Parliament convened on Thursday and failed for the eighth attempt to elect a president who will succeed former President Michel Aoun.

Fifty two blank votes were cast and MP Michel Mouawad garnered 37 votes, a few votes less than the past sessions.

The capital control draft law that is being discussed by the joint parliamentary committees is on the “right track,” Deputy Speaker Elias Bou Saab said on Wednesday.

“We have discussed the draft clause by clause and it needs drastic amendments in many points,” Bou Saab said after a committees session.

Two containers went up in flames on Wednesday at the blast-hit Port of Beirut.

State-run National News Agency said the containers had car parts and furniture in them.

More than 50 countries, including Lebanon, and the U.N. agreed urgent action to end sexual violence in conflict at the UK-hosted PSVI Conference this week, signing up to a new declaration, the British embassy in Lebanon said.

Lawmaker and presidential candidate Michel Mouawad slammed Wednesday a capital control draft law after joint parliamentary sessions resumed discussing it.

Mouawad said that the law will make the depositors bear the burden of the financial crisis.

Joint parliamentary committees convened again on Wednesday to resume the discussion of a capital control draft law.

The committees had convened Tuesday, as depositors and activists rallied near Parliament to protest the law.

A depositor stormed Wednesday a bank in the town of Chhîm to retrieve his savings in order to fund his wife’s cancer treatment.

Depositor Walid Hajjar walked into the Credit Libanais Bank with his family, poured about gasoline and threatened to set the bank on fire if he did not get his money out.

Heavy rains on Tuesday caused powerful flashfloods in Jounieh, Kaslik and Kfar Hbab in the Keserwan district, trapping motorists in their vehicles and causing major damage, media reports said.

The rains also submerged Jbeil’s old souks.

U.S. Ambassador to Lebanon Dorothy Shea on Tuesday stressed the need to elect a new Lebanese president, warning that procrastination and betting on time are not in Lebanon’s interest, the National News Agency said.

During a visit to the Maronite League, Shea also called for approving the needed reforms in order to reach an agreement with the International Monetary Fund.

Progressive Socialist Party leader Walid Jumblat supported Tuesday a memo by Internal Security Forces chief Maj. Gen. Imad Othman, that had sparked criticism.

The memo gave the security forces the full authority to issue arrest warrants, in case the public prosecutions are unreachable or refuse to give a judicial authorization.