World Bank Regional Director Saroj Kumar Jha held talks Friday in Beirut with Finance Minister Ghazi Wazni and said the Bank is awaiting the government's reform program to decide how to support the Lebanese people.

The official also stressed that the World Bank is committed to helping Lebanon create better job opportunities for its people and in funding projects in the health, education and electricity sectors.

Mount Lebanon Investigative Judge Bassam al-Hajj on Friday dismissed a medical report filed by the lawyer of protest movement activist Rabih al-Zein.

The judge also issued an in-absentia arrest warrant for al-Zein and ordered a broader investigation.

State Commissioner to the Military Court Judge Peter Germanos announced Friday that he is stepping down.

In a phone call to the National News Agency, Germanos said he will on Tuesday submit a request to be relieved of his duties to Justice Minister Marie-Claude Najem for “purely family reasons.”

On 5 February 2020, Trial Chamber II decided that Ayyash would be tried in absentia. The following day, the Pre-Trial Judge, Judge Daniel Fransen, requested the Head of Defence Office, Dorothée Le Fraper du Hellen, to assign Counsel to represent the interests and rights of the Accused, said STL in a press release.

The Head of Defence Office therefore assigned Emile Aoun, a lawyer at the Beirut Bar, as Lead Counsel and Anta Guissé, a lawyer at the Paris Bar, as Co-Counsel to defend the interests and rights of Salim Jamil Ayyash in the case of The Prosecutor v. Ayyash (STL 18-10) in connection with the attacks against Marwan Hamade, George Hawi and Elias El-Murr.

Prime Minister Hassan Diab on Friday urged the Lebanese to join efforts in order to salvage the country from multiple crises it “inherited from previous policies,” the National News Agency reported on Friday.

Lebanon’s Higher Defense Council convened at Baabda on Friday to tackle the security situation before next week’s parliament session dedicated to hold a confidence vote for the new Cabinet, amid demonstrators’ pledges to escalate protests.

Chairman of the Banking Control Commission of Lebanon (BCCL) Samir Hammoud replied to Speaker Nabibh Berri’s statement on Friday saying that all Lebanese banks, not just five of them, have transferred a total of $2.3 billion to banks in Switzerland after the October 17 uprising.

Extremely tight security measures will be imposed next week when the Parliament convenes on a confidence vote for the new government of PM Hassan Diab, with security officials describing the steps similar to ones taken in a state of emergency, al-Joumhouria daily reported on Friday.

Progressive Socialist Party leader ex-MP Walid Jumblat lashed out Thursday at Foreign Minister Nassif Hitti over a tweet related to the economic cost of the presence of Syrian refugees in Lebanon.

“It seems that the new foreign minister, Mr. Nassif Hitti, likes to detonate large sound bombs in order to rise to the level of his predecessor in exaggeration, not to say well-known racism,” Jumblat tweeted.

Anti-government protesters from several regions gathered in Jounieh Thursday evening to denounce the overnight attack on demonstrators by supporters of MP Ziad Aswad.

The protesters outside the Fouad Chehab Stadium especially condemned an attack on a young protester who hails from Tripoli that was filmed and distributed by Aswad’s supporters.