Lebanese President Michel Aoun begins parliamentary consultations by receiving former Prime Ministers Saad Hariri, Najib Mikati and Tammam Salam, to designate a new premier. Lebanon's last government, headed by Hassan Diab, resigned after a vast stockpile of ammonium nitrate that had languished at Beirut's port for years blew up on August 4, killing at least 188 people, wounding thousands and laying waste to large parts of the capital. The deadly blast, blamed on decades of negligence and corruption by the country's ruling elite, revived calls at home and abroad for radical revamp of the state.