Rescue crews search for more survivors and victims. Also ahead this half hour a groundbreaking and controversial ceremony indias Prime Minister prepares to lay hindu temple foundations on the ruins of a mosque. A massive explosion has brought catastrophe to lebanons capital beirut killing at least 78 people and injuring follows ins more as a shockwave smashed through the city it erupted from a port warehouse where about 2700 tons of Ammonium Nitrate had been stored for 6 years is believed to be and set off by welders the blast was felt 160 kilometers away in cyprus countries around the world including lebanons traditional foe israel and now offering help as in a holder in beirut. Coverage. A massive explosion in the heart of the lebanese capital. Was. 6 the blast essential quavers across beirut shattering windows destroying buildings. And injuring hundreds. The streets were filled with panic and confusion much of the so your oh my call was down there it rolled over i think my injuries all because of the loss the last copy up my call was like this i dont know about the sun i dont know what happened i was fishing i heard there was a fire so i began to hit home then i heard something explode and then this happened i got injured this is all i know. Rescue work began quickly and emergency vehicles converged on the site of the blast. Putting out fires. And getting the injured to safety lebanons internal security chief confirmed the blast originated in the 4th district in a section housing highly explosive materials. Lebanons Prime Minister has addressed the nation promising that the victims would get justice for what happened. It will not post without accountability those responsible for this catastrophe will pay the price this is a promise to the martyrs an injured this is a National Commitment while the cause is still unknown some are already blaming the government levanon is an accident waiting to happen and so many wait so many places whether its. Public Services Like just any all kinds of Government Industries are not regulated well we dont like inspectors that so many buildings could collapse so you know again all the problems that lebanon face because we dont really have a strong government that is able to ensure the safety of its citizens and thats been why people have been brought. I think thats why the currency has been falling so you know there are so many possible accidents and ive been on so its very hard to speculate i mean ellen says continue to arrive at this explosion there have been dozens of casualties many victims are still trapped in the rubble and rescue work looks set to continue long into the night the destruction of central beirut appear to come out of nowhere and theres the shock of what happened subsides the demands for answers will continue to grow louder. Pavement well several gulf nations are among the 1st to offer help casaus and me to mean been home at all funny he says his country will send medical equipment to set up field hospitals in iran has also offered support as has its regional rival saudi arabia and israel is putting forward humanitarian aid through foreign channels because it has no diplomatic relations with lebanon on european leaders say they are ready to provide whatever is needed the u. S. President donald trump says his country will help as well but he also seemed to contradict official reports by describing the blast as an attack let me begin by sending americas deepest sympathies to the people of lebanon where reports indicate that many many people were killed hundreds more were very badly wounded in a large explosion in beirut our prayers go out to all the victims and their families the United States stands ready to assist lebanon very Good Relationship with the people of lebanon and we will be there to help it looks like a terrible attack. Mike hanna joins us from washington so mike mr trump was talking there about an attack he also used the phrase a bomb attack but what we know so far theres nothing in there to support what the president is saying. Well President Trump was asked directly late in that briefing exactly what he meant by saying its an attack he said that hed met with some of what he calls his great generals and they said that the nature of the blast indicated it was not some kind of mechanical accident that it would appear to be a bomb an intentional bomb thats according to President Trump now what we do know is that shortly before that briefing the president did have a number of chiefs of staff in his office it was the swearing in of the new chief of staff of the air force so President Trump did have an opportunity to speak to his senior generals along with his secretary of defense but its not known whether they told him at that specific occasion what their opinion was of the situation weve reached out to the pentagon for comment and theyve referred us back to the white house so still no clarity as to exactly what source or what information President Trump was drawing on the u. S. Secretary of States Mike Mike pompeo offering help as and when required does this tilt the relationship in a better more positive direction. Well it has been getting a little bit warmer in recent months certainly there were huge problems with the relationship over the past year particularly when the Trump Administration decided to hold up a payment of military aid to lebanon which had been passed in congress and which had been approved by the pentagon and by the National Security council so certainly there was a lot of friction around that President Trump held up that particular payment between september and toole december when it was finally made now part of the reason according to some observers is that President Trump was concerned about what he called corruption within lebanon he wanted a full report from the state department to make sure that this military aid was not going to be misused or even worse in the u. S. Point of view siphoned off to hezbollah forces but in recent months you have heard from the secretary of state making very clear that the u. S. Sees lebanon as a valued ally this much to do with the attempt to cut down the influence of iran within lebanon this is the major focus of the u. S. Relationship within lebanon and also of course last month the centcom commander the most senior u. S. Commander in the theater went to lebanon to have a meeting with senior military officials there that was a very important meeting in terms of the u. S. Once again signaling that it wants to keep a Firm Alliance with levanon that it still views lebanon as a very important card in terms of its wider Regional Policy ok mike thank you very much mike correspondent in washington. So youre seen as a professor at the American University of beirut. The government will be able to deal with this disaster on its own. Like many issues for the last few months weve been seeing the revenues government not taking that i decisions when it comes to managing the economy or the finances or social issues and i can imagine that this disaster this catastrophe will be dealt by the way that live in these people do relying on themselves on their war on their communities of or and the government would just be lost in not giving and not doing the right decision i hope they do things differently this time i hope all the state the government the Parliament Administration leader look into this and give real answers from it and people accountable and i think this this is what we want we need we need more response of the leaders and we need the engagement with that of the International Community to deal with this kind of this i said i think this is whats needed you know the measure of this is the major part of it was that was almost totally destroyed and part of it also the grain silos where the people of the grain and the we actually deliver the knees and people who live 11 in need and thats another disaster in the making if we can get support in terms of grain and we and other food supplies. For the coming days and weeks well be dealing with the immediate needs and the immediate aftermath but i think after that we really need to look into new ways and new people to govern this country rather than just keep pushing back and and pushing that responsibility and to others. Scene will wrap up some other top stories over the next few minutes or so columbias Supreme Court has confirmed its ordered the detention of the former president. Is to do with a case in which the former leader is accused of witness tampering and fraud who has repeatedly declared his innocence and questioned the courts independence he is a close ally of the current president even do Kate Alexander rump yes he joins us with the latest from bogota so give us a sense here of how important this decision is. Well peter it was a unanimous decision on part of the judges the Supreme Court to comes after and 9 months of closely analyzing a lot of evidence in the form of a phone interception. Listening to within the cia is looking at documents conversations between the former president then is a lawyer and a close allies and this is the 1st time in history that a president or a former president of this country is well face paint ssion the judges said in this statement that the reason for the tension is that they have reached the conclusion that there could be the possibility of obstruction of justice taking place so would you but well have to face the rest of this trial from house or whatever it is farmed from what we understand he is in a farm in. The north to the country right now and theres no doubt that this decision is shocked the colombe ends because that would be a is still can see that the most powerful and influential Police Station in the country but also the most divisive half of the country can see their him a savior for the way he successfully fought the rebels doing the countrys internal conflict but the rest of the country instead to criticize him for the many Human Rights Violations and cases of corruptions that happened during his 2 administrations i mean particularly the killing of thousands of innocent civilians the next judicial killings that committed by the army and paramilitary groups. Thank you very much. In bogota. Still to come on this program a report that saudi arabia has moved one step closer to Nuclear Power with the help of china. Also ahead argentina takes a big step toward stabilizing its debt ravaged economy. And the decimal of very heavy rain in the full cost across areas of the Korean Peninsula of course is not once a given the very recent and widespread flooding and were also watching this the remnants of what was Tropical Storm now meanwhile across the Korean Peninsula people are doing their best to kara after those floodwaters have begun to recede you can see the awful damage that has been left behind but theres more rain is to go through wednesday and at the same time this area right here this is actually remnants of what was our Tropical Storm now that will head across the n. S. A. On that so were going to combine so we look at even heavy rain as we move on into thursday it will cause some localized flooding and again it could be fairly widespread the rains quite heavy as well back into this the northern sections of china so again this is another area where we could have some localized flooding and then across into india the certainly some flooding on the cars here over the next couple of days they mostly rains have really increased again and certainly through wednesday but securely have it on coast as a maharashtra in and around mumbai but also the very widespread pushing all the way to the northeast to additional west bengal and you notice these winds really funneling old this rain up in see those low lying areas of bangladesh war as i have it ready it is about the rains out across the west pushing into a drop but still lingering in some horatia we could see about 450. 00 millimeters. Kevin daintiness you know what would escalate between the u. S. And china all challenge u. S. General Robert Spalding and british diplomat and all. On whether the west is entering into a new cold war with china in a special edition of. Beijing. Welcome back youre watching aljazeera live from doha your top stories this half hour a massive explosion in the lebanese capital beirut has killed at least 70 people and injured thousands more its a shockwave smashed through the city. Last took place a support warehouse where about 2700 tons of Ammonium Nitrate have been stored for 60 years hospitals are reporting to overwhelm. The fires burned into the night as rescue crews search for more survivors and victims countries around the world including cattle israel and iran are now offering help. Saudi arabia has reportedly moved one step closer to having Nuclear Power constructing a u. Raney and yellowcake extraction plant with the help of china thats according to sources being quoted by the wall street journal the facility is said to be close to the town of houla now yellowcake is a milled form of uranium ore thats fine naturally there but would take additional steps and technology to enrich it enough for a Nuclear Power plant saudi arabia denies building a uranium ore facility near but says mineral extraction is a part of its Economic Diversification lets talk now to thomas countryman hes a former u. S. Assistant secretary of state for nonproliferation hes now chairman of the Arms Control Association joining us from washington thomas countryman welcome back to aljazeera does saudi arabia need Nuclear Power if not now perhaps in 5 or 10 years time. If i could i 1st want to express solidarity for the suffering people of lebanon beirut is in the hearts of Many Americans this evening in saudi arabia the saudis have far d Better Options for energy than Nuclear Energy and they are ideally located to benefit from renewable forms such as solar and wind energy in particular if they wish to pursue Nuclear Energy they should do it in a peaceful way with the maximum safeguards afforded by the International AtomicEnergy Agency this new report is it means that the saudis are still many steps and many years away d from having a viable Nuclear Weapons capability but what concerns me is that they are pursuing the same kind of secrecy or deception that has marked the Iranian Program of Nuclear Development and its not the best way for the saudis d to be a leader in either economics or security in the middle east so there are parallels of fear here if you will between riyadh and tehran when it comes to building a Nuclear Facility take the stuff out of the ground minet locally build a Nuclear Facility and then perhaps pivot towards using it for some of the purpose way down the line. There is a great degree to which the saudis at this early step when i can i am for size they are many years away from being able to enrich uranium but borrowing the script of the Islamic Republic of iran does not inspire confidence in the rest of the world the right way for the saudis to do this would be to 1st conclude an agreement on the Additional Protocol and a special form of inspection that 150 other countries that accepted to do that with the International AtomicEnergy Agency to say that while it made mine its own uranium it will rely on the International Market for enriched uranium and if it does that it can have a powerful Nuclear Cooperation agreement with the United States thats the right way to go d about building a Nuclear Power program rather than relying on this kind of secrecy when we talk about this kind of secrecy if we believe the truth of these claims in the American Media why do it and then deny it or deny the nature of what theyre doing this place will be visible from space satellites will be able to take pictures of it and it has to look like a particular thing to be the thing that is so clearly people like yourself and people who study satellite imagery theyll be able to tag it for anyone outside saudi arabia saying you know theyve built a Nuclear Power plant. Well again this facility is far from being a Nuclear Power plants and i think there is no prospect that. Saudi arabia could build a Nuclear Power plant or in richmond facility and keep it secret its unfortunate that this kingdom is marked by doing some outrageous things such a