Lebanon was in mourning yesterday after five-time prime minister and billionaire tycoon Rafiq Hariri was assassinated here in a huge bomb blast that stoked fears of fresh sectarian strife 15 years after the end of the civil war.
Lebanon's anti-Syrian opposition quickly blamed the governments in Beirut and Damascus of responsibility for the assassination of Hariri, who was killed along with at least nine other people when the explosion ripped through his motorcade.
About 100 people were also wounded in the blast that left a trail of carnage and devastation in a busy seafront area in scenes reminiscent of the 1975 to 1990 war.
Media reports said the blast was caused by a car bomb and a hitherto unknown Islamic group claimed responsibility for what it said was a suicide attack to avenge Hariri's close ties with the Saudi regime.
But Prince Talal bin Abdul Aziz, half-brother of King Fahd of Saudi Arabia, expressed doubt about the authenticity of the group and called for an independent enquiry into the attack.
The dead included one of the bodyguards of the 60-year-old rags-to riches Sunni Muslim who resigned as prime minister four months ago in a row over Syrian dominance of Lebanon.
The attack plunged Lebanon into grief and raised worries about the stability of the country, which is treading a delicate path between its Sunni, Shiite and Christian communities.
It came at a time of high political tension in Lebanon and international pressure over Syria's role in the country, just a few months before legislative elections are due to be held.
The Lebanese army meanwhile announced a "general mobilization to safeguard stability" in the country, recalled soldiers on leave and deployed troops in Beirut and other regions.
The announcement came as relatives of Hariri said his family would hold a private funeral ceremony today, during which they did not wish the presence of any government officials.
While the government called for three days of mourning and a state funeral, Lebanese anti-Syrian opposition leaders demanded a three-day general strike, the resignation of the government and a Syrian troop withdrawal from Lebanon.
"We hold the Lebanese government and the Syrian government, the power behind it, responsible for the crime," Member of Parliament Bassem Sabeh said after an opposition meeting at Hariri's Beirut family home.
"We demand the resignation of the government, which has lost all legitimacy, and the formation of a caretaker government," said Sabeh, flanked by Druze leader Walid Jumblatt and other opposition figures.
He said Syria should pull out its 14,000 troops from Lebanon before parliamentary elections due in a few months' time.
Hariri's rise was a rags to riches story. Born to a poor farmer in Sidon, he became one of the world's 100 richest people credited with spearheading Lebanon's post-war reconstruction.
He headed five governments from 1992, but later became a thorn in the side of Beirut's political masters in Damascus and resigned as premier in October after disputes with Lahoud.
Nauru has started selling passports to fund climate action, but is so far struggling to attract new citizens to the low-lying, largely barren island in the Pacific Ocean. Nauru, one of the world’s smallest nations, has a novel plan to fund its fight against climate change by selling so-called “Golden Passports.” Selling for US$105,000 each, Nauru plans to drum up more than US$5 million in the first year of the “climate resilience citizenship” program. Almost six months after the scheme opened in February, Nauru has so far approved just six applications — covering two families and four individuals. Despite the slow start —
‘THEY KILLED HOPE’: Four presidential candidates were killed in the 1980s and 1990s, and Miguel Uribe’s mother died during a police raid to free her from Pablo Escobar Colombian presidential candidate Miguel Uribe has died two months after being shot at a campaign rally, his family said on Monday, as the attack rekindled fears of a return to the nation’s violent past. The 39-year-old conservative senator, a grandson of former Colombian president Julio Cesar Turbay (1978-1982), was shot in the head and leg on June 7 at a rally in the capital, Bogota, by a suspected 15-year-old hitman. Despite signs of progress in the past few weeks, his doctors on Saturday announced he had a new brain hemorrhage. “To break up a family is the most horrific act of violence that
North Korean troops have started removing propaganda loudspeakers used to blare unsettling noises along the border, South Korea’s military said on Saturday, days after Seoul’s new administration dismantled ones on its side of the frontier. The two countries had already halted propaganda broadcasts along the demilitarized zone, Seoul’s military said in June after the election of South Korean President Lee Jae-myung, who is seeking to ease tensions with Pyongyang. The South Korean Ministry of National Defense on Monday last week said it had begun removing loudspeakers from its side of the border as “a practical measure aimed at helping ease
DEADLY TASTE TEST: Erin Patterson tried to kill her estranged husband three times, police said in one of the major claims not heard during her initial trial Australia’s recently convicted mushroom murderer also tried to poison her husband with bolognese pasta and chicken korma curry, according to testimony aired yesterday after a suppression order lapsed. Home cook Erin Patterson was found guilty last month of murdering her husband’s parents and elderly aunt in 2023, lacing their beef Wellington lunch with lethal death cap mushrooms. A series of potentially damning allegations about Patterson’s behavior in the lead-up to the meal were withheld from the jury to give the mother-of-two a fair trial. Supreme Court Justice Christopher Beale yesterday rejected an application to keep these allegations secret. Patterson tried to kill her
RSS