Families of Lebanese blast victims plead for outside inquiry

BEIRUT (AP) — Lebanese survivors of the massive port explosion and relatives of the victims are asking the U.N. Security Council for an international investigation into the blast that wrecked their capital. They say they have no faith in their government’s probe, which has gotten off to a shaky start, with political bickering, military threats to jail leakers and doubts about whether a panel appointed along sectarian lines could be fully impartial. Skeptical Lebanese worry the government will go after lower level figures and not look into senior officials who did nothing about a huge stockpile of explosive chemicals stored at the port for years.