Youssef al-Mawla, the father of one of Beirut port blast victims, filed Friday a recusal request against the port blast investigator Judge Tarek Bitar.

Al-Mawla's lawyer Salman Barakat filed on Friday morning the recusal request before the Criminal Court of Cassation headed by Judge Randa Kfoury.

The Lebanese currency has plummeted on the black market after the central bank raised the exchange rate for U.S. dollar deposits held in the country's banks.

"The central bank... has decided to raise the exchange rate for U.S. dollars from 3,900 to 8,000 Lebanese pounds," it said in a statement.

Ziad Hilweh knew his family might die on the way. But the risk was worth it, he said, to reach the shores of Europe for a new start with his wife and three kids, away from the daily humiliation of life in Lebanon.

The country's economic meltdown had destroyed him. The currency crash meant that the value of his salary from working at a private security company fell from $650 a month to about $50 after the Lebanese pound lost more than 90% of its value in less than two years. It reached the point the 22-year-old could no longer afford milk and diapers for his children.

Hizbullah military commander and expert Akram al-Sayyed has died in artillery shelling in Yemen’s Marib governorate, Yemeni Information, Culture and Tourism Minister Moammar al-Aryani has said, describing the development as “a painful blow to Tehran’s regime and its sectarian militias.”

“Al-Sayyed, 35, had entered Yemen in August 2017 among a host of terrorists belonging to Hizbullah, and on December 3 he was sent with a number of Hizbullah experts to the fronts of southern Marib to lead operations and implement Iran’s scheme of escalating the magnitude of confrontations in the governorate,” Aryani said in a social media post.

Deputy Prime Minister Saadeh Shami said that "we need the approval of the Cabinet to start with the IMF's plan."

"If Cabinet doesn't convene, there would be difficulties to negotiate with the IMF," Shami said.

Free Patriotic Movement head Jebran Bassil tweeted Thursday that the decision by the labor minister to allow Palestinians and the unregistered individuals to practice dozens of professions is "illegal."

"The decision violates the Labor Law and the Constitution," Bassil said.

The central bank on Thursday hiked the dollar exchange rate for bank withdrawals from LBP 3,900 to LBP 8,000 while setting a $3,000 monthly cap per account.

In a statement, the bank said its measure comes ahead of “devising an integrated and comprehensive governmental pan that is based on the economic and reformist principles and the requirements of the International Monetary Fund.”

The Lebanese health ministry said Thursday that it had confirmed the country's first two cases of the Omicron variant of Covid in passengers tested upon arrival at the airport.

"Two cases detected in airport testing" were confirmed to be of the Omicron variant, Health Minister Firass Abiad told a press conference.

KSA and UAE urged Lebanon, in a joint statement, "to make political and economical reforms and to limit the possession of arms to the legitimate state institutions."

"Lebanon shouldn't be an incubator for organizations and groups that target the security and stability of the region, such as terrorist Hizbullah," the statement said.

Beirut port blast investigator Judge Tarek Bitar has told the families of the detainees in the case that he will issue the indictment within three months, a media report said on Thursday.