The French embassy in Beirut on Thursday greeted the Lebanese on the eve of their Independence Day, stressing that “France will always stand by Lebanon, with which it has a very solid relation.”

“Today, as the country writes a new chapter of its history, amid a dire economic course, France strongly hopes for the formation of an active and credible new government as soon as possible,” the embassy said in a statement.

The army on Thursday confiscated a quantity of explosives in the Tripoli neighborhood of Jabal Mohsen.

“An Intelligence Directorate patrol raided the house of Lebanese citizen Z.Kh. in the Jabal Mohsen area, Tripoli, arresting him along with R.Kh. and A.S.,” an army statement said.

Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri on Thursday called on Lebanese to show unity and “protect independence.”

“The same as the Lebanese made their independence 76 years ago through unity, all Lebanese are today asked to protect independence or rather to recreate it through bolstering their unity and avoiding the traps of sedition,” Berri said in a statement marking Independence Day.

Caretaker Information Minister and ex-Telecom Minister Jamal Jarrah on Thursday lashed out at Financial Prosecutor Ali Ibrahim, accusing him of corruption and of exceeding his jurisdiction.

Jarrah’s remarks come a day after Ibrahim filed lawsuits against him and against two other former telecom ministers – Nicolas Sehnaoui and Butros Harb – over charges related to wasting public funds. Jarrah is being additional sued over “embezzlement.”

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.