<p>Lebanon's information minister Manal Abdel Samad on Sunday quit in the first government resignation since a deadly port blast killed more than 150 people and destroyed swathes of the capital.</p>.<p>"After the enormous Beirut catastrophe, I announce my resignation from government," she said in a statement carried by local media, apologising to the Lebanese public for failing them.</p>.<p>The head of Lebanon's Maronite church meanwhile called on the entire government to step down over the August 4 explosion, a blast widely seen as shocking proof of the rot at the core of the state apparatus.</p>.<p>Lebanese protesters enraged by the blast vowed to rally again after a night of street clashes in which they stormed several ministries.</p>.<p>Maronite patriarch Beshara Rai joined the chorus of people pressing Prime Minister Hassan Diab's cabinet to step down over a blast he said could be "described as a crime against humanity."</p>.<p>"It is not enough for a lawmaker to resign here or a minister to resign there," Rai said in a Sunday sermon.</p>.<p>"It is necessary, out of sensitivity to the feelings of the Lebanese and the immense responsibility required, for the entire government to resign, because it is incapable of moving the country forward."</p>.<p>Rai echoed calls by Diab for early parliamentary polls -- a long-standing demand of a protest movement that began in October, demanding the removal of a policial class deemed inept and corrupt.</p>.<p>He also joined world leaders, international organisations and the angry Lebanese public by pressing for an international probe into an explosion authorities say was triggered by a fire in a port warehouse, where a huge shipment of hazardous ammonium nitrate had languished for years.</p>.<p>President Michel Aoun on Friday rejected calls for an international investigation, which he said would "dilute the truth."</p>.<p>At least six lawmakers have quit since the explosion.</p>.<p>Under increased pressure from the street and foreign partners exasperated by the leadership's inability to enact reforms, Diab's government is fraying at the edges.</p>
<p>Lebanon's information minister Manal Abdel Samad on Sunday quit in the first government resignation since a deadly port blast killed more than 150 people and destroyed swathes of the capital.</p>.<p>"After the enormous Beirut catastrophe, I announce my resignation from government," she said in a statement carried by local media, apologising to the Lebanese public for failing them.</p>.<p>The head of Lebanon's Maronite church meanwhile called on the entire government to step down over the August 4 explosion, a blast widely seen as shocking proof of the rot at the core of the state apparatus.</p>.<p>Lebanese protesters enraged by the blast vowed to rally again after a night of street clashes in which they stormed several ministries.</p>.<p>Maronite patriarch Beshara Rai joined the chorus of people pressing Prime Minister Hassan Diab's cabinet to step down over a blast he said could be "described as a crime against humanity."</p>.<p>"It is not enough for a lawmaker to resign here or a minister to resign there," Rai said in a Sunday sermon.</p>.<p>"It is necessary, out of sensitivity to the feelings of the Lebanese and the immense responsibility required, for the entire government to resign, because it is incapable of moving the country forward."</p>.<p>Rai echoed calls by Diab for early parliamentary polls -- a long-standing demand of a protest movement that began in October, demanding the removal of a policial class deemed inept and corrupt.</p>.<p>He also joined world leaders, international organisations and the angry Lebanese public by pressing for an international probe into an explosion authorities say was triggered by a fire in a port warehouse, where a huge shipment of hazardous ammonium nitrate had languished for years.</p>.<p>President Michel Aoun on Friday rejected calls for an international investigation, which he said would "dilute the truth."</p>.<p>At least six lawmakers have quit since the explosion.</p>.<p>Under increased pressure from the street and foreign partners exasperated by the leadership's inability to enact reforms, Diab's government is fraying at the edges.</p>