Survivors and victims of last year’s deadly blast in Beirut’s port joined rights groups on Wednesday to urge the United Nations Human Rights Council to establish an “independent, impartial, prompt, thorough, effective, reliable, and transparent” investigative mission into the Aug. 4 explosion that killed at least 218 people.

With mass anti-corruption protests gripping Lebanon for over a week, the country’s president urged on Thursday citizens to back economic reforms proposed by the prime minister as the "first step" toward saving the country from economic collapse, the Associated Press reported.