After the massive explosion at Beirut's port a year ago, only a small part of Ibrahim Hoteit's younger brother was identified: his scalp. His brother was a large man, a firefighter, a martial arts champion, but Hoteit buried him in a container the size of a shoe box.

Since then, Hoteit has sold his business and sleeps only a few hours a night.

France has said a forthcoming conference on Lebanon needs to gather $357 million in aid to meet the most urgent needs of the battered country's population.

The conference on Wednesday, co-hosted by President Emmanuel Macron and United Nations chief Antonio Guterres, coincides with the first anniversary of the blast that disfigured Beirut and killed more than 200 people.

Prime Minister-designate Najib Miqati warned Monday after meeting President Michel Aoun in Baabda that the timeframe for the cabinet's formation is “not open-ended.”

Former army chief Jean Qahwaji has distanced himself from remarks voiced by his lawyer about the ammonium nitrate shipment that exploded at Beirut’s port.

“The remarks of my lawyer Antoine Toubia, in which he accused Hizbullah of covering up for the smuggling of ammonium nitrates to Syria, do not represent me and they were a personal analysis by him,” Qahwaji said in a TV interview.

Head of the Free Patriotic Movement Jebran Bassil called on Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri to hold a session to lift immunities on August 4.

Bassil said in a press conference held Monday In Sin el-Fil that the Beirut port blast is a "security-related act" and is not limited to workplace negligence. It outlines “the negligence, the corruption and the chaos in the country."

Circles close to PM-designate Najib Miqati have ruled out chances of “progress” in the government formation process between President Michel Aoun and Miqati, according to media reports.

The sources told the PSP's al-Anbaa news portal, in remarks published Monday, that the Free Patriotic Movement’s intentions are not “right,” otherwise the government would have been formed since the first meeting between Aoun and Miqati.

Amnesty International on Monday accused the Lebanese authorities of "shamelessly" obstructing the investigation into last year's monster Beirut port blast, as victims' families set a deadline for action.

A year after the August 4 explosion that killed more than 200 people and levelled entire neighborhoods of the city, no official has been brought to justice.

The Syndicate of Owners of Restaurants, Cafes, Nightclubs and Patisseries announced Monday in a statement that it recommends the tourist establishments to close on the first anniversary of the Beirut port explosion on August 4.

The syndicate stressed its solidarity with “the martyrs and the injured and their families” and also “with the tourism sector” affected by the Beirut port blast.

In the year since a monster explosion disfigured Beirut, a local probe has yet to yield significant arrests or even identify a culprit, with politicians widely accused of stalling progress.

The August 4, 2020 explosion at the Beirut port killed more than 200 people and destroyed swathes of the capital.

As Lebanon marks a year since the devastating Beirut port blast, here is a timeline of its 12 months of crisis:

- Devastation -