Tuesday agreed to sign contracts with foreign firms in order to audit the accounts of the central bank.

The Presidency said it has been agreed to hire the Alvarez and Marsal firm for forensic audit and the KPMG and Oliver Wyman firms for accounts audit.

President Michel Aoun on Tuesday asked the government to label 32-year-old doctor Louay Ismail, who died of COVID-19, as “one of Lebanon’s martyrs.”

Twenty-eight residents and 18 expats tested positive for COVID-19 over the past 24 hours, the Health Ministry said on Monday.

One more fatality was also recorded, raising the death toll to 41, while the new cases raise the country’s overall tally to 2,905 -- among them 2,100 local cases and 1,562 recoveries.

Lebanese physician Louay Ismail, 32, died Monday at the Nabih Berri state-run hospital in Nabatieh due to COVID-19 complications, the National News Agency said.

Ismail, who hailed from the Tyre district town of al-Zalloutiyeh, had been a shift doctor at the emergency room of the Lebanese Italian Hospital in Tyre.

General Security chief Maj. Gen. Abbas Ibrahim stressed Monday that ex-PM Saad Hariri is keen on Lebanon’s stability and prosperity.

“Whether he is in the opposition or the government, ex-PM Hariri is keen on Lebanon and its stability and prosperity,” Ibrahim told reporters after the meeting.

Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi on Monday hoped all Lebanese will show a “unified stance” on his calls for neutrality.

“We hope all Lebanese will show a unified stance in order to reach a resolution from the Security Council and the U.N. stipulating that Lebanon has an active neutral system that should be respected by all countries,” said al-Rahi during a meeting with a Kataeb Party delegation in Diman.