U.S. mediator Amos Hochstein has told the Lebanese parties that all the reports about a "negative atmosphere" regarding the demarcation negotiations are coming from Lebanon's side.

Al-Akhbar newspaper said Wednesday that Hochstein has denied the reports, saying that he and Israel have nothing to do with them.

After more than a month of stalemating the Cabinet formation negotiations, Prime Minister-designate Najib Mikati and President Michel Aoun met Wednesday in Baabda.

Mikati and Aoun discussed a Cabinet line-up that the PM had submitted in late June.

As part of the recently announced $2.76 billion in U.S. government funding to help address the global food security crisis, the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) will provide $29.5 million, consisting of $15 million in humanitarian assistance and $14.5 million in economic support funding, to help protect vulnerable populations from rising food insecurity in Lebanon, the U.S. embassy said.

President Michel Aoun on Tuesday called on the judiciary to confront “anyone restraining its justice, at the central bank as well as in the Beirut port blast case.”

In a statement addressed to the judicial authority, the president reminded that on June 9, the relevant judicial authorities “charged Central Bank Governor Riad Toufic Salameh and his partners with dangerous financial crimes, specifically the crimes of embezzlement, falsification, the use of forged documents, money laundering, illicit enrichment and tax evasion.”

Attorney General Judge Ghassan Khoury on Tuesday ordered the release of Federal Bank hostage-taker Bassam al-Sheikh Hussein.

The National News Agency said the decision was taken after the bank dropped the lawsuit against the defendant.

Gasoline was delivered to fuel distributors on Tuesday after contacts were made over the past hours, the representative of fuel distribution companies, Fadi Abu Shaqra, said, after queues returned to gas stations in some regions.

“A clarification will be issued about the modification of the mechanism that has been adopted by the Banque du Liban (central bank),” Abu Shaqra added.

British Ambassador to Lebanon Hamish Cowell met Tuesday with Caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati at the Grand Serail.

"I had a good first meeting with Prime Minister Designate Najib Mikati. Our discussion underlined the importance of strengthening the longstanding bilateral relations between our countries," Ambassador Cowell said after the meeting.

A group of independent and "Change" MPs will meet Tuesday for the second time at the Parliament.

Last week, sixteen independent and "Change" MPs convened to discuss the Parliamentary sessions' agendas and the method of voting.

Lebanese Forces MP Antoine Zahra revealed Tuesday that Free Patriotic Movement chief Jebran Bassil has asked to meet LF leader Samir Geagea.

"I think that Bassil has equivocally asked to meet with Geagea over the presidential file, and the latter has refused," Zahra said.

Progressive Socialist Party MP Wael Abu Faour said Tuesday that PSP leader Walid Jumblat will choose neither a March 8 President nor a "confrontational" President.

"A strong president is strong in his decisions and in his relations, not in his popular base," Abu Faour went on to say.