BEIRUT The latest on the explosion in Beirut (all times local):
12:05 p.m.
French President Emmanuel Macrons office has confirmed that an international aid conference will be organized on Sunday to support Lebanon after the deadly Beirut blast.
The videoconference, scheduled on Sunday at 12:00 GMT, will be co-hosted by France and the United Nations, Macrons office said.
U.S. President Donald Trump on Friday said that he would participate in the conference that will also include other international leaders.
Macron, who walked through the destroyed streets of Beirut during a visit to Lebanon on Thursday, promised that aid would not go into corrupt hands but to NGOs and the civilian population.
The French president was the first foreign leader to visit in the wake of the devastating explosion. France is the former colonial power in Lebanon.
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11:45 a.m.
Senior officials from the Middle East and Europe have started arriving in Lebanon in a show of solidarity with the tiny country that suffered a deadly blast this week which caused large-scale damage to the capital Beirut.
The first to arrive Saturday was Ahmed Aboul Gheit, the chief of the 22-member Arab League as well as Turkeys vice president and foreign minister.
The visits come as the country braced for large anti-government protests amid popular anger against Lebanons political elite.
The countrys ruling class, made up mostly of former civil war-era leaders, is blamed for widespread corruption, incompetence and mismanagement that contributed to Tuesdays explosion, in which 154 people were killed, more than 5,000 wounded and the countrys largest port and nearby areas were destroyed.
he devastating blast was triggered by thousands of tons of ammonium nitrate stored at the port which was apparently set off by a fire.
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