Beirut blast kills Sunni ex-minister Mohamad Chatah

Former Lebanese minister and opposition figure Mohamad Chatah has been killed by a car bomb in central Beirut.

Four others were killed and at least 80 people were hurt in the attack.

Mr Chatah, a Sunni Muslim, was an adviser to ex-PM Saad Hariri. He was also a staunch critic of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and Lebanon's Shia Hezbollah movement that backs him.

There has been a wave of attacks in Lebanon, linked to heightened Sunni-Shia tensions over the Syrian war.

Saad Hariri implicitly accused Hezbollah.

He blamed "those who are hiding from international justice and who have spread the regional fire to the [Lebanese] nation".

Five Hezbollah suspects are due to go on trial in three weeks' time, charged in connection with assassinating Saad Hariri's father and former Prime Minister, Rafik, in a huge car bombing in February 2004.

Hezbollah has denied involvement in Rafik Hariri's death.